The Giants Baseball Blog

Back in October, after the Astros destroyed the Giants' arch nemesis LA Dodgers to win the '17 World Series, I was anticipating the Giants to be active early on in their attempt to upgrade their roster. However that simply has not been the case, not only with the Giants but with all of baseball as 9 of the top-10 ranked free-agents still unemployed as we enter 2018. Although it's become a bit of a trend in recent years for free agents/GM's and owner to wait things out a little more rather than rushing to sign players right away in November, usually things pick up significantly in December and certainly after the winter meetings and GM meetings pass. This year though, there really isn't a consensus top ranked free agent which usually sets the tone for the rest of the pack. So it's been a very bizarre offseason to say the least. It started off with all eyes on Giancarlo Stanton, as the reigning NL MVP held the keys as to what team he wanted to be dealt to, whi

The Giants finally made their first big splash of the offseason, and while it was a far cry from a Giancarlo Stanton or Manny Machado trade, the move does makes them a better team then they were prior (how much so remains to be seen). The club doesn't appear to be stopping with just Evan Longoria either. With numerous holes remaining, especially in the outfield, the Giants now appear as if they're ready to go all out in attempt to compete again in 2018 and turn around, in one offseason, a team that was two losses shy of 100 in 2017. On Tuesday night the attempt officially began with the Giants and Rays striking the deal for Longoria . The trade sent Denard Span and Christian Arroyo as well as lower level minor league pitchers Stephen Woods and Matt Krook to Tampa for the star third basemen. Although still young players with upside, neither pitcher was very highly ranked in the Giants minor league system, so losing those two doesn't sting too badly. Losing Christian Arro

The Giants dealt away their projected number 4 starter to the Texas Rangers on Friday afternoon for a couple of prospects that probably won't ever see the light of day on a major league roster. However, according to many sources throughout the league, this deal was primarily about clearing payroll for what many are speculating could be bigger move on the horizon for the club. The fact that they got some pretty pedestrian prospects in return tell me that this wasn't necessarily a move that suggests they're leaning toward rebuilding this offseason. Instead, the consensus is that the Giants made this move to clear some payroll, as we know they were approaching the luxury tax limit and another high-priced free agent, such as J.D. Martinez, would put them over the threshold and cost them a nice chunk of money in fines as a result. By dealing Moore, they do free up roughly $7M for 2018 and if I remember correctly from what was said on KNBR Friday, that leaves the Giants roughly

After missing out on the trade that would have shook up San Francisco, and injected new life into the Giants lineup for years to come in the form of Giancarlo Stanton, the Giants will now shift focus to the free agent market, with four players supposedly atop their meetings' wish list. Those four players, as reported by the Boston Globe and NBC Sports Bay Area , are third basemen Todd Frazier and Mike Moustakas as well as outfielders J.D. Martinez and Lorenzo Cain. The one guy not listed who they did inquire about earlier in the offseason is Jay Bruce. It they;re wanting to get the best guys at each position they will somehow try to land both Martinez and Moustakas, though Moustakas rejected a qualifying offer, meaning in order for the Giants to sign either him, they'll have to forfeit some pretty valuable draft positioning. That being said, the Giants may be open to taking that risk if they could indeed get Moustakas on terms that they feel is fair and without having to over

A week ago it looked like there was at least a halfway decent shot at the Giants potentially landing both Giancarlo Stanton and Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani. Had they gotten both, or even one, it would have rejuvinated the city and certainly the roster, but unfortunately GM Bobby Evans reported Friday that they are indeed out of the running for both player's services. I can't say I'm shocked at either piece of news, even though the Giants were considered one of a handful of finalists for each player. With Stanton, they had the huge contract as a hurdle, but ultimately it was Stanton's unwillingness to waive his no-trade clause to head to Northern California, holding out hope a trade to one of his preferred teams. He's made no secret that the Dodgers would be his first choice, which would be icing on the cake to the Giants missing out on him. On Friday, the Marlins released a list of four teams he would accept a trade to. Aside from LA, he would be open to joining

The Giants are still widely considered to be the front-runners to land the big right-handed outfielder if he is indeed dealt out of Miami. However, there are still obstacles that lay ahead, including Stanton's no-trade clause, the Marlins asking price and Stanton's huge remaining salary. We'll start with the list of prospects the Marlins would like in return from the Giants if the two come to an agreement, and it's the Giants top pitching prospect as well as three others in the organization's top-5 . RHP Chris Stratton (3), OF Heliot Ramos (1), OF/1B Chris Shaw (2) and Brian Reynolds (5) are the group of prospects the Marlins are reportedly seeking, which would essentially wipe out the Giants top end of their farm system, but if the Marlins are indeed willing to eat 20% of Stanton's deal, then it may make it worth the price. Stanton is one of a handful of hitters throughout baseball that could come in and immediately make an impact on this lineup by making e

So as I'm sure those of you who've been paying close attention to the Giancarlo Stanton trade sweepstakes as they've caught fire for essentially the last week and the whole Winter Meetings. However, as we stand heading into Saturday Morning, the newly crowned NL MVP is still in Miami with about 4-5 teams with real, shots at landing the big slugger' One of those teams, obviously, is the San Francisco Giants, who officially made a trade offer to Miami on Thursday. According to CBS Sports, the Giants are the first team to make an official offer to Miami for the MVP, which shows you just how interested they are in acquiring the right-fielder.. As far as I've read, the handful of teams besides the Giants, who Stanton would waive his no-trade clause for are the Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers and Boston Red Sox. All those teams certainly have the means to get a deal done, so it really comes down to who's going to eat most of that contract and which team offers the best

The MLB offseason is about to kick into full effect here, as MLB free agency posting took place on Monday and all free agents are now free to sign with whoever they please. Whether it's free agents or possibly trade targets, the San Francisco Giants have been prominently mentioned and linked to some of the bigger names hitting both markets (trade and free agency). Now, we've all heard the most tantalizing rumor involving the Giants and potentially landing the most efficient power hitter in the game today, Giancarlo Stanton, but we all know they won't be the only team pursuing the big outfield slugger, and apparently the one free agent they've been linked too the most now is former Royal's center fielder Lorenzo Cain. I voiced my opinion on Cainer last post, as he's certainly a plus player and could bring some intangibles to this team they very well could use, but he's not a guy who's going to change the make-up of an offense on his own like Stanton wou

As I said in our last post, with all of the Giants rotation that ended the year set to return (barring some change of heart from Johnny Cueto and he opts out), they don't have a whole lot of room to do much there unless they want to pursue a more seasoned option for the back-end of the rotation. However, as of now, they have about half of a starting lineup set to return, and will be looking for upgrades in at least two spots, maybe three. The obvious two spots they'll be looking into upgrading is either center field (depending on what they decide to do with Denard Span) and/or left field, and then the glaring hole at third base. The guys they trotted out in the second half of the year after dealing away starter Eduardo Nunez were hardly inspiring, and proved that if this team is serious about contending in 2018 they're going to have to venture outside the organization for help there. The one name that seems to make some sense, especially on the power end, is Todd Frazier.

The dust on the miserable 64-98 season for the San Francisco Giants is starting to settle and as soon as the Houston Astros hopefully take care of the Dodgers in this Fall Classic, the work on righting this ship can officially begin. Now, of course, the big question is where exactly do they start at? A team that was just 2 losses south of a 100-loss campaign typically will have numerous holes that need attention and this Giants team is in a very similar situation. The one difference is, they are just a year removed from a playoff appearance and still have the makings of a pretty strong starting rotation (although things could get tricky if Cueto opts out of his contract). The Giants top right-handed starter had hinted early in the season that he would be exercising his opt-out clause after the season, but a down year by his standards, and an injury-plauged campaign to boot had him changing his tune toward the end of the year. Now it appears as if he has intentions on sticking aroun