Sean Manaea was dominant in his initial two starts with the Mets. Joey Bart homered in his first at-bat with the Pirates. And Joc Pederson is crushing right-handed pitchers again in Arizona.
The former San Francisco Giants are digging their new environments while their old team has struggled out of the gate. The Giants did not start the season as anticipated and found themselves in an early hole thanks to getting swept by the Dodgers and losing two of three to the Nationals.
Too many players got off to rough starts, and thank goodness for Jordan Hicks and the fact the Giants won all three of his starts. They hope to evolve into the team they expected to be and contend for the playoffs, but the early going has not been particularly pretty.
With several 2023 Giants finding homes elsewhere, we at Small Sample Size Theatre wonder whether any of them would have made the Giants better by sticking around. Let’s go down the list.
Bart: It’s the smallest of small sample sizes, but this is the chance the second overall pick in the 2018 draft has been waiting for. No longer feeling the pressure in the organization that Buster built, Bart joined a team that got off to a hot start and began his Pirates career 3-for-8 with four RBIs in his first two games. The homer was his first since Sept. 10, 2022. Not only is he thrilled for a big-league opportunity, he has a lot of family in Western Pennsylvania to provide support. His dad, Tommy, grew up nearby and was drafted by the Pirates in 1979 but did not sign.
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