San Francisco Giants Upcoming Free Agents Need Strong Finish to Season

The San Francisco Giants have a couple of impending free agents that will need to finish the year strong to maximize their value.

Aug 27, 2024; Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Chapman (26) rounds the bases after hitting a home run during the fourth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field. / Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have a couple of impending free agents who will need to ride a strong finish to the season if they hope to cash in during free agency.

Thomas Harrigan of MLB recently put out a list of players that need to close the year out on a positive note before becoming free agents and two Giants players were highlighted.

Most obviously, staff ace Blake Snell needs to have a much better end to the season than he did at the start.

"Despite winning his second career Cy Young Award in 2023, Snell didn’t get the megadeal he was looking for in free agency, with questions about his durability and control suppressing his stock," said Harrigan.

The southpaw had a notably terrible start to his 2024 after joining the team late due to a last minute contract signing. His ERA grew north of 9.51 to go along with multiple stints on the injured list.

Since coming back to the team in July, the 31-year-old has been lights out. He has a 1.30 ERA over his last nine starts and even threw a no-hitter.

Given how bad the start of the year for him went, though, another rough stretch could have him right back to where he was a few months ago.

If things got really bad, he could potentially opt to take the $38.5 million on the books for next year. He's fully expected to leave his current deal and head to free agency, though.

With Snell dominating headlines, third baseman Matt Chapman has sort of fallen to the way side.

Chapman shares the same agent as the southpaw and signed a similar contract. He's also widely expected to opt out of his current deal in favor of searching for a bigger one after this season.

Also like his teammate, the California native got off to a bad start to the year. He slashed just .205/.255/.331 over his first 39 games. Things smoothed out, but the poor start left a bad taste in the mouths of many.

If he can look like he has in August for the rest of the year, however, he'll be in a good spot. He's had a .267/.333/.535 slashing line over his last 23 games.

Last season, though, he finished with a horrid .167/.262/.370 line over the last month. That can't happen again.

Though San Francisco is an extreme long shot to make the playoffs, their players still need to perform at a high level to end the year.