Skip to main content

Giants' possible targets through free agency

With only Madison Bumgarner, Jake Peavy and an uncertain Matt Cain under contact for 2016, it's obvious where the majority of the Giants' attention should be early on in the offseason. Luckily for them, there are set to be more than a few options in the free-agent market.

Last winter, the Giants were in heavy pursuit of one of the top arms on the market in Jon Lester, narrowly missing out to the Chicago Cubs. They also strongly considered James Shields too, but wound up spending significantly less by re-signing Jake Peavy and I think they did so with an eye towards this offseason. Here is the list of the upper-tier arms that are set to hit the open market after the World Series: RHP Johnny Cueto, RHP Zach Grienke, LHP Scott Kazmir, LHP David Price, RHP Jordan Zimmerman. Any of those guys, some more than others obviously, would look nice slotted behind MadBum in the Giants rotaion. The problem is, the Giants need more than just a single, top of the rotation arm, so that may enable them from going after a top guy like Price or Grienke. They need to add at least two starters, and also will need to address left field as well as shoring up the bullpen. With that in mind, their goal should be to add at least one arm from the group mentioned above, and maybe one from the second-tier of free agent starters which also isn't too shabby. That list includes RHP Jeff Samardzija, RHP Yovanni Gallardo, LHP Brett Anderson, RHP Marco Estrada, RHP Matt Latos, RHP Mike Leake and RHP Ian Kennedy. I would be all for bringing in Cueto/Zimmerman as well as a guy like Kennedy, Samardzija or even re-signing Mike Leake. A MadBum-Cueto/Zimmerman-Leake-Peavy-Cain/Heston rotation would be the strongest the Giants have entered a season with since 2012.

Obviously I'd love to see them land Grienke and give them that 1-2 punch the Dodgers have had the last few seasons. It would weaken the Dodgers, as there really is no equivalent to Grienke out there for the Dodgers to replace him with (Price is close, but not quite up to Grienke's level), and would make the Giants rotation a strength again even if that was their only upgrade there this offseason and both Cain and Heston wound up on the opening day staff. However, if it's a difference of $40-60M or more on a deal for Cueto or Zimmerman rather than Grienke, it could make quite a difference in ability to make another impact-upgrade.

Again, as they stand now, it's not quite clear what they'll do in terms of their starting left-fielder job and their returning center fielder is coming back in final year of his deal and has seen his play drastically decline ever since the end of 2012. Luckily for them, some in-house candidates did emerge at the end of the 2015 season, and there's always Gregor Blanco you can fall back on, but they may be in the market for two outfielders this winter just to really shore things up out there. As far as some of the outfielders go, the Giants will have the option at retaining Nori Aoki or letting him become a free agent by not tendering him a deal, so the ball is in their court with him. Seeing as he'll still be relatively cheap and was a highly productive player when healthy last season, retaining him may not be a bad idea if they want to slot most of their free dollars into the rotation. However, if they want to venture outside of Aoki, they could look at minimal upgrades like Dexter Fowler or Austin Jackson, or go into the next tiere and look at Jayson Heyward, Justin Upton or Yeonis Cespedes. After watching Aoki succeed in the leadoff spot last season, and seeing that he'll probably make around $7M compared to a guy like Fowler, who is virtually Aoki with more pop and less average and will likely land a multi-year deal worth over $12M annually, I like him more and more. However, if the Giants do want to upgrade, Cespedes would seem to be the ideal guy. Solid defender, great athlete and home run-champion type power that really came to light after moving over to the NL this summer.

The infield looks rock-solid with Kelby Tomlinson likely to become the utility guy in 2016 and all positions solidified with above-average guys at each position. They could use another veteran infielder who can play shortstop and take free agent Joaquin Arias' old role. Macier Izturis, Mike Aviles and Juan Uribe are the three guys who I would make immediate inquires about. An Uribe reunion would be pretty sweet, as he'd provide plenty of pop from the right side off the bench, as well as multi-position versatility. Izturis would give them another speed guy with good defense and contact, sort of a Blanco for the infield and Aviles is a solid all-around player, although he may hold out for a gig that promises more playing time.

Of course, we still have some time before free agency kicks off, but it may come sooner than later after the Kansas City Royals have looked like an unstoppable steamroller all postseason long that even the young power arms of the Mets haven't yet been able to tame. Speaking of which, Johnny Cueto may have erased some of the doubts people had about him with his outing in game two. If that's his last start of 2015 then I would feel absolutely fine with the Giants giving him a multi-year deal. I wouldn't give him Jon Lester money, but a 5-year/$100M deal wouldn't be outrageous in my opinion. I'd say he and Zimmerman are pretty darn equal, although Zimmerman has the edge in the durability department and Cueto can be more dominant when he's right. Zimmerman probably is the safe choice and if the money was pretty similar, I'd take him, but I just think Cueto, who didn't have an ERA higher than 2.82 since 2010 before his switching of leagues in July, has the slightest of edges when both are at their best. Another thing against Cueto though is his clubhouse reputation which is less than stellar.

Comments

jaring pengaman said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Susan said…
A new year means another year of celebrating some of the most favorite birthdays. Which idols' birthdays launch off the special year? Visit Idol birthdaysfor more public information.

Popular posts from this blog

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get

Johnny Cueto.. The Savior!

After a red hot first week-plus to start out April, the Giants hit about a 2-week rough stretch, but it looks like they're finally breaking out of it. Oh yeah, that Johnny Cueto guy looks like he's going to be pretty good too! San Francisco has won four of their last five ballgames to get back to the .500 mark at 11-11, and they did it behind the best pitching performance we've seen to start the 2016 season, hands down! Johnny Cueto dazzled the San Diego Padres Tuesday night at AT&T Park, and while the Pads don't exactly supply the most imposing offensive lineup, it was impressive nonetheless. The Giants' 30 year-old prized off-season signing threw the team's first complete game of 2016, allowing 7 hits and a walk while using 11 K's to help get him out of any trouble he ran into, which wasn't much at all. This was the exactly what the Giants had in mind when they gave Cueto that big deal in December, and this is exactly why I was all for his 2-ye