How the San Francisco Giants Find the Next Derek Holland

The San Francisco Giants have had a quiet offseason thus far as Giants fans wait around for Farhan Zaidi to make some bigger, higher profile moves.

There are still plenty of free agents left on the board that may not be the most exciting options, but who can still make the San Francisco Giants a better team. Zaidi has made a few minor moves so far this offseason, but it’s still a mystery who he is willing to spend on and what diamonds in the rough he’s trying to uncover.

Last season, the Giants identified, signed and broke camp with Derek Holland, a player that resurrected his career with the Giants in 2018. Derek Holland was arguably the best story of last season, but he was brought in by Bobby Evans and company. With Farhan Zaidi in place as the new President of Baseball Operations, he comes with a history of being a little tight with the wallet, but an incredible bargain finder.

One thing Farhan Zaidi and I have in common is not only do we love good deals, but we will scour the entire market for a good deal. Now this is gonna get weird and seem unrelated, but stay with me here. I’m somewhat of a clothes horse and Farhan Zaidi seems to be that equivalent when it comes to finding talented baseball players to fit in his player “wardrobe”. So for fun, I decided to scour the current FA market and highlight some players that may look good in the Giants organization. Maybe some of them seem out of style or in poor condition, but in the right situation they can be great fits for a team looking to do more with less.

So firstly, I’ll start with our boutique consignment free agents. These are the stores that have a nicely curated selection of used clothing, but then you look at the price tag and think, “Wow. This is a little pricey for this.” Then you think about it a little more and realize, “This is pretty cool though. It looks good and I could really use this. I never thought I needed a vest, but now I can’t live without this vest. I’ll take it!” These types of stores know that they are in possession of something that is either rare or valuable, so they know the real worth of this item, even if it is second or third or even fourth-hand.