San Francisco Giants: Yusei Kikuchi Gives Final Rose to the Seattle Mariners

At some point, the San Francisco Giants will have to make a move this offseason. Apparently, Yusei Kikuchi will not be among them.

Jon Heyman is reporting that Yusei Kikuchi has made his choice, and it’s not the San Francisco Giants:

The Mariners have some extra appeal in the Japanese market. They have been the home for several Japanese players include Ichiro Suzuki, Kazuhiro Sasaki, and Hisashi Iwakuma.

The San Francisco Giants were rumored to be interested in Kikuchi. They even did their homework on him. How studious.

However, despite being a good student, the Giants did not get that final rose from Kikuchi. This is seemingly the first missed target of the Farhan Zaidi era. There will be more, but this one is the first. So, it is special.

Kikuchi would have been a good fit since the Giants are looking for starting pitching. Plus, he could have come at a relative bargain as he is still an unknown in terms of how he will perform against Major League hitting.

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Kikuchi does have an extensive injury history. It is not known whether this was a factor for the Giants in their bidding attempt.

The Giants will now turn their attention to other starting pitchers on the market. As the offseason continues to trudge along, the starting pitching market continues to shrink.

So far this offseason, the Giants have been connected to Lance Lynn, Tanner Roark, and Kikuchi. This is not an exciting bunch, but it is a bunch that can bolster the starting rotation at a reasonable price.

These are the type of pitchers the Giants will continue to target. They are betting on the potential that as pitchers remain on the free agent market, the more likely it is their asking price will go down.

Of course, this assumption becomes problematic if a bunch of teams are still searching for starting pitching and are willing to bid on it. These back-end starting pitchers are not the type of pitchers to engage in a bidding war.

So, Zaidi does not get the rose this time. That is okay, except for the fact that the Giants still have a bunch of holes to fill. There is less than 6 weeks until Spring Training begins, and the Giants still have a bunch of holes to fill. Let’s hope they make some roster additions soon because the Giants still have a bunch of holes to fill. Maybe if we say it enough times, something will happen.