4 Major Overreactions To San Francisco Giants' Surprisingly Hot Start

The San Francisco Giants have gotten off to a wonderful start, but is it sustainable?

Mar 29, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; San Francisco Giants shortstop Willy Adames (2) prepares on deck in the eighth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. | Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants have been one of the more pleasant surprises in baseball to begin the 2025 regular season.

Excellent pitching and some timely hitting has them off to a 5-1 start after winning their opening series against the Cincinnati Reds, followed by a sweep of the Houston Astros.

Things have gone how many analysts thought that they would. The Giants have been carried by their arms while cobbling together enough offense to get by.

With that early success comes some overreactions, some good and others not as flattering.

Here are four major reactions to San Francisco's stellar start to the campaign.

Willy Adames is a Free-Agent Bust

The first splash of Buster Posey's tenure as president of baseball operations was signing the star shortstop away from the Milwaukee Brewers. The two sides agreed to a massive seven-year, $182 million deal, the largest in franchise history.

Six games into his huge contract, Adames is still looking for his first home run after going 3-for-23 with nine strikeouts and -0.3 WAR.

That's certainly not the kind of start any big free-agent signing wants to have with a new team, but it's way too early to start showing any concern. An encouraging sign is that his defense looks to be back to the level he showed prior to a down 2024.

Landen Roupp Wrongly No. 5 Starter

The biggest positional battle during Giants spring training was for the last spot in the starting rotation.

Logan Webb, Justin Verlander, Robbie Ray and Jordan Hicks were locked into four spots. That left one up for grabs between Landn Roupp, Hayden Birdsong, Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn.

Roupp won the spot, with Birdsong landing in the bullpen and Harrison and Winn going to Triple-A.

Roupp's first start of the season was not good, as he allowed three runs in four innings against the Astros. However, he racked up eight strikeouts and produced a 1.83 FIP, as his stuff was better than his raw stats would suggest.

Giants Have Worst Offensive Catchers Duo in MLB

Several of San Francisco's positional players are struggling at the plate out of the gate. As a team, they have compiled an ugly .202/.273/.399 slash line.

Arguably the most disappointing position group so far has been catcher, where Patrick Bailey and Sam Huff are a combined 1-for-20 with -0.3 WAR despite Bailey's defensive prowess.

The Giants missed on the heir apparent to Posey the first time with Joey Bart, who has had a career renaissance with the Pittsburgh Pirates. They are certainly hoping Bailey can figure things out soon, or they will be in the market for another backstop within the next few years.

Wilmer Flores Will Lead National League in Home Runs

Not all overreactions have to be of the negative variety. Some can be overly positive, such as this one with the veteran designated hitter.

He's been slugging the ball out of the park with four home runs in 22 at-bats, already matching his home run total from last year.

Currently tied for the second most home runs in baseball, Flores will cool off eventually. But he's providing the kind of power boost that helped propel him to a career campaign in 2023, and his team could use every bit of it.