A year after massive Willy Adames splash, SF Giants seem unlikely to make another

Last offseason, SF Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey called his shot by saying the team needed a shortstop and then making a big splash by signing Willy Adames to the largest contract in franchise history.

This offseason, with the Winter Meetings beginning tomorrow in Orlando, a similar splash does not seem to be in the cards.

SF Giants seem to be signaling more prudent offseason than last year

Of course, Posey has been known to surprise us before with his moves as an executive. The trade for Rafael Devers was something of a shock and showed that Posey really was serious about fielding a team that was capable of contending.

Yet, Posey has also been transparent in his approach. He made no bones about the fact that the Giants were in the market for a shortstop last year and then went out and signed the biggest one on the market.

He has not been afraid to call the team out when the product on the field is not up to the standard he expects and did not hesitate to fire manager Bob Melvin due to the team's summer swoon in the 2025 season.

So when Posey said that pitching was going to be a priority this offseason, naturally fans started to daydream about a major addition to the rotation like Framber Valdez or Tatsuya Imai.

Those hopes were seemingly dashed when Giants chairman Greg Johnson threw cold water on the idea of the Giants signing a starter to a long-term, nine-figure contract. Bye bye Imai, we hardly knew ye even though ye wanted to take on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

This was not a huge shock when considering the way the team has operated in recent seasons. Many fans hoped the Giants would sign Corbin Burnes last offseason after the Adames signing, but the Giants never made a serious push for Burnes who ended up signing a six-year, $210 million deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Ironically, Johnson would probably point to a deal like the one for Burnes as an example of why the Giants avoid large deals for starting pitchers. Burnes underwent Tommy John surgery in 2025 and will probably be out until next summer.

It is a roll of the dice when you hand out a contract like that to a starting pitcher, but the Giants may need to roll the dice a little more considering they are trying to compete with the Dodgers who will not bat an eye at throwing down nine-figures for a pitcher.

There has been some thought that the Giants would be more willing to entertain a large contract for a position player given the fact they play every day, but it still seems highly unlikely that the Giants would make a serious push for someone like Kyle Tucker or Kyle Schwarber, especially with so many other teams likely in the mix and the fact that the Giants would have to overpay to get players like that to come to pitcher-friendly Oracle Park.

Again, maybe Posey will surprise us all. But this offseason feels like it will be a more modest one in his second year on the job. Expect the team to buy in bulk and take more of a quantity over quality approach to address their needs in the rotation and bullpen rather than spending big on a starter and a closer.

That approach would likely be unsatisfying to a number of fans, but that seems to be the way the Giants are trending this offseason.