San Francisco Giants: Recapping the Winter Meetings

For the San Francisco Giants, it has never been about winning the winter meetings. Ask past “winners” how that went. The Diamondbacks last year are the perfect example.

This year, the San Francisco Giants were not run away winners, but they did a good job of not getting caught up in the trade fever. They made two necessary moves and then that was the end. A reserved, and well calculated set of dealings. While there is probably at least one more deal or addition to come, the Giants would be smart to be just as reserved and calculated when negotiating.

For right now though, let’s recap the winter meetings, not only for the San Francisco Giants, but the rest of the league as well.

Major Moves around the League:

Chris Sale to the Red Sox, Yoan Moncada and a host of other top prospects to the Chicago White Sox.
Adam Eaton to the Nationals; Lucas Giolito, Dane Dunning, and Reynaldo Lopez to the Chicago White Sox
Aroldis Chapman to the Yankees (plus the no-trade list to California)
Mark Melancon to the Giants

Major Moves in the NL West

So far the only significant moves made in the NL West was the Rockies signing Ian Desmond, and the Giants signing Melancon. If the Rockies were able to get somebody like Greg Holland, I might have them leapfrog the Dodgers as far as “teams the Giants should be concerned about in the divison,” especially if Justin Turner and Kenley Jansen don’t return. Still, the Desmond signing has me worried about the Rockies. Their young core is about to open a window for them to be incredibly competitive the next few years.

Moves by the San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants made two moves: Signing Mark Melancon to a 4yr/$62Million dollar contract, and then trading Chris Heston to the Seattle Mariners for a PTBNL. There really isn’t a beat on who that player will be, but it’s weird that they haven’t agreed on somebody yet, especially with the GMs being present at the Winter Meeetings. Heston will be missed, but the role for long relief and the fifth starter is much more clouded now, especially with Tyler Beede‘s emergence into “a year away” conversations about his MLB readiness.

The Giants also all but announced they’d be splitting ways with all their free agents, Javy Lopez, Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo, Gregor Blanco, and Jake Peavy. We will be running pieces to highlight their times with the Giants, so keep an eye out for that.

If we were to grade the Giants activity at the winter meetings, I’d give them an A. They are spending a lot on a closer. However, that was a significant need, and they filled it with a big time answer to the problem. Left field is only nagging at those who think that the Giants need to be elite at every position to win a World Series (guess what, THEY DON’T!). They also didn’t get roped into making a deal that would cost the future of the organization. They got rid of somebody who became a major question mark, and muddied the waters when it came to the fifth starter role. These are all good things. They may not have “won” the winter meetings, but they did what they needed.

Rule 5 Draft

Uhhhhhhh, yeah. Nothing happened here of any significance for the Giants, so move along.

Looking Ahead

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Right now the only discussion here is whether or not the Giants are gonna do anything about the outfield. They have almost no money left, and the prospects people are asking for are just not worth giving up. Not for J.D. Martinez at least. So the Giants are basically done because any further move would probably handicap their ability to do anything at the trade deadline. Outside of naming that player they are supposed to receive from Seattle you can put an end to the Giants dealings this offseason.

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