Saturday BP: Winter Meetings will be remote

Hello and happy Halloween! I hope it’s a good and safe time for you.

The offseason is officially underway, which means Farhan Zaidi, Scott Harris, Gabe Kapler, and the rest of the San Francisco Giants brain trust is hard at work trying to improve the team for 2021.

But they’ll have to do it remotely. On Friday, MLB announced that there will not be in-person Winter Meetings this year.

There’s certainly nothing surprising about that, even if it wasn’t made official until recently. Still, it’s weird to think of an offseason that doesn’t have general managers and presidents of baseball operations schmoozing in person as they look to build their rosters.

Old, random MCC article for you to read

The Padres want to bring back Bruce Bochy (Sept. 21, 2019 — Bryan Murphy)

Giants links

• Roger Munter tackles the question of who the Giants really are (There R Giants)
• Grant Brisbee on the free agents that the Giants should pursue (The Athletic, subscription required)
• Henry Schulman on how fan cutouts when from funny jokes to treasured souvenirs (SF Chronicle)
• Alex Pavlovic lists 10 things Giants fans won’t forget from the 2010 World Series run (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Craig Edwards on the top 50 free agents, with contract predictions (Fangraphs)
• Maria Guardado on whether or not the Giants will extend the qualifying offer to Kevin Gausman (MLB)
• Mark W. Sanchez on the unique rookie experience for Giants in 2020 (KNBR)
• John Shea on the Giants 10 biggest trade gifts to other teams (SF Chronicle)
• Alex Pavlovic on if the Giants will be buyers or sellers, and more mailbag questions answered (NBC Sports Bay Area)
• Evan Drellich on MLB’s uncertain offseason (The Athletic, subscription required)

How many days until Opening Day?

There are 152 days until Opening Day.

I hope you have a delightfully spooky Halloween.