San Francisco Giants are Desperate for Superstar Outfielder in MLB Free Agency

The San Francisco Giants cannot afford to start the new front office regime off with another failed attempt at a big name free agent this winter.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants cannot afford to miss out on the top free agents this winter. 

With the disaster that occurred over the past few offseasons, the Giants have missed out on multiple top players on the market, who would have changed the trajectory of the ballclub and most likely kept them from missing the postseason for the third straight season. 

On Wednesday, the Athletic released a list of all 30 MLB teams sorted into tiers on the likelihood of the organization landing the biggest name in free agency this winter. On the list, toward the top, sat the Giants as a team with an excellent chance to land the 25-year-old outfielder. The Athletic Staff put the team in the “Rich, desperate, aggressive” tier.

“Giants were finalists for Shohei Ohtani last year. San Francisco has also whiffed on Carlos Correa, Bryce Harper, and Aaron Judge, though it wasn’t due to an unwillingness to spend. The Giants are under a new regime, with Buster Posey taking over as president of baseball operations. He is expected to jumpstart the Giants, and his competitiveness could lead to an aggressive approach in his first winter as head of the franchise.”

So how can the Giants become the front-runner in the sweepstakes for arguably the best hitter in all of baseball? Easy, spend money. 

Out of those describing characteristics of the tier the Giants were placed in, desperate may be the strongest word that fits the team’s current state when approaching the All-Star this winter. With the new regime looking to forget about the past few offseasons, the last thing they want to do is repeat the same mistakes. Therefore, you should expect San Francisco to be very aggressive once again this time around. 

Since their 107-win season in 2021, the Giants have found themselves as an afterthought in the National League West. If they don’t make an impactful free agency signing (or two) this winter, the gap between them and the top of the division, which now includes the reigning World Series champions Los Angeles Dodgers, could quickly get out of reach. 

Adding a power hitter in the middle of the lineup like Soto could also finally help the organization break a twenty-season drought of having a top slugger in the league. The team has not had a single player reach 30 home runs in a season since Barry Bonds did it in 2004. Soto has surpassed the mark over his last two seasons with the San Diego Padres and New York Yankees.