Wait. Who’s on this team?

Maybe the best known line on Farhan Zaidi’s resume is his skill for building roster depth. Back in 2013, Zaidi was on a panel at the Sloan Analytics Conference at MIT and talked about the A’s roster construction philosophy as it related to analytics:

“We called it managing the roster from the bottom. When you’re a team that’s pretty sabermetrically inclined and analytical in the decisions you make, if you follow those decisions there’s really a lower bound to how many wins,” Zaidi explained. “You can build a 75-win team just based on sound analytical principles, and you can do that year in, year out even with a $50 million payroll. The question is how do you get beyond that point?

So, he has the confidence and experience to build a 75-win team. Let’s just assume that Farhan Zaidi could roll out of bed in any city and sabermetrically guide a team, without having any knowledge of its ins and outs, to 75 wins. He doesn’t have a bed in San Francisco at the moment (he and his wife have been house hunting ever since they he became the Giants’ President of Baseball Operations), but the Giants are his team. They’re setup to win 75 wins right now, and here’s the depth chart that proves it:

Catcher

Buster Posey
Erik Kratz
Tom Murphy* (if he clears waivers)
Aramis Garcia
Pablo Sandoval

First Base

Brandon Belt
Buster Posey
Aramis Garcia
Pablo Sandoval
Connor Joe
Chris Shaw
Ryder Jones
Yangervis Solarte
Austin Slater

Second Base

Joe Panik
Yangervis Solarte
Breyvic Valera
Abiatal Avelino
Alen Hanson* (if he clears waivers)
Austin Slater
Pablo Sandoval (hey, you remember — he played here twice last season)

Third Base

Evan Longoria
Yangervis Solarte
Connor Joe
Pablo Sandoval
Alen Hanson* (if he clears waivers)
Ryder Jones
Breyvic Valera

Shortstop

Brandon Crawford
Yangervis Solarte
Breyvic Valera
Alen Hanson* (if he clears waivers)
Abiatal Avelino

Left Field

Mac Williamson* (if he clears waivers)
Connor Joe
Kevin Pillar
Michael Reed
Connor Joe
Yangervis Solarte
Breyvic Valera
Austin Slater
Chris Shaw

Center Field

Steven Duggar
Michael Reed
Breyvic Valera
Kevin Pillar

Right Field

Gerardo Parra
Mac Williamson* (if he clears waivers)
Michael Reed
Connor Joe
Kevin Pillar
Breyvic Valera
Austin Slater

Starting Rotation

Madison Bumgarner
Derek Holland
Dereck Rodriguez
Drew Pomeranz
Jeff Samardzija
Andrew Suarez
Ty Blach

Bullpen

Will Smith
Tony Watson
Reyes Moronta
Mark Melancon
Travis Bergen
Sam Dyson
Nick Vincent
Trevor Gott
Pablo Sandoval (hey, you remember — there’s going to be a bobblehead)
Ray Black
Andrew Suarez
Williams Jerez
Ty Blach
Melvin Adon
Tyler Beede
Sam Coonrod
Pat Venditte
Logan Webb

Yeah, this is the 40-man roster with just some names copied over to other positions, but that’s literally how every depth chart is devised. You can see how they’re going to fill the gaps and you can see the positional flexibility they’ve built into the roster. Of course, this list doesn’t figure to stay untouched for very long. Farhan Zaidi has made about a dozen trades in the past week, the 40-man roster is currently full as I write this revise this again for the fifteenth time in a week, and they still need to clear a spot in order to add Gerardo Parra to the team.

Not featured on this are the non-40 man rosterees who could come into play at some point.

Not on the 40-man, but will be a factor

RHP Shaun Anderson
C Stephen Vogt
IF Donovan Solano (if he accepts a minor league assignment)
OF Henry Ramos
OF Anthony Garcia

The sexy names remain the championship players, but the team hopes that the addition of a bunch of new players might be enough to help the team stay competitive all six months of the season. Or, at the very least, they’ve amassed enough talent to satisfy the Farhan Zaidi Guarantee of 75 wins.