San Francisco Giants Rumors: Weekend Hot-Stove Update

It has been a quiet start to the San Francisco Giants offseason. It’s left many wondering, “what the heck is going on?” Patience is key with baseball’s offseason though.

Outside of a handful of minor league deals, the San Francisco Giants haven’t done a whole lot. There was the rumor of J.D. Martinez talks. But even then, it seems like those talks are either dead, or won’t be resumed until the winter meetings. Frankly, that seems about right for most offseason trade talks. MLB will be in the middle of its “dead week” per say. Holidays, coupled with the upcoming winter meetings we probably won’t see a whole lot this week. However, I could be wrong!  Though, the Giants don’t usually start doing big business until after the winter meetings.

So what happened this weekend? Well, the deadline to protect players that were eligible for the Rule-5 draft was Friday. The Giants lost Joe Biagini last winter in the Rule-5 and he made the jump from Double-A, to a major league bullpen better than many rule-5 picks in recent history. They added five players to the 40 man roster, including recent depth signing and former Royals prospect, Orlando Calixte. Among them were three minor league pitchers and another infielder. What else happened this weekend?

 More Minor League Deals

It’s become pretty obvious that Bobby Evans likes to fill out the depth spots through minor league contracts with guys who are looking to get back in. It has proved to provide some decent depth, including Connor Gillaspie, and Albert Suarez last season. They added a lefty, Michael Roth, and added more infield depth with Juniel Querecuto. Roth spent his 2016 with the Rangers Triple-A team and posted a 2.97 ERA in 145+ innings. Querecuto has still struggled a lot with his approach at the plate, and only appeared in 4 big league games.

Latest on Romo, Lopez, Casilla

As far as the three Giants free agent bullpen guys, Romo looks the most likely to return to the team, but probably wouldn’t be a signing until January of February. Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area hit a little bit on all three of them in an all encompassing “Giants Bullpen” outlook, with some updates. According to him, Casilla and the Giants will most likely move on from each other after his downward spiral and broken relations with the team at the end of the year. While Lopez would love to return, the Giants don’t really have room for another lefty in the pen with Will Smith and Steven Okert in the mix. According to Pavlovic, Lopez has a “short list of teams that would keep him from retiring.” Basically, it would take the perfect situation for Lopez to keep him from retiring.

That’s really about it for the Giants hot-stove. While other teams have set their front burner on high, the Giants continue to have all burners on simmer. It might be smart, considering how weak this free agent class is. In waiting out the market, they can be sure not to get swept up into overpaying too early.

Next: The Giants Need To Pick This Guy in the Rule 5 Draft

Stay tuned to Around the Foghorn for all your latest on the San Francisco Giants Hot-Stove!