The projections don’t see the Giants as being very good, but the projections aren’t hard and fast; they’re the mean. Players exceed their projections all the time. Generally, Giants players don’t. They have a tendency to underperform, but two years of dramatically coming up short means that it’s time for the Giants to blow past their expectations, right? What would need to happen for the Giants to do it?
The obvious thing is that everyone stays healthy. Posey, the Brandons, Panik, Longoria, Bumgarner, Samardzija, Smith, and Watson all need to play a full season. Aside from that, the replacement level players need to not be replacement, and here’s how that can happen:
Mac Williamson Becomes the new Justin Turner (and the rest of the outfield is good too)
Currently, an outfield of Gerardo Parra, Steven Duggar, and Austin Slater is expected to be worth 2.