Mon/Tues BP: Welcome to free agency

Happy Monday, San Francisco Giants fans.

Today marks five days since Bruce Bochy captured his fourth World Series championship. And that means that the free agency period is here.

During the last five days, the Giants had the opportunity to extend the Qualifying Offer to their eligible free agents, and re-sign their own free agents. There was no movement on that front, which should not be even remotely surprising.

It was also the window for options to be exercised, and today is the deadline for that. In extremely obvious news, Ross Stripling opted in to his contract for 2024. In slightly-less-obvious-but-still-very-predictable-and-in-no-way-surprising news, Sean Manaea opted out of his deal, while the Giants picked up Alex Cobb’s option. At the time of writing this, Michael Conforto’s decision has not yet been reported.

But now the real fun begins. The Giants can sign Shohei Ohtani today, and I support that. They should do that, I think. Then they should pay me 1% of his deal for the idea. They can also sign any other free agents, though technically they have to wait until postings are official before signing international free agents like Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung-hoo Lee.

Soon the dominoes will fall, for the Giants and other teams. And you’ll be happy and excited or angry and disappointed or unsure how to feel and looking for guidance. We’re here for you for all of those emotions, and many arguments along the way.

Now sign Shohei Ohtani, you cowards.