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Good morning, baseball fans!
Now that the World Series is over, it’s finally time to heat up the old stove and cook up some spicy rumors and free agency predictions.
Free agents were declared on Wednesday, and the San Francisco Giants currently have nine players on the list (not counting Buster Posey, who announced his retirement yesterday, or Johnny Cueto, who has a team option.) These players include Brandon Belt, Kris Bryant, Tyler Chatwood, Anthony DeSclafani, Kevin Gausman, Scott Kazmir, Donovan Solano, Tony Watson and Alex Wood.
Farhan Zaidi had previously discussed Posey being a top priority this offseason, but that’s off the table now. (And I’m still heartbroken.)
So the big red flag after reading that list is that it’s basically the entire starting rotation, and the Giants will need to be aggressive in that market. There’s also the Brandon Belt situation to be handled. The organization has been pretty optimistic about the likelihood that he will be back, with Farhan Zaidi stating that he’d like to keep the 2021 team together as much as possible. So I think at this point it’s likely that a deal will be reached fairly soon.
As to the pitchers, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be able to/interested in re-signing all of their free agent pitchers. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to pursue Gausman more aggressively than the others, but he will likely be in high demand after the season he had.
And with regards to Kris Bryant, well, it’s probably a long shot at this point, with Zaidi stating that the Bryant trade was more of a 2021 season move, and not a long term one. But the door is still open on that, if the right deal can be made.
Now, of course, there’s still the looming threat of a work stoppage, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
For now, enjoy the drama!
Old, random MCC article for you to read
Giancarlo Stanton had no reason to accept a trade to the Giants (December 11th, 2017 - Sami Higgins)
How many days until pitchers and catchers report?
Giants pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in 105 days