Five pending free agents the SF Giants should target to bolster the starting rotation

As bad a season as this has been for the Giants, the worst news has been the alarming number of injuries they've suffered. The instability they've had - 17 players on the 60-day IL and 71 players who have been on the major league squad - has been worse than anyone could have foreseen as a worst-case scenario. Everyone employed in the Giants' strength and conditioning department must be staring at a wall right now, dumbstruck as to how it all went wrong.

Incredibly, every single one of the ten players to start on Opening Day is no longer on the active roster, and only two players who were on the 26-man roster Opening Day - Landen Roupp and Christian Koss - are still standing. No team could have withstood losing lineup cornerstones like Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Bryce Eldridge - but the pitching staff is in even worse shape.

The Giants will have a lot of innings to cover with their plethora of pitching injuries

The rotation depth is really behind the 8-ball heading into next season, since all of Carson Whisenhunt, Trevor McDonald, Hayden Birdsong, and soon-to-be Blade Tidwell underwent elbow surgeries this year. From this mix, Birdsong has the best chance of helping out the rotation next year. Robbie Ray and Tyler Mahle, both of whom would have been free agents anyway, were also traded away to further deplete their depth. That leaves Logan Webb and Roupp as the only sure things for next year's rotation, and even Webb has suffered through a down year by his standards.

Some young arms will compete for back-of-the-rotation/long relief roles, like Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson, Cesar Perdomo, Yunior Marte, and Anthony Molina - but more certainty is needed, particularly for a team like this that knows how many pitchers are necessary to have on hand to make it through a whole year. Two experienced arms, preferably one of whom can slot comfortably as the No. 2 behind Webb, seem necessary if the team wants to finish higher than fourth in the division going forward.

Obviously, Tarik Skubal will be the top arm on the market, but it's doubtful that the Giants will be swimming in that end of the talent pool. More realistic targets in free agency are Trevor Rogers (who should have a qualifying offer attached to him), Freddy Peralta, Michael King, Sonny Gray, and old friends Ray and Kevin Gausman. That's a decent stable of mid-rotation types, but competition for them will be fierce since Skubal is really the only top-of-the-rotation type available.

Gausman's name as a potential target probably sounds appealing to a lot of Giants fans. Farhan Zaidi caught a lot of flack for letting him walk in free agency, after which Gausman continued to perform at a high level with Toronto. He's had a down year between the Blue Jays and Cubs this year, though, with a cumulative 4.51 ERA and 3.74 FIP in 177.2 innings. That's still good durability, though, and the mediocre results could drive his price down low enough that a reunion could be possible. Since he's 35 now, he probably cannot expect a longer contract than two years - and a two-year bet on him would still seem more appealing than it was for Adrian Houser when he was signed.

Sonny Gray is a year older than Gausman at 36, but is perhaps even more intriguing as he's having a superb season in Boston. His 18 wins are both a career-high and the league-leading total, with a healthy 2.72 ERA and 169 IP that are all very enticing. Bay Area baseball fans are already familiar with Gray from when he broke into the big leagues with the A's back in 2013. Gray may be interested in a stint on the other side of the bay that bookends his career in a pitcher-friendly environment. With the kind of year Gray has had, he will almost certainly receive a multi-year deal, which is risky for a pitcher of his age - but still less risky than the frightening number of years Skubal is likely to receive.

Buster Posey and Zack Minasian might decide it's more their style to trade for an arm or two over the offseason instead, which would be a story for another article, but there's plenty of opportunity to pursue both avenues to fill out the rotation. Randy Rodríguez will return next year, and Camilo Doval was just claimed off waivers, both of whom should help the back of the bullpen to a degree. Possibly two of the Wilkinson/Perdomo/Marte/Molina quartet who don't make the rotation can be stashed in the pen as well. The offseason may be punctuated by a lockout depending on how labor negotiations go, so it may be quite some time before we get a good idea of what next year's pitching staff could look like.

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