This is the first of a series of season wrap ups for the Giants system. Before we start looking forward, it’s always good to look back and remember the year that was! We’ll start at the top of the ladder with the 2021 Sacramento River Cats.
2021 Sacramento River Cats
56-71 (4th place in Triple-A West, Western Division)
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Let’s first take a moment to appreciate that the River Cats had a 127 game season this year! When news came in early March that MLB would delay the start of Triple-A “at least a month,” due to COVID concerns, there was some genuine consternation that a second consecutive year might pass without any Triple-A baseball, and that Sutter Health Park would once again function as the host of an Alternate Site, rather than the host of live minor league baseball games. But Thursday, May 6 brought Sacramento’s Opening Night and, with the exception of some scary air quality concerns later in the summer, the season not only was played out in full, they ended up getting 10 days added back at the end of the season. Here’s to a full year of minor league baseball! It wasn’t a given at the start of the year and let’s not take that for granted!
Sacramento was the only one of the Giants’ four full-season teams that finished below .500, but that doesn’t tell the real story of the team that effectively functioned as the Giants’ Green Room all year. An amazing 38 players suiting up for both San Francisco and Sacramento in 2021 — that includes 12 members of the Giants’ roster for the NLDS series against the Dodgers. Some of that came from major league rehab assignments, of course, but a full seven members of the playoff roster were on active assignment to the River Cats roster at some point in the year. That includes five members of the playoff pitching staff. That’s kind of incredible!
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