The SF Giants can spend the coming offseason dreaming big, but the likely reality is a little more measured. With the current CBA set to expire on December 1 and a lockout looming, the window may not stay open long. Even so, it’s worth sorting the pitching market into three buckets for San Francisco: the fantasy swing, the workable fit, and the move that would be a miss.
Tarik Skubal sits at the top of the wish list. There really isn’t a bigger name to chase on the free-agent board, and any club that lands him would be getting a two-time Cy Young Award winner.
The catch, of course, is the price tag. Some projections push his deal beyond $300 million total, with an AAV nearing $45 million per year.
That kind of contract does not sound like the sort of number the Giants would eagerly hand out, but that’s what makes him the dream target. If he ends up anywhere other than the Los Angeles Dodgers, that alone would count as a win.
And maybe, just maybe, Skubal would want to return to the Bay Area.
If Skubal is the extravagant option, Kevin Gausman is the sensible one. He’s a familiar face, having previously pitched for the Giants, and he has been a dependable veteran arm for the Toronto Blue Jays since 2021.
For San Francisco, he’d offer stability in the rotation and could at least step into the role Robbie Ray held. That kind of fit feels much more believable for this team than a massive splash.
The Giants do need help in the bullpen, but this isn’t the time to chase the biggest names there either. Adrian Morejon is the top reliever in the group, and he would come with a pricey multi-year deal.
On a team already built to contend, that might be the kind of move that makes sense. For these Giants, it doesn’t.
They need smarter bullpen spending, not an expensive arm that doesn’t line up with where the roster is right now.
In a perfect world, San Francisco would act like the Dodgers and collect every marquee free agent in sight. That’s not their lane. More likely, the Giants wind up circling options closer to the Kevin Gausman end of the spectrum.
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The local angle only adds to the intrigue. Kwan has Bay Area ties, and San Francisco has not shied away from bringing in players with a connection to home, especially when the fit on the field is there too. Any actual deal would have to make sense financially and on the roster-building side, but the idea of Kwan in orange and black has enough logic behind it to keep the conversation going, even if nothing is close just yet. [Read more 🡒]
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Eldridge finished his first big-league season with a .269 batting average, 17 home runs and an .825 OPS over 107 games, production that looked every bit like the start of something meaningful rather than a brief cameo. His year ended early because of a concussion after he hit his head on a low archway in the team hotel, an odd and unfortunate finish to a season that had already raised the bar for what Giants fans can reasonably expect from him going forward. [Read more 🡒]