Things are about to heat up...

The San Francisco Giants just lost 97 games, have just two starters in their starting rotation, and in 33 days baseball is going to shut down. So how do you fix that with three contracts you probably can't move and an emerging star at just 21 years old? Well there's no question Buster Posey has a lot of work to do. But before we get into it, the Milwaukee Brewers are officially your World Series champions. Congrats to Kyle Harrison, Luis Matos, the first title in franchise history. Congratulations Milwaukee, that one is absolutely earned. They beat the Rays in five games. They missed out on the sweep, meaning your 2010 San Francisco Giants are still the last team to sweep another team in the World Series. William Contreras was the World Series MVP. Not to mention they got there by sweeping the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in four games. Honestly, thank you to the Brewers because somebody had to do it and it was obviously not going to be the San Francisco Giants. But enough with that, it is officially the offseason and the Giants have a lot of work to do. Here is what day one has looked like so far. Alex Pavlovich of NBC Sports Bay Area wrote, The Giants only had one player, JT Brubaker, become a free agent on day one, but a ton of old friends are on the initial list of 144 free agents. Luis Arriaza, Robbie Ray, Tyler Mally, Mauricio Dubon, Dom Smith, Michael Conforto, Kevin Gosman, and a ton of other smaller names. With that, not a ton of the roster is going to change, so the holes that lost almost 100 games are still going to be there, and you can't fix them all at once because there is a clock. Before we get too deep into today's video, leave a comment down below. What moves you'd like to see the Giants make this offseason? And if you haven't yet, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. About 75% of you guys watching these videos are not actually subscribed to the channel. That clock runs out on December 1st. That is, of course, when the collective bargaining agreement is going to run out. And as we all expect, baseball shuts down for what could be months. To make that a little bit simpler, and I'm sure a lot of you already know, but when that lockout starts, everything freezes. Absolutely everything. So, whatever Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants front office want to get done, they need to do quickly, here in the next few weeks. The last lockout ran from December 2nd, 2021 to March 10th, 2022. While at last, no signings, no trades, the winter meetings, December 7th to 9th in San Diego, are of course expected to not actually take place. So with this timer going on, the Giants have about 33 days to do the hard work. And unfortunately, the record was not even the entire story. The Giants were 65-97 with a run differential of minus 91, which is a 72-90 team by strictly runs. That is 7 wins better than the record, but still not a very good team. And technically, even with the expensive contracts, they do have the room to do it. Their 2027 tax payroll is $196.6 million so far, against a tax line of $247 million. That's about $50.4 million of room. $50 million is real money, but that has to cover a couple of starters, some bullpen pieces, and maybe even an outfield bat. So let's rank them starters first. It is no secret how thin this rotation is heading into opening day. Logan Webb and Landon Roop are the only two starters who are locks for next year's rotation. That's it. Four young, talented starters had Tommy John for the Giants this year, Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Carson Wisenhunt, and Blade Tidwell. Birdsong may be back earlier this season. The other three will probably miss the entirety of 2028. And we should probably mention that the two locks in next year's rotation were not as good as we thought they'd be. Logan Webb had a 4-3-1 ERA and a 1-1-7 whip in 2026. Landon Roop, on the other hand, had a 4.01 ERA. The team ERA was 4-3-3, 23rd in all of Major League Baseball. And Buster Posey thinks they can contend. When he was asked if they think they can, he said, I do. I do believe that we can. Now, I think it's pretty clear that this is one of the weakest free agent classes we have seen in recent memory, but it does give them something to shop for. Tarek Skubal is the premier name, of course, which I don't think any of us expect the Giants to be in on, but also Michael King, Freddy Peralta, Trevor Rogers, Casey Mize, and Nick Martinez are also on the list. And then we have a couple of old friends. Kevin Gausman, Robbie Ray, and Tyler Milby are all free agents. Now, in my opinion, of course, getting a Tarik Skubal would be the dream, and every team with real money is going to be chasing him, but is that really realistic? If we're talking about what could actually take place in the next few weeks, the Giants need one frontline arm and one innings eater. I would absolutely love Michael King in a Giants jersey to pair as a co-ace with Logan Webb, but I think Trevor Rogers, Freddy Peralta, Casey Mize, there are a handful of names that make a ton of sense for this Giants rotation. Now that's it for rotation talk this year, but a rotation doesn't matter if nobody can finish the game, and we witnessed that throughout the entirety of 2026. Now let's get to the bullpen. The Giants converted only 30 of their 57 save chances in 2024. That's 52.6%, the fourth worst mark in the major leagues. Yes, they blew 27 saves. Buster Posey was clear about that at the end of the season press conference. He did not do enough to fix this bullpen last offseason. So, this winter, it cannot be the same story. Now, this decision is not official, but Camilo Doval will most likely be back, who had a 4.15 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in 2024. Randy Rodriguez is also expected to be back from Tommy John next season. So you have two former elite relievers for the San Francisco Giants making their way back, but you cannot bet on that. That's not a bullpen. That is two maybes. The market does have a few familiar names. Trevor Rogers and Steven Okert are both on Pavlovich's list of old friends. Now, relievers are where you spend your cheapest dollars, and we know, after the Mark Melanson incident, the Giants are not very comfortable with handing out big money to relievers. If you have $50 million to spend, give or take, two or three good arms there is going to help more than one massive contract. Of course, they could also explore trading. Now, here's a hole that nobody has talked about, but it's also not as important as the first two. Something that has been clearly evident over the last few seasons is the Giants cannot hit left-handed pitching. Willie Adames had a .400 OPS against left-handers in 2026 in 49 plate appearances. Jung-Hoo Lee had a .598, both hit better against righties, .679 and .740. Not to mention, Rafael Devers had his worst year against lefties in the major leagues, and Bryce Eldridge, the 21-year-old 6'7 rookie, was the team's best masher against left-handed pitching, which, frankly, makes no sense. So the profile is simple. An outfielder, ideally a right-handed hitter, who does real damage against southpaws. Now, MLB trade rumors did list a couple of trade candidates who could make sense for the Giants. Joe Adell hit .288 against lefties. Teoscar Hernandez, very familiar with the Dodgers, but of course, a deal is most unlikely there. And then, of course, Jake McCarthy with the Rockies hit .319 against Southpaws this year. I would also throw out the Randall Grichuks of the world. Probably shouldn't be too expensive and a guy who has made a career off of mashing lefties. So, those are the three big holes of this roster, but to pay for any of them, I'm sure Buster Posey and the Giants would love to clear money, and that's going to be extremely difficult. The San Francisco Giants have four substantial contracts, Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, Willie Adames, and Jung-Hoo Lee. They tried to get off of some of those at the trade deadline, and of course, could not. Matt Chapman is owed roughly $25.2 million a year through 2030. He had core muscle surgery in August, finished with a .692 OPS, the lowest of his career, and just 7 home runs. But here's a little bit of the catch. Even when he's hurt, his defense at third base is still elite and arguably the best in baseball. This isn't necessarily a bad player on a bad contract, this is a good player who had a bad year on a contract that looks bad right now. Willie Adamez is another name who is owed a ton of money through 2031. He hit .230 with a .289 on base percentage and 21 home runs. Jung-Hoo Lee tends to be forgotten in this conversation but he is also owed almost $20 million a year through 2029. He hit 276 with 10 home runs and a 724 OPS. Will they be able to dump any of it? MLB trade rumor says it's going to be hard to imagine any interest in guys like Chapman or Adamez. In my opinion, Chapman will have somewhat of a market, but the Giants would have to eat a lot of that money. Adamez is, of course, the most difficult one. He's being paid like a superstar through 2031. Of course, the most expensive contract given to a free agent in San Francisco's history. Nobody is taking that entire contract. Then there's the one who will probably have the most discussions about this offseason. Will the Giants actually consider trading Rafael Devers? Devers just put together one of the best offensive seasons we've seen in San Francisco since Barry Bonds and Buster Posey. He hit .258, .340, .525 with 37 home runs, and his .525 slugging was 99th percentile in all of Major League Baseball. Not to mention, he's owed north of $200 million over the next seven years. MLB Trade Rumors calls a Devers trade a long shot, but more plausible than Chapman or Adamez. Of course, a lot of teams would be extremely excited about adding a left-handed power bat like Devers to the middle of their lineup. And after this year's trade deadline, the San Francisco Chronicle's headline read, Posey excited Giants still have Devers, Adamez, Chapman. The only real argument for trading Devers is the fact that Bryce Eldridge is the future at first base and of this entire franchise. That's a reason to potentially think about it in 2029, but most likely not this winter. In my opinion, Rafael Devers is part of the solution here. I know the Red Sox have been better since he left, and some people don't think he's a winning player. But he had a 1.318 OPS over his last 15 games. He played through a core muscle injury that needed surgery in September, which suggests, could he be better next season? He's the only hitter on this team who's near the top of the league in power output, which I know we all think Eldridge is going to get there, but still. So here's what the plan loosely looks like. You need at least two real starters, two to three arms in the bullpen, and maybe a right-handed outfield bat for lefties. Try to dump Chapman or Adamas if you can, but keep Devers. At the end of the day, I've been clear about this. I'd be 1,000% okay with every single penny this offseason going towards pitching. The position player group is fine. All of this fits inside $50.4 million of room under the tax line, and 33 days before a lockout. We will have every single rumor, breaking news of the San Francisco Giants here on SF Giants Digest, so if you enjoy, make sure to hit that like button and hit that subscribe button. And let me know in the comments, which contract would you like to move first? Chapman, Adamez, Lee, Devers, I want to hear what you have to say.