Dodgers' disastrous free-agent signings may give SF Giants more excuses not to spend

The SF Giants did not spend a ton of money this past offseason and it certainly showed at least on the pitching side. The thing is, throwing money at a pitching staff or bullpen doesn’t always equate to positive results and the Los Angeles Dodgers are ironically proving that this season.

LA’s two big free-agent acquisitions this past offseason were outfielder Kyle Tucker, the best available position player, and Edwin Díaz, the best available closer. Both have been simply dreadful for the Dodgers this season which may give the Giants an excuse not to spend.

Tucker has really been terrible. He’s hitting .230/.326/.367 with 11 home runs and 55 runs batted in. He’s making defensive mistakes in the outfield and it’s laughable that he’s playing on a four-year, $240 million deal to produce like that.

Díaz was hurt for a good chunk of the year but now he’s back and he’s been awful. He has an 11.85 ERA in 16 appearances and has converted seven of his 11 save opportunities. Buster Posey was roundly criticized when he went on KNBR and invoked Díaz when pressed on why the team didn’t do more to address the bullpen, but it is absolutely true that throwing money at a bullpen doesn’t necessarily make it better. Mark Melancon proved that to us all.

The Dodgers are so good and have so much money and are allowed to defer money into the next millennium so it doesn’t matter for them, but the fact that Tucker and Díaz have both been flops can give San Francisco’s ownership and excuse to say: “See! Spending money doesn’t always work!”

Giants' big-money investments simply have not paid off so far

The Giants do spend money, they just haven’t done it wisely. They have a ton of their payroll going towards Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Rafael Devers. Those investments don’t look very good now and odds are they’re only going to look worse going forward.

That is not going to make ownership think the way out of this hole is to spend more so there’s already a good chance the Giants won’t be all that aggressive this upcoming offseason.

Maybe they’ll go after a starter or two in free agency. A reunion with Kevin Gausman would be quite ironic when they definitely should have re-signed him after the 2021 season. But don’t expect them to go after a big-name closer or outfielder even though the bullpen, rotation, and outfield are likely to be the three biggest question marks going forward.

All of this is complicated by the looming lockout so a lot of teams will probably be reluctant to spend big until there’s a new collective bargaining agreement, but if Giants ownership is still wanting to pinch pennies then the Dodgers are giving them a great excuse to do so.

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