Thirty-four minutes after Oakland Athletics second baseman Tony Kemp gloved a grounder at the Coliseum and threw to first base, ending the A’s season, the final out for the San Francisco Giants came in San Diego when first baseman Wilmer Flores fielded a grounder and stepped on the bag.
The Giants and A’s finished their frustrating 2022 seasons on winning notes, and their players raised their heads high and spoke about momentum for 2023, mostly evading the disappointing seasons for baseball on both sides of the bay.
Stepping back from the fact the Giants won 12 of their final 16 and the A’s finished with a four-game win streak, the teams lost a combined 183 games, fifth most for a single season in the 54-year history of the two-team market. The A’s were 60-102, the second time in the Oakland era they reached triple digits in losses, and the Giants went 81-81, their first ever.500 season.
All things considered, it was one of the most miserable collective seasons in Bay Area history, and a case can be made that it was the worst considering how far the Giants fell in one year alongside the on-field collapse of the A’s organization.
While the 1979 season involved far more losing, a combined 199 losses between the two teams, 2022 should be known for the biggest one-year plummet in a full season, a combined win differential of -52 from 2021. It was a mere -33 from 1978 to 1979 for the A’s and Giants.
Before the season, FanGraphs projected the Giants to lose 77 and the A’s 95. Both did worse than that, instead achieving their biggest combined plunge. That can’t be dismissed by their fast finishes.
“I don’t necessarily look at the number of losses. Every team that isn’t in the playoffs hasn’t had a successful season,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay glossed. “If you measure it just by wins and losses, we knew what the season was going to be about once some moves were made that transformed our roster.”
The Giants can’t say that. Fresh off their 107-win joy ride, they had every intention of returning to the playoffs even though they never added a right-handed bat to replace Buster Posey. Problem is, almost everyone on the roster fell short of his 2021 production, and the offense, defense and bullpen — every element save the rotation — took huge steps backwards.
Although the Giants weren’t mathematically eliminated from the expanded playoff bracket until Saturday, several veterans on the team expressed the truth in the season’s final weeks: Postseason hope was lost.
1979: 199
2017: 185
1985: 185
1977: 185
2022: 183
Outfielder Joc Pederson, who had been in the playoffs every season until he became a Giant, offered powerful sentiments when saying it’s “not fun” to play on a non-contender.
“I signed up here after this team won 107 games expecting to compete again,” Pederson said. “Things didn’t go our way. It happens, but I don’t enjoy not playing meaningful baseball.”
The Giants were eight games below.500 on Sept. 18 and made a mad rush to the finish line to reach.500, a mark that Pederson recently said is “irrelevant. … You’re either in the playoffs or you’re not in the playoffs.”
Thirteen months ago, both teams were eyeing the postseason, the Giants battling the Dodgers for National League West supremacy and the A’s positioned one game out of a playoff spot heading into September. The A’s collapsed in the final month while the Giants won the West but got eliminated in the Division Series by the Dodgers.
“It’s been an up and down season for us, marred by inconsistency, and disappointing,” Giants outfielder Austin Slater said. “I mean, we weren’t technically out of it over the last month. but I think if you look at the percentage chance of actually making it, nine plus games back, a month to play and two teams in front of you, it’s slim, but it’s great to see us finish strong.”
Aside from the teams’ 199 combined losses in 1979, three seasons of Bay Area baseball produced 185 losses: 1977, 1985 and 2017. Next comes 2022 at 183, and only strong finishes by both teams prevented this season from becoming the second losingest ever.
Through it all, fans complained about their teams’ roster construction. That’s especially true with the A’s, who held a massive fire sale by trading Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Chris Bassitt and Sean Manaea before the season and Frankie Montas midyear, intentionally putting an inferior product on the field while ownership played Oakland against Las Vegas games in its never-ending stadium pursuit.
The Giants had realistic playoff expectations, only to become an also-ran through most of the second half, and fans weren’t thrilled that their team ranked 13th in payroll. Perhaps not coincidentally, they also ranked 13th in attendance, both middle of the road, just like their record.
The A’s were last in both attendance and payroll. They lost more games than every other team but the Nationals, a slap in the face to generations of proud A’s fans who supported the team through the decades and pulled back this year after ownership gutted the team, slashed payroll and increased ticket prices.
Make no mistake. There were plenty of satisfying wins and heartwarming celebrations. Will Clark’s and Dave Stewart’s numbers, 22 and 34, respectively, were retired. Hunter Pence joined the Giants’ Wall of Fame, and the A’s Hall of Fame welcomed six members including Sal Bando and Joe Rudi. Championship teams were honored with the 50-year anniversary of the 1972 A’s and 10-year anniversary of the 2012 Giants, and the A’s threw a party for their 2002 brethren of 20-game-win-streak fame.
And on the final day of the season and Stephen Vogt’s career, the A’s honored the popular catcher who enjoyed one of the best moments of his life when homering in his final at-bat, Ted Williams-style.
But on the field, when it was time to compete, it was a big letdown for both teams. Both used a franchise-high number of players, the Giants 65, the A’s 64, and treated much of the summer like a tryout camp, which (hopefully) benefits them in development but did not in the standings.
Staff writer Susan Slusser contributed to this report.
John Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle’s national baseball writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @JohnSheaHey