SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — At 34, third baseman Evan Longoria is older than all three of the Giants’ new hitting coaches.

Longoria has three years on new bench coach and infield wizard Kai Correa and he’s been in the game so long that he was able to give a personal testimony on behalf of new manager Gabe Kapler when the Giants went searching for a replacement to Bruce Bochy.

Longoria couldn’t vouch for Kapler as a manager, but he could tell Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi what the 44-year-old was like as a teammate. The duo played together with the Tampa Bay Rays from 2009-2010.

“(Kapler) has always had that mind for baseball and you can kind of just tell who are the guys who like to be around the game, like to be around the field and talk the game,” Longoria said. “And he was always one of those guys.”

As a 13th-year veteran with three All-Star nods and three Gold Gloves under his belt, Longoria has every right to be skeptical of the experiment taking place in San Francisco.

The Giants have brought in a 13-person coaching staff that’s short on experience and big on new ideas. They replaced a Hall of Fame manager with one who faced intense criticism during two seasons on the job with the Philadelphia Phillies. They’ve asked players with multiple World Series rings to embrace a “growth mindset” instead of signing or trading for talent that can plug the various holes on the roster.

Longoria could look at the situation he’s in and scoff at it all. Instead, he’s one of the many veteran players on the Giants’ roster who are buying in.

“I know that myself and Buster (Posey) in particular, (Brandon) Craw(ford) in particular, (Jeff) Samardzija, have had talks in private in the offseason figuring out how we can get better as individuals. We all believe we can. We just don’t want to continue to regress. That’s our goal, to be better individual players. I think if we can all be a little individually, as a group we might shock some people.”

Since a collapse during the second half of the 2016 spilled over into a 98-loss season in 2017, the Giants have faced widespread doubt.

The doubt compelled CEO Larry Baer and executives Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans to trade for Longoria and Andrew McCutchen when the rest of the industry would have rebuilt. The doubt has carried over to the Farhan Zaidi era as fans wonder why the Giants would be willing to let their top performers –Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith and Kevin Pillar– depart the club in free agency.

The doubt that surrounds the Giants as they enter the 2020 season is now stronger than ever before. Even the players understand why. 

Doubt can fuel a team, but it can only go so far. That’s why Longoria and others have sought out new coaching points, tried new drills and reevaluated the way they prepare for games.

“I love the fact that the (new coaches) really brought a lot of what made them successful from other places to here and not been scared to introduce those things to us,” Longoria said. “I know that myself and Buster have kind of made that clear to the coaches like, hey, we’re looking for that. We’re always searching for ways to get better.”

After spending the first decade of his career with the Tampa Bay Rays, Longoria admitted last spring that his first season with the Giants was unsettling. A new environment created different challenges and a significant hand injury prevented him from getting into an extended rhythm at the plate.

Longoria improved in 2019, but an OPS+ of 102 and a wRC+ of 101 indicate he was only a tick above league average. Much like the team he plays for, Longoria has started to realize that he’ll encounter skepticism about his ability to make significant improvements at this point in his career.

The doubt doesn’t appear to bother him, though. If all the changes the Giants have implemented end up helping, the success will taste much sweeter.

“There’s familiarity with being the underdog and I think it’s not a bad spot to be in,” Longoria said. “I say that not because if you lose it’s not a big deal, but because it makes winning that much better.”