Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants pegged their needs entering this offseason as a catcher, a lefty bat, rotation help and righty relief.
This offseason, they have given major league deals to a catcher, a flexible lefty infield bat, two starting pitchers and a righty reliever coming off a tremendous season.
And yet, there is still plenty of work to be done.
Farhan Zaidi made that clear on a Zoom conference call Wednesday after the Giants signed Anthony DeSclafani to be a middle-of-the-rotation arm, the third member of a rotation that only had former DeSclafani teammates Kevin Gausman and Johnny Cueto, with Logan Webb and eventually Tyler Beede options.
The Giants’ president of baseball operations said there’s one more rotation hole to plug, suggesting there’s another established free agent or trade acquisition the club wants to bring in.
“We’re going to continue to look for starting pitching,” Zaidi said on Dec. 16 in another season in which the hot stove has frozen. “…It could come in the form of maybe a versatile swing man who could go back and forth. But I actually think that we have room to add another guy who we could rely on every fifth day.”
Zaidi downplayed the Giants’ righty tilt of the rotation, saying he would rather have five capable righty starters than a lesser lefty. The Giants’ in-house best bet for a southpaw starter was Andrew Suarez, who appears near a deal to pitch in South Korea.
Underscoring the need for even more pitching is an uncertainty of what every team can expect from its starters next season. Cueto led the Giants last season with 63 1/3 innings pitched, a total that would normally call for some sort of innings restriction the following season. Can anyone be depended on? Expect a few more minor league signings with major league starting experience.
DeSclafani surely threw to Chadwick Tromp in Reds spring trainings over the year, and the two could link up again this season, but Tromp, even after signing a surprise major league deal, is not the surefire backup catcher. Zaidi praised Tromp’s framing skills and said there is “untapped potential” in a bat that hit four home runs in 64 plate appearances, but suggested another vet could be added.
Buster Posey will be back, and the best complement would be a lefty. Jason Castro, from Castro Valley, is a free agent.
Tromp is “certainly a strong candidate,” Zaidi said of the 25-year-old. “We think he’ll benefit from this experience and be better next year, but we’re talking about a number of different ways to improve the roster and our depth, and adding another catcher is certainly a possibility.”
As is adding a lefty infielder, even after bringing in Jason Vosler. Vosler, from the Padres, scored a major league deal though he has not yet debuted, the Giants were so optimistic about how he hits righty pitching. He could spell Evan Longoria and get looks at second and first, but his use will depend on which lefty bat the Giants settle on.
Zaidi said it could be an infielder or outfielder who is brought in, pointing at Mauricio Dubon’s flexibility as particularly helpful. If they signed, say, Jackie Bradley Jr. to play center, Dubon could play more second base than outfield. If they signed, say, Tommy La Stella to roam the infield, Dubon would make center his more permanent home.
“I don’t think we view [the need] as either an infielder or outfielder,” Zaidi said. “Could fit either way.”
The Giants had signed another former DeSclafani teammate last week in Matt Wisler, their first foray into a relief market that is ocean deep. They never found the right righty help last season, Trevor Gott and Sam Coonrod not getting the job done often enough, and the 28-year-old Wisler was needed.
They also selected Dedniel Nunez, a righty, in the Rule 5 draft. Because of the number of options who await in free agency, it sounds as if the Giants will wait out the market and are more likely to bring in a few on minor league deals than open their wallet for a splashier name.
“We’ll continue to look there,” said Zaidi, whose Giants are pretty flush with bullpen lefties. “It may be non-roster additions later in the offseason. Can’t say for sure that we’re going to bring in anybody else on major league deals, but that’s probably an area where we’re going to seek to be a little bit more creative and out of the box.”