The San Francisco Giants are poised to be active in free agency as they got some payroll relief this offseason and will get even more after 2016. They're not known to sign high-profile players, but are David Price and Yoenis Cespedes on their radar this time around?
The latest rumors suggest those two players are being considered in some capacity because San Francisco has immediate needs in the starting rotation and left field.
"Giants people are saying they are playing things to 'close to the vest,' which is often a tipoff that they have big plans," Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports.
"The way I see it, there will be four teams most seriously in play for market kings Zack Greinke and David Price: the Dodgers, Cubs, Giants and Red Sox," writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
"The Giants have been doing background work on David Price," ESPN's Buster Olney added in his Friday column.
Price could command a $200 million contract after logging arguably the best regular season of his career. The left-hander went 18-5 with a 2.45 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and 225 strikeouts in 32 starts (220 1/3 innings). Although he endured yet another unimpressive postseason, Price is a frontrunner for the AL Cy Young Award.
Rumors have long suggested the Giants would go after a top starter on the free agent market since they missed out on Jon Lester last year and Cole Hamels before the trade deadline. They've mostly been linked to Greinke up until this point.
Their free agent endeavors can extend even further thanks to their vacancy in left field.
"The Giants have been considering outfield star Yoenis Cespedes, but they are a bit concerned that his regular-year finish might cause his price tag to rise by $50 million, or more," Heyman says.
The good news is that Cespedes experienced a slump at the end of the season and then batted just .222 with two home runs and eight RBI in 14 playoff games with the New York Mets. He also injured his knee and shoulder during the postseason, which could be a concern among the teams willing to invest over $100 million in the outfielder.
"For Cespedes, I settled on the Giants, because they're going to be in spending mode after missing the playoffs (of course they did - it was an odd-numbered year)," Sherman adds. "And because Cespedes is the sort of dynamic player who can sell tickets, yet won't be the focal point on a team with Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey, which is probably a good thing. And because Cespedes could play center field if the injury-prone Angel Pagan has to go back on the disabled list."
However, both Price and Cespedes are expected to be of interest to a lot of MLB clubs. At least the Giants have the whole "even year" going for them as they've won the World Series in each of the past three even-numbered seasons ('10, '12 and '14). Maybe they can coax free agents with that argument.
In my opinion, I feel they are going to go after Jordan Zimmermann or Jeff Samardzija to bolster the starting rotation as well as Alex Gordon to fill the void in left field.
