San Francisco Giants - Wish List for 2019

Well I promised you a part 2 and here we are. In my last blog I did a quick review of the 2018 San Francisco Giants season. Now I'll look ahead to 2019 and maybe we can see what the next season has in store for us. We left off the last blog with Farhan Zaidi being named the new President of Baseball Operations. Zaidi previously was the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers being named to that position following the 2014 season. The Dodgers finished first in the National League West all 4 seasons under Zaidi, including getting to the World Series the last 2. Coincidentally, 2014 was the last year the Giants appeared in and won a World Series. From all articles, Zaidi is very well respected and regarded around baseball and is viewed as a very intelligent executive. Zaidi had a lot of success building the Dodgers with 2 of his success stories being mentioned very prominently in Chris Taylor and Max Muncy.

Taylor was a prospect with the Seattle Mariners making his Major League debut in 2014 and barely hit over .200 in parts of 3 seasons before being traded to the Dodgers in 2016. Since the beginning of the 2017 season, Taylor has been a regular starter playing 140 and 155 games the last 2 seasons and hitting a combined 38 home runs. During a time when versatility is valued, Taylor has appeared in center field, left field, second base, shortstop, and third base.

Muncy may have been an even bigger surprise. Spending the 2015 and 2016 seasons with the Oakland A's, Muncy hit .195 with 5 home runs and 55 strikeouts over 215 at bats. He would sign with the Dodgers as a Minor League free agent at the beginning of the 2017 season and made his debut for the Dodgers on April 17, 2018. All he did was hit 35 home runs and finish 15th in the MVP vote. While his primary position is first base, he also showed his versatility appearing in games at third base, second base, and left field. These are the kind of player finds the Giants and the fans are hoping Zaidi can uncover.

But how many roster spots are available for Zaidi to fill? As far as free agents from the Giants, catcher Nick Hundley, outfielders Hunter Pence and Gregor Blanco, and starting pitcher Derek Holland were all contributors to the 2018 team but do the Giants want to re-sign any of them? (Blanco has signed a Minor League deal with the New York Mets) Second baseman Joe Panik and relief pitcher Sam Dyson re-signed with the team and relief pitcher Will Smith was tendered a contract though he did not sign. Relief pitcher Hunter Strickland and outfielder Gorkys Hernandez were non-tendered. Other players who spent time with the big club include infielders Kelby Tomlinson who signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chase d'Arnaud who signed with the Texas Rangers, and starting pitcher Casey Kelly will continue his professional career in South Korea.

For their shopping list, the Giants are expected to sign 2 outfielders, preferably corner guys considering Steven Duggar is still viewed as the starting center fielder, and 2 starting pitchers. So far the Giants signed outfielder Mike Gerber who has all of 47 Major League plate appearances and has struck out in 21 of those, acquired outfielder Drew Ferguson and relief pitcher Travis Bergen, both of whom have zero Major League experience, in the Rule 5 draft, signed catcher Cameron Rupp and relief pitcher Pat Venditte. None of these moves are that exciting. Rupp has had some success in the Major Leagues hitting 39 home runs in the last 3 years with the Philadelphia Phillies and Venditte had a 2.57 ERA in 15 games with the Dodgers last season. Venditte also can pitch with either hand so he offers some flexibility in the bullpen.

So now let's get to the rumors. With the Giants probably still looking for help in the outfield, several names have been floated. Michael Brantley had a renaissance year in 2018 for the Cleveland Indians following 2 injury plagued seasons. He finished 3rd in the MVP race in 2014 but will turn 32 early in the 2019 season. Unfortunately Brantley signed a 2-year deal with the Houston Astros last week. Marwin Gonzalez is another name being floated, and he can offer the kind of versatility that Zaidi may be looking for. Gonzalez appeared in games in 2018 at every position except pitcher and catcher. Avisail Garcia was non-tendered by the Chicago White Sox following a down year in 2018, but has the kind of power that Giants fans have been longing for since Barry Bonds "retired" following the 2007 season. Nick Castellanos of the Detroit Tigers has been a name that has floated around the Giants for a few seasons, but he would only be available in a trade and right now I don't think the Giants have the kind of trade capital that would intrigue the Tigers to make a deal.

As for starting pitchers, the water is much murkier here. The only name I've heard that the Giants were interested in was Nathan Eovaldi and he re-signed with the Boston Red Sox. More recently the rumors that the Giants would be interested in Japanese pitcher Yusei Kikuchi have been heating up. Beyond those 2 names the Giants have not really been linked to any other starting pitchers that I've heard. I think the safe move would be to re-sign Holland if the price is right, which would have the Giants going into 2019 with a likely rotation of Madison Bumgarner, Dereck Rodriguez, Andrew Suarez, Jeff Samardzija, and Chris Stratton and Derek Holland vying for the #5 slot.

There was some talk during the Winter Meetings that the Chicago White Sox were possibly interested in a trade for Brandon Belt, but the White Sox then traded for Yonder Alonso on December 15 so that interest has likely been squashed. There was also talk that the St. Louis Cardinals were interested in Will Smith or Tony Watson, but the Cardinals then signed Andrew Miller on December 21 so they got their left-handed reliever. There is now a rumor that has gone through a couple of versions and that is the Giants are interested in acquiring Jason Heyward from the Chicago Cubs for a package of Mark Melancon and either Jeff Samardzija or Will Smith. Heyward has played right field primarily in his career but the Giants are eyeing him for potentially patrolling center field, which would tend to suggest that maybe Zaidi isn't as high on Steven Duggar as some others in the organization were.

The last rumor out there is that the Giants have interest in signing Troy Tulowitzki who was released by the Toronto Blue Jays after missing the 2018 season. I do want to talk about this one for a minute. Considering he missed all of 2018 and that he's 34, this seems like a risky signing. But here's the thing. The Toronto Blue Jays are still on the hook for the remaining $38 million owed to Tulo and whatever team signs him would only be paying him the Major League minimum. This is exactly the same scenario as the Giants signing Pablo Sandoval. Now Tulo has been a shortstop his entire career so the Giants don't seem an immediate fit considering they have Brandon Crawford entrenched there through the 2021 season. But, if Tulo was willing to be a right-handed platoon to Joe Panik at second base and spell Crawford occasionally, this could be a good fit. It would also be a homecoming of sorts considering Tulo is from Santa Clara. I can't be the only Giants fan who remembers Tulo crushing the ball while he was with the Rockies and let's not forget that he hit 24 home runs as recently as 2016.

So that's where we find ourselves today. It's been a slow offseason for Farhan Zaidi and the Giants. I don't know how I feel about that. I didn't expect any big flashy moves, a la Bryce Harper, but I guess I had hoped that we'd have a clearer picture whether the Giants would be rebuilding for the future or reloading for a potential playoff run in 2019. I know about as much today as I did after the Giants recorded their final out of 2018. The Madison Bumgarner trade rumors will continue with the New York Yankees seeming to be the most likely landing spot, but personally I don't think the Giants are going to trade him until the trade deadline if at all. I do have hope for the future of my team, but so far I have not been inspired by anything they have done. Let's remember that the Giants traded for Evan Longoria on December 20, 2017 and Andrew McCutchen on January 15, 2018, so it's possible that moves are coming. That's all for now. Thanks for reading.

San Francisco Giants - Year in Review

Well everyone, another San Francisco Giants season comes to an end and like last year it ends with no trip to the postseason.  But the Giants finished with a better record than in 2017 and we had a chance to see some of the kids make the trip from Sacramento.  The Giants will have the #10 pick in the 2019 amateur draft.  To put that position into some perspective, let's look at some of the names that the Giants have drafted in the 1st round and the overall pick #:

2002 - Matt Cain (#22)
2006 - Tim Lincecum (#10)
2007 - Madison Bumgarner (#10)
2008 - Buster Posey (#5)
2009 - Zack Wheeler (#6)
2011 - Joe Panik (#29)
2012 - Chris Stratton (#20)
2013 - Christian Arroyo (#25)
2014 - Tyler Beede (#14)
2015 - Phil Bickford (#18)
2015 - Chris Shaw (#31)
2017 - Heliot Ramos (#19)
2018 - Joey Bart (#2)

Now some of these players were traded like Wheeler, Arroyo, and Bickford, but you can see that the Giants have had a pretty good track record over the last 2 decades or so.  Obviously in this range it would be nice to find a player like a Lincecum or Bumgarner.  One early mock draft has the Giants taking Corbin Carroll, an outfielder from Lakeside High School in Seattle, WA. But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. Let's take a look t the year that was.

I think the first thing we need to look at is the injuries that the Giants have endured.  The Giants placed 6 players on the season-ending disabled list, including Buster Posey who underwent hip surgery on August 27 and Brandon belt who underwent knee surgery on September 21.  In addition, the list also includes Pablo Sandoval, Ryder Jones, Steven Duggar, and Johnny Cueto.  Jeff Samardzija was never placed on the season-ending DL, but did not pitch after July 14.  Also missing good chunks of the year were Madison Bumgarner and Evan Longoria. While every team deals with injuries throughout the year, I think it's safe to say that few teams suffered this many injuries to key players. Also, for a team that was toeing so close to the competitive balance tax line, they didn't have the luxury of signing more high-priced talent after other players were lost to injury (see the Dodgers trading for Manny Machado after Corey Seager underwent Tommy John surgery).

Once the last out was recorded in the World Series (congratulations to the Boston Red Sox) the clock started on the offseason and for the first time since Brian Sabean was promoted to General Manager in 1996 the Giants will have a new GM. Before you jump in and say, well Bobby Evans was the GM from 2015 to 2018, Sabean was the Executive VP of Baseball Operations so while he may not have been GM by title the last 3 years he was still heavily involved in the decision making process. On November 6 we kind of found out who that would be. Farhan Zaidi was hired as the Head of Baseball Operations. This does not make him officially the GM, though he was the GM for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2015-2018 and was the Director of Baseball Operations for the Oakland A's in 2013 and 2014 also adding the title of Assistant GM in 2014. While we're still waiting to see if Zaidi will hire an "official" GM, he has made 2 hires to the scouting department bringing in Zack Minasian, formerly of the Milwaukee Brewers, as the new Director of Pro Scouting, and Michael Holmes, formerly of the Oakland A's, as the new Director of Amateur Scouting.

As Giants fans, we finally got to see Zaidi in action during the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas held December 9-13, and honestly the results were a little underwhelming. I'll leave this blog now so as not to write a huge post and my next one (coming soon) will pick up at the Winter Meetings and we'll chat about the moves the Giants have already made and some of the ones that are rumored/possible. Until next time folks, thanks for reading.