Here’s a truism about every baseball team: they have roster problems. The mark of a bad baseball team is that those problems are, well … bad problems to have, for thousands of various reasons. The mark of a good baseball team is that those problems are good, usually for one specific reason.

This is the part in the article where I would make a play on the opening line of Anna Karenina, but I fear I did that schtick at some point last year, so I have to wait until at least the 2027 season to pull it off again.

The San Francisco Giants had one gigantic roster problem (and many little ones) when Spring Training commenced, and they had that same problem when Spring Training concluded, and they carry that same problem now. Had they lost every game they’ve won and won every game they’ve lost, we’d be talking about that problem as a negative. But instead they’ve won their wins and lost their losses, with the former outpacing the latter by a nearly two-to-one clip, culminating in Monday’s 5-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers. And so that problem is a happy one, the clichéd “good problem to have.”

We can best describe the problem, happy as it may be, through a pair of performances on Monday.

Robbie Ray started the game, in all his tight pants and loud grunts splendor. He pitched the first five innings. He gave up eight baserunners in those five innings. He threw just 59.8% of his pitches for strikes, and just 50% of his first pitches. He got swings-and-misses on 13.0% of his pitches. He needed an average of 18.4 pitches per inning. He gave up two runs.

Hayden Birdsong was the first arm out of the bullpen, in all his featured extra in a movie about ninth graders glory. He pitched the next three innings. He gave up three baserunners in those three innings. He threw 61.2% of his pitches for strikes, and 63.6% of his first pitches. He got swings-and-misses on 18.4% of his pitches. He needed an average of 16.3 pitches per inning. He gave up no runs.

And so the Giants have a roster problem. That roster problem is that Birdsong seems to unequivocally be one of the five best starting pitchers in the organization, and yet the only name they could possibly remove this early in the season to facilitate the arrival of Birdsong — Landen Roupp — happens to be their clear-cut second-best starter.

And that’s without making mention of Kyle Harrison, who is getting fully stretched out in AAA while reaching 95 again. Or Carsons Seymour and Whisenhunt, who have been lights out in Sacramento.

But the Giants won on Monday, and they’ve won 15 times in 23 attempts this year, and so this gets filed as a “good” problem, which is the clearest sign you could ask for that the Giants, themselves, are a good team.

Because with good teams, you can say these things work themselves out, and it’s not lip service. It’s equal parts accepted wisdom and a fateful warning. They do work themselves out. For one reason or another. And you just hope to still be a good team on the other end.

For now, though, there’s no sense in making a bad problem out of a good problem. Hayden Birdsong was downright filthy on Monday, but the Giants won even with him playing a secondary role, tucked cleanly between a good performance from a bounce-back candidate in Ray and a great performance from a bounce-back candidate in Camilo Doval who, bless his heart (non-derogatory), handled the ninth inning with neither stress nor drama.

And if you’re pulling your hair out and cursing me through whatever screen you’re reading on for trying to convince you that a problem can really and truly be good, just take seven deep breaths, close your eyes, and think about how many times over the last three seasons you were fretting about how the Giants could get more playing time for someone, instead of how they could get less.

Feels good, don’t it?

Ray may not have been spectacular, but two runs in five innings is a solid foundation for a win, especially in front of a bullpen that has quickly established itself as one of baseball’s elite corps. And it was more than enough for an offense that, while far from clicking, is certainly proving capable of grinding for runs here and there.

It was not their cleanest win, but there’s value in that as well. They made three outs on the base paths and failed to convert a tailor-made pickoff. Their defense wasn’t always sharp.

But my goodness, I have seen a lot of mediocre Giants teams trip their way into feckless and uninspiring losses where it feels abundantly clear that they lack a certain something that their opponent possesses, and it feels good to be on the other side of that one.

The Brewers might be good, but they certainly might not be. On Monday they weren’t. The Giants first got in the board in the second inning, when they already trailed 2-0 following the first career home run by Caleb Durbin, because Matt Chapman started a rally with a four pitch walk, and Heliot Ramos followed it up with a ground ball to shortstop Joey Ortiz, who managed to get no outs from the situation, opting to instead toss the ball softly to a futile situation at second base. Chapman did, admittedly, give the out back when he attempted to steal third, but the rally persisted, and culminated in an RBI single from Patrick Bailey to cut the lead in half.

They tied the game in the fifth inning following another rally, this time on an infield single by Tyler Fitzgerald and a walk by Mike Yastrzemski, who drew two on the day (and was thrown out trying to steal second after the first one). Willy Adames hit a routine ground ball, but the Brewers threw the ball away trying to turn a double play that never stood a chance, allowing Fitzgerald to score.

They got an insurance run in the eighth inning when LaMonte Wade Jr. drew a one-out walk and Wilmer Flores singled him to third, only for Wade — almost comically slow — to somehow score on a Bailey sacrifice fly to shallow center field that the Brewers were unsure of what to do with, though they doubled up Flores for the final out.

If you want to feel good about the Giants — or perhaps have flashbacks to the last few seasons of being a Giants fan — then rewatch that clip. Watch Bailey’s frustrated reaction after hitting the ball. Watch his reaction while knowing that Wade would score without there even being a play at the plate.

Yes, the Giants made mistakes. But the Brewers said hold my beer, it’s what we’re known for, it’s in our name after all.

It’s more enjoyable on this side of things.

Then again, it’s not like it was a battle to see who could under-mistake the other. The Giants’ foibles and TOOTBLANs may have paled in comparison to the Brewers’, but the difference was the good things they did in the late stages of the game.

In the bottom of the sixth, for instance, with the game now tied, Flores came up to bat against Grant Anderson and did what he’s done as well as just about anyone in baseball this year: put the ball over the fence.

And an inning later, with Adames on first and two outs (following a Yastrzemski single and a fielder’s choice), Jung Hoo Lee came up to bat and did what he’s done as well as just about anyone in baseball this year: smoke a line drive into the gap, scoring Adames easily and accelerating his way to third.

Lee is now 13-29 with five extra-base hits against left-handed pitchers this year. It seems the Giants have found the star they so desperately were looking for.

And so the Giants won 5-2, striking first in a four-game series and offering us yet another reason to believe that they’re a good baseball team. If that changes, we might be stuck having a conversation about Birdsong and the rotation. But until then, it’s only good problems over here.