The San Francisco Giants needed everything to go their way this year, if they wanted a chance to make the playoffs.
They needed health. They needed bounce-back years. They needed breakout years.
They needed their offseason acquisitions to be difference makers.
It was a plan with limited margin for error, and no one personifies that quite like Austin Jackson.
Jackson was signed in the offseason for what seemed like a very nice deal. His role was to be the starting center fielder, or maybe the platoon center fielder, or maybe the fourth outfielder, or maybe the fifth outfielder.