San Francisco Giants

To put it very lightly, the San Francisco Giants had problems closing out games in the 9th inning during the 2016 season. Enter Mark Melancon.

Signing Mark Melancon is a good first step for the Giants this offseason, but they won’t become contenders for a fourth title in eight years unless they also add a bat to their lineup.

With reports swirling over the last few days linking the San Francisco Giants to former Nationals closer Mark Melancon, the two sides finally agreed to a deal on Monday morning pending a physical, first reported by Buster Olney of ESPN.

The Giants are reportedly very close to getting a deal done with closer Mark Melancon according to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area, but are also looking at former Royals closer Greg Holland as a serviceable backup plan.

It looks like Giants general manager Bobby Evans is trying to come through on his repeated claims that signing a big-name closer is priority number one this offseason.

The San Francisco Giants continued their trend of avoiding arbitration hearings, offering contracts to all six of their arbitration-eligible players on Friday evening, and agreeing to one-year deals with two of them.

Giants general manager Bobby Evans told KNBR that the club was not pursuing a big name outfielder, but a multitude of reports on Thursday and Friday seem to be refuting that claim.

Clark, along with 10 other former players, managers and executives including Mark McGwire, will be reconsidered for Cooperstown this weekend by a 16-person panel of experts dubbed the “Today’s Game Era Committee.” Nominees need to receive at least 75 percent of the vote from the committee to earn induction into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Though they haven’t made any additions to the roster so far this offseason, the Giants have been fairly active when it comes to their coaching staff. That trend continued on Thursday, with Scott Miller of Turner Sports reporting the club’s acquisition of former All-Star pitcher Bob Tewksbury, who will act as the Giants’ mental performance coach.

The MLB All-Star Game no longer determining home-field advantage in the World Series is the biggest change to come from the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement on Wednesday. Drew Hoffar, Kevin Frandsen and Rudy Ortiz from KNBR 1050’s The Audible share their thoughts on the change, and the All-Star Game in general.