Giants In Good Position, Now What?

Now that Pat Burrell and Aubrey Huff are back in orange and black, and the Giants have acquired Miguel Tejada to play shortstop, whatever Sabean does at this point will be just adding to the Giants' depth chart.

So, what's next for the Giants now that the Giants appear to have a usable lineup already on roster, as well as a stock full pitching staff? The Winter Meetings are just days away, yet the Giants have already done most of their work, and now that Adam Dunn is off the table, I don't see anyone out there in the Giants price range who could really come in and make a difference on this team. Sabean is apparently still active and looking for ways to upgrade the offense, but I just don't really see what they can do at this point. I'm still thinking a back-up shortstop could be on-tap, but the Giants tendered Mike Fontenot a contract for 2011, which would seem to indicate he's their back-up at this juncture. They've supposedly had talks about bringing Edgar Renteria back to caddy Tejada at short (though I don't really see that happening), but they're running out of roster space now. The only guys they non-tendered were Chris Ray and Eugenio Velez, and they have plans on bringing back all the rest of their arbitration eligible players. Their 40-man is about full, and they could already assemble a 25-man roster nearly identical to the one that won the tittle just 1 month ago, so yeah, I'd say they're in pretty good shape for December 3rd.

I was hoping somebody intriguing would become available among the non-tenders, but since the Giants are set at catcher (Russel Martin non-tendered by Dodgers) and the bullpen (Bobby Jenks and Hideki Okajima to name a few), there weren't many new options that opened up for this team via the non-tenders. That said, there was one outfielder who caught my eye when glancing over the free agent list again, who may catch Sabean's interest under the right terms. That player is Brad Hawpe. The 31 year-old Hawpe was basically an all-star caliber right fielder with Colorado up until last year, and his numbers weren't Coors Field-inflated at all (very similar road stats in career). I don't know if he's a Boras client, but if he's not, he probably could be had on a 1-year deal, just like Tejada and Burrell got, and he's coming of a year exactly like Aubrey Huff was in 2009. Hawpe could be a nice 4th outfielder/left-handed platoon option for Burrell/DeRosa in left field, but that would either mean Aaron Rowand would have to be dealt, or, more likely, it would cost Nate Schierholtz his roster spot. I like Nate, but if he's right, Hawpe is by far the superior hitter. I'm pretty sure they're out of options with Travis Ishikawa. If they do still hold an option on one of them, they realistically could put one in Fresno to start the year just to see how things fall into place. That's if they're intent on finding another bat, but again, at this point, they don't have to do anything, and that's a great position to be in.