San Francisco Giants Now Shockingly Not Expected to Spend This Offseason

Despite disappointing the last few years, the San Francisco Giants aren't expected to be heavy spenders this offseason.

Oct 1, 2024; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bob Melvin (left), president of baseball operations Buster Posey (middle), and chairman Greg Johnson during a press conference at Oracle Park / Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

When the San Francisco Giants moved on from their president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, earlier this offseason, the thought was that this ownership was tired of the franchise underperforming by missing out on the playoffs for three years in a row.

There are clear holes on this roster, something that seems to have been pinned on the former executive, especially when the Giants put themselves into final conversations with some of the best free agents who have hit the market the past couple of cycles.

Hiring Buster Posey to replace Zaidi not only was a cool story for the fanbase considering he's one of the best players in franchise history, but it also signaled a change in how things might be approached from a top-down mindset.

One of the major hurdles San Francisco will have to overcome is replacing Blake Snell if he ends up on a new team when he opts out of his contract to hit free agency.

Posey and the Giants have talked about the importance of keeping the two-time Cy Young winner in San Francisco, but depending on the price tag he's going to command, there's a chance that might not happen if they also attempt to upgrade other weak spots on this roster.

And based on comments made by Brady Klopfer of The McCovey Chronicles, he seems to think they won't be big spenders this winter.

"... I don't expect them to spend heavy. They exceeded the tax this year, and will probably try to avoid the repeater tax to reset the penalty. That still leaves them plenty of money to spend, given that the Snell and Michael Conforto contracts are coming off the books, in addition to Alex Cobb and Jorge Soler. But I don't expect them to throw money at all their problems, or even most of them," he writes.

That's very interesting.

If Giants ownership was willing to move on from their previous executive based on the poor results of not making the playoffs for three years in a row, it seems like they would want to spend money to make sure that doesn't happen again.

Maybe they do and Klopfer's instinct is wrong.

San Francisco has been linked to Juan Soto and some other high-profile free agents, not to mention their preferred scenario of keeping Snell.

Those types of moves would take some big money to pull off.

Unfortunately, there's a chance the Giants aren't aggressive this winter and they'll be scraping and clawing in the NL West division once again in 2025.