Although they’re coming off three straight sub-.500 campaigns, the Giants haven’t made any aggressive offseason moves to improve their chances in 2020. Their biggest additions have been a pair of potential bounce-back starting pitchers in Kevin Gausman and Drew Smyly. Both players, including Smyly on Thursday, joined the club on relatively low-risk one-year contracts.
With Gausman and Smyly in tow, what’s next for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, general manager Scott Harris and the Giants? Well, they’re not finished constructing their roster yet, Harris told Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle as a guest on the Giants Splash podcast.
As of now, San Francisco’s “actively working on a few different upgrades,” Harris revealed. Specifically, the Giants are “working really hard to add to our rotation” and “working hard to add some power and balance to our offense, both in the infield and in the outfield.”
Even after picking up their two new starters, questions abound in the Giants’ staff. Neither of those hurlers is a shoo-in to perform at a high level this year, nor is Tommy John surgery returnee Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija or anyone else in their rotation mix. Moreover, the Giants lost their longtime top starter, Madison Bumgarner, to the division-rival Diamondbacks in free agency, though Harris indicated San Francisco did at least attempt to re-sign the franchise icon. With Bumgarner among those off an ever-shrinking free-agent board, there’s little to nothing in the way of strong starters left on the open market.
Trades, whether they improve the Giants’ rotation or other areas, are still in play. Harris told Schulman they’re “talking to every team at least weekly now” about deals. Perhaps something will come together to better the Giants’ offense, which ranked 28th in runs and wRC+ last year and hasn’t gotten any significant help since then. They’re hoping for better things from well-compensated veterans such as Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria. When Schulman asked (without naming anyone in specific) if any of the Giants’ expensive vet hitters are part of trade talks with other teams, Harris said “not right now,” adding that the club wants “a healthy mix” of older and younger contributors.
While the Giants want to win as many games as possible in 2020 and could still make more moves in the coming weeks to increase their odds, they won’t do anything to disrupt their long-term chances. Harris’ hope is that the team will “strike the right balance” of contending now and in the future.
2020 is gonna be a rough year but after seeing what Zaidi has done already I’m optimistic the Giants can be competitive by 2022 once the talent starts to come up
Agreed. Let’s home we can move another expensive veteran or two in July and continue to build up the farm.
3 NL west teams have better young talent than the Giants do. Their future is rough.
1 of those 3 teams was constructed by Zaidi in only a few years
Zaidi did not have anything to do with constructing the Dodgers. That was all Colletti and some Friedman. It’s hilarious how delusional Giants fans are regarding Zaidi. The fact that you credit him with the Dodgers’ success is indicative of it.
The Giants farm system has gone from almost dead last to competitive in just a few years. Add Will Wilson, and draft compensation for losing Madbum and Will Smith and it’s not unreasonable to think they will have a top 7-8 farm system within a year. Not to mention that in my opinion, Marco Luciano is a megastar in the making.
Also I have been reading mlbtr post for years and this is my first time posting. I hope I made spelling errors so I can get lit up haha.
Anyone else here feel like it’s a crime that no players got punished for all of this stealing signs BS?
@22Leo Huh? He started with the A’s in 2005, helping draft and build the A’s teams with Billy Beane. In 2014 he went to the Dodgers. Three years after he was GM they made it to the World Series for the first time in almost 30 years. Maybe Colleti’s prints are on some of the 2017 roster, but he has been gone for SIX years.
I’m sure Freidman had a ton to do with it, but to say Zaidi had nothing to do with constructing the Dodgers (or the A’s for that matter) is absurd.,
It’s hilarious how delusional some people are regarding his roles and resume. I don’t even know the guy but the one thing I do know is everywhere he has gone he’s built better clubs than when he got there.
Hopefully the Z Giants won’t choke so often as the LADies
The main pieces of the bullpen are gone, Smarja is over rated, cueto is oft injured, the infield is old. Best the giants can hope for is trading the one year and the rest at the deadline for prospects. Fodder for the dodgers and padres.
Samardzija had one of the most underrated seasons in 2019. Lol.
Who are we really kidding ? Until the Padres live up to the hype, they are just more fodder for the Dodgers as well.
The Padres are the Padres – they will have seven or eight seasons of under .500 ball, one or two seasons with a decent roster but never get the ring, then fall back to their cozy position at the bottom of the standings.
So I just looked and they have had nine seasons of under .500 ball. They might be due!
you do realize the Padres actually finished with a worse record than the Giants did last year? they are not all of a sudden going to be 30+ games better this year without the aid of a trashcan or replay room.
Crawford and Longo have full no trade clauses, Belt has a limited no trade clause, and no one will take the contract of Shark and until clubs have a chance to see how Cueto pitches after TJ, no one will touch him for a while. Farhan is a joke and should have never been hired, period !!
You do realize Farhan did not sign, trade for, or extend a single one of those players right? All those moves were made before he got to SF.
Well to start Longorio does not have a no-trade clause.
Shark is a free agent after this year. If he has a solid first half I bet teams will be drooling over grabbing him. I wouldn’t be suprised if he’s traded way before the deadline actually.
Belt has a limited no-trade clause which means he CAN be traded. So what the heck is your point? That because it’s limited he’s untradeable? He picks ten teams he doesnt’ want to be traded to, likely teams that aren’t looking for him anyway.
Crawfod has a no-trade clause but nobody will touch him anyway. If he shows up out of shape I bet Zaidi releases him.
I actually don’t care if Cueto is traded. It is fun to watch him pitch and he’s someone that can leave some balance to the team while it retools.
Shark had a very solid 2019 and Cueto is a workhorse. He just had the first extended DL stay of his entire career.
Loving this new regime. We now have 3 prospects ranked in the top 50 and our farm is only getting better. All while avoiding a complete tank, it’s pretty impressive to see.
All 3 are products of the old regime.
cueto and/or smarja may have some value come trade deadline, but…
Bumgarner had trade value. Zaidi failed to capitalize on it.
22 Leo I think MadBum and Bochy we’re going to go out together and management told that to Zaidi upon hiring him. We are paying the price for the three championships but I wouldn’t change a thing.
I highly doubt that.
Besides, Zaidi also failed to move Smith, who had value as well, and the Giants reportedly explored the option of re-signing Bumgarner.
The value of the mid season Bumgarner and Smith trades were weighed against their draft pick compensation from QOs. There were offers in July for both players. But Zaidi likely valued the draft picks more than what was offered at the trade deadline.
It would be interesting to know what the Giants turned down trade-wise. But I doubt they were too prospects.
At the deadline, teams undervalued both guys, especially MadBum. Will Smith hit a nasty rough patch just before the deadline, and I think that scared off some suitors. If Zaidi received poor offers and the team appeared to have (an outside) shot at contention, then it made good sense to keep those guys at the time and cash in later on draft picks.
Zaidi did a great job moving Melancon and Pomeranz. He’s also done a great job rebuilding while avoiding that ugly word.
They were also within striking distance of a wild card spot at the deadline. Zaidi and ownership weren’t going to make a white flag trade in Bochy’s final season. The man deserved one last shot, even if the odds were long.
The Giants were NEVER close to a wild card spot in 2019. The team had negative DIFF numbers upwards around -70 most of the year. That had a little hot streak that created what essentially was an optical illusion in the WC standings. Giants fans read way too much into it.
“Optical illusion” or not, they were 2 games behind Washington at the deadline. They weren’t going to do that to Bochy, especially for a couple mid-tier prospects.
they were -70 because there was an unexplainable 3 week stretch in April and May where they gave up an average of 6 runs in the first two innings of every game. it skewed those numbers drastically. they weren’t terrible last year. they played Giants baseball. lack of runs, defense, bullpen. only thing that was different in the championship years was the starting pitching was a little better.
2 games behind Washington lol……The 2019 Giants finished w/ -95 DIFF . They were NEVER a potential wild card team. Any talk to the contrary is insanity
I must have missed when MLB changed the rules to where wild card was determined by run differential and not record…
Negative DIFF teams don’t go the playoffs
It’s only happened 4 times in the last 100 years . And never with a -DIFF over 20
Do your homework
The Fragile SF Writers and Fans helped influence that situation
This is so true
It’s a complete tank let’s face it if they get a top 3 draft pick after this season they’ll be happy and again after next season then they’ll blame the two losing seasons in kapler and get a better manager to guide the giants in 22
This script is well written in baseball in fact I predict in two years AJ HInch or Cora will be the giants manager
Eric Byrnes, is that you ?
I heard that on KNBR the other day as well.
lol lol lol lol.
I forgot bum went to the dbags
I wonder what it would cost in trade for Adam Frazier? He would be a great addition at 2B and provide above average defense with average offense and should not cost any future detriment to the team. I think Luis Matos and a rookie ball catcher Raynor Santana fit the Pirates needs & would bring back Frazier.
Seems like Dubon will get every chance to hold down 2B. Unless hell freezes and they’re able to move Crawford at some point.
If Crawford shows up out of shape and continues to suck he should be released. I don’t care how many old lady’s buy tickets because they think he has cute hair.
Crawford got FAT. It was unbelievable. This guy showed up to spring training last year so out of shape.
He was officially clocked as the slowest ( foot speed) non catcher in MLB . That’s just unheard of for a middle infielder
I am not sure Dubon is ready for a full time position and Frazier could offer security as a 2B platoon and bench utility piece. It would be worth it If he could be picked up for a couple Rookie Ball players. Having Frazier on the roster also would allow them to have an option with Crawford if he does not show up in the spring.
what? did you even watch Dubon on the Giants last year? he is absolutely ready
Dubon should start at SS, his natural position. Crawford can back him up. Solano at 2nd. Solano was underutilized last year imho
Keep signing reclamation projects. If any of them hit, trade them in July for a younger, controllable player. This is going to take time to right this ship. Zaidi inherited a huge mess last year. Got to ride out the bad contracts and continue to get younger. Farm system has greatly improved and the organization has gotten deeper. Got to give Duggar, Davis, Shaw, Beede, etc long looks. See what you got. 2020 is an extended audition. 2021 and beyond will produce a better product, capable of competing for years to come
I agree, but I don’t think that Duggar and Shaw will ever amount to much.
Yep. Duggar can’t stay healthy, and if he did he has little power, and Shaw is a SO machine.
The real prospects are in the lower ranks still. Anyone above AA last October is essentially auditioning for a bench role once the kids come up. This season is going to be huge for their farm system in that regard, some really exciting players are poised to make the leap to the higher ranks and knock on the door for 21/22
Duggar SO A LOT last season and poor Shaw has never risen to the occasion
Yep agreed!
It’s going to take time, we are looking up in the division, Dodgers own it, Padres are coming, Dbacks are underrated and well I have no idea what the Rockies are doing. Farhan has his plan and ownership are backing him. Farm system is improving, another good draft in 2020 and the way it’s looking another high pick in 2021. Stay patient Giants fans, it will get better
For me, nothing can beat a Dodgers / Giants game when both teams are competitive. It may be a tough season this year but I’m seeing a lot of similar moves by the Giants that the Dodgers use to keep themselves competitive year in and year out. Good luck.
The Dodgers’ biggest asset has been an incredibly stacked farm system, which the Giants are not even close to having. The moves you are referring to..mainly signing washed up and injury-prone players to relatively cheap contracts…have not kept the Dodgers competitive. They just fill out the roster.
Give SF some credit for building the farm up. It’s not up to par with the Dodgers’ farm, that’s true, but the turnaround from the barren farm it was just a few years ago is monumental.
Also, let’s not forget that SF is sitting on coffers of $$$. When they get a good enough baseline to start opening up the wallet, they can buy some top flight talent.
monumental turnaround…wha
where’s the evidence of any of that?
The farm system went from bottom 5 to mid level in the span of half a season, for starters. The lower levels are absolutely stacked: Giants prospects accounted for 1/3 of the entire AZL all-star roster, and that’s with sending their top picks almost directly to the Northwest League.
2 years till the great white hypes roll off which is also great timing for the 2021 free agency thats insane- This team will spend then and should have some cheap controllable assets by then as well
There is a clear plan here, there will be no curveballs thrown the next 2 years
I have watched the Giants since childhood even as I have lived on the east coast for the last 10 years. This year I am going to get the minor league tv package. I would much rather spend my time watching the flying squirrels than this squad.
I don’t blame you. Richmond could have 4 top-50 prospects on the roster this season.
This is a huge draft for the Giants we have 5 (I think last time I checked) picks within the first 100 so we need to capitalize
Blah blah blah, us fans are okay with the much needed rebuild. But don’t give us this nonsense that you and Mr. Zaidi intend to sign more offense. We expect it to be a rough few years. I also intend to cancel my subscription to MLB TV until you can put a team in the field that will at least be competitive.
This sounds like the, “we signing Harper or we signing Cole” nonsense. We all knew it would never come to fruition!
D’back should be the same as last year’s bad. They basically trade Grenke for Baumgard which is minus for Dbacks.