Despite winning the 2014 World Series, the San Francisco Giants still have a lot of work to do, especially with the starting rotation. They have yet to make a big move after losing a number of free agents and failing to land starting pitcher Jon Lester.
ESPN's Buster Olney was fairly blunt earlier today on the Baseball Tonight Podcast when he said, "I think right now if you were to develop a 'loser list' [for this offseason] there'd be one team way above everybody else, far and away, and of course, the interesting thing is that it's the team that won October, the defending champion San Francisco Giants."
We could talk about how they lost third baseman Pablo Sandoval as well as outfielder Michael Morse in free agency, but right now that seems to be the least of their worries. They've essentially lost three starting pitchers since Tim Lincecum was demoted to the bullpen and Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong are likely departing via free agency (although it's possible Peavy returns). The Giants failed to land Lester after he signed with the Chicago Cubs for six years and $155 million and they're heading back to square one in terms of finding another big starter. Many would say they absolutely need to land another established arm since Matt Cain is coming off elbow surgery and Yusmeiro Petit has only 56 career starts in seven MLB seasons.
San Francisco has now shifted their attention to starter James Shields, who they met with recently, according to CSN Bay Area. ESPN's Jim Bowden predicts the right-hander is in the market for a five-year, $100 million contract, which now probably seems like a bargain after the bidding for Lester. FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal notes the team is exploring a "wide range of starting-pitching options, including Shields," however it's unknown if they're considering going after Max Scherzer. A number of teams are said to be interested in Shields, including the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers and Los Angeles Angels as the most recent. The Miami Marlins, Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers are among the others, but the level of their interest is unknown since they've all acquired other starters to join their rotation.
The Giants staple during their three World Series runs was their starting rotation. Although this past season their rotation was ranked 16th in terms of ERA (3.74), they ranked sixth in 2010 with a 3.73 ERA and third in 2010 with a 3.54 ERA. The 2014 postseason was where the Giants' starting rotation shined after they combined for a 3.38 ERA (2nd) and 1.07 WHIP (3rd) in 17 starts (96 innings). On top of having the most starts and innings pitched, they also had the third-best opponent's batting average (.226) with only the Nationals and Dodgers ahead of them in the categories they weren't ranked first.
But also on the Baseball Tonight Podcast, Karl Ravech noted:
"The one thing about the Giants is that they've never been constructed through free agency. They don't generally spend or out-spend anybody, so going into a winter in which they were going to get into bidding wars, I think if you look largely at their history, they'd end up losing that battle."
Ravech is right, so maybe the panicking shouldn't start just yet. They still have an opportunity to land Shields or Scherzer if they're willing to spend, but they could also chase after some mid-level free agents such as Hiroki Kuroda or Edinson Volquez. Perhaps they're waiting for the market price for Shields and Scherzer to go down because they remain active on other fronts: they just signed reliever Sergio Romo to a two-year, $15 million deal; they've spoken with the Atlanta Braves about acquiring outfielder Justin Upton; and they're reportedly interested in Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang, who was posted by his team on Monday.
Then again, the Giants missed the playoffs in between each of their three World Series victories in 2010, 2012 and 2014, so we might see the trend continue in 2015 if the team can't fill their glaring needs this offseason.
