Former San Francisco Giants Pitcher Inks Deal With American League Powerhouse

One of the past San Francisco Giants players has signed a new deal with a powerhouse team in the American League.

Mar 10, 2018; Tempe, AZ, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Steven Okert (32) against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium. / Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants are rumored to be in the hunt for multiple high-profile players this winter.

After they made a change at the top of the front office by firing Farhan Zaidi and bringing in Buster Posey to take over as president of baseball operations, signs are pointing to the team making a splash to upgrade this roster after another season of missing the playoffs.

Certain reports have indicated they might not be willing to spend, so that will be something to keep an eye on, but right now, there is positive momentum that the Giants will land someone who will be a major addition to their lineup.

On the pitching side of things, San Francisco will likely have to replace Blake Snell.

With him putting together an incredible back half of the year, he opted out of his deal to hit the open market in search of his megadeal.

How the Giants go about improving their pitching staff will be seen, but someone they could have reunited with this winter was their former reliever Steven Okert.

Even if they were interested in bringing him back to be part of their bullpen, though, the left-hander is already off the market after he signed a minor league deal with the Houston Astros as reported by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors.

Okert was taken in the fourth round of the 2012 MLB draft, and after four seasons of minor league baseball, he made his Major League debut during the 2016 campaign and appeared in 16 games where he pitched to a 3.21 ERA.

Unfortunately, the following year didn't go so well for him when he posted a 5.67 ERA across his 44 outings. That prompted San Francisco to primarily stash him with their Triple-A team during 2018 and not use him at all during 2019 and the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Okert opted to hit free agency after that where he enjoyed a solid three seasons with the Miami Marlins by posting a 125 ERA+.

He spent last year with the Minnesota Twins where he had a 5.09 ERA across his 44 appearances.