Have the San Francisco Giants lost their way? Or was Brandon Crawford not adequately reading the situation? Those are questions that arose while reading The Athletic's piece today in which Andrew Baggarly talks to both Giants legendary shortstop Brandon Crawford and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi.

Crawford told Baggarly that he expressed to Zaidi a desire to return to the Giants, and that he had no playing time expectations and wanted to be a reserve player—even a versatile one—who also mentored young players like Marco Luciano, Casey Schmitt, and Tyler Fitzgerald. However, over the last two seasons, Crawford has been abysmal at the plate and declining in the field. He'll be 37 years old this season.

There's a blatant lack of honest communication from Zaidi to some Giants players, now including Crawford twice (last year Crawford wasn't told about the plan to move him off short to accommodate Carlos Correa until after news of the signing got out). When all is said and done, however, the writing was on the wall that Crawford's time with the SF Giants was over, and it's just sad and unfortunate that Crawford didn't see things the same way.

In other news, a bulked up Luis Matos hit two home runs today, and Giants pitcher Tristan Beck has elected to have surgery to address his upper arm aneurysm on Monday at Stanford.

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The best daily San Francisco Giants podcast. Whether the Giants are winning championships or retooling for another title run, Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick—a lifelong Giants fan and former contributor for RotoGraphs and Beyond the Box Score—breaks down every game, rumor, and transaction in a way that's data-driven and rational but also simple, passionate, and accessible to all.

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