Latest report all but seals SF Giants' fate on top free agent starters

The SF Giants are apparently not going to spend big on any free agent starters this offseason. Recent reports have suggested as much which is a major blow to fans who were hoping the Giants would make a splash this offseason.

Buster Olney of ESPN reported over the weekend that the Giants would probably not be in the market for higher-priced pitchers this offseason. Then, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reported the same thing and that the Giants will be unlikely to make a serious run at Tatsuya Imai.

SF Giants apparently will not make a run at a high-priced free agent pitcher

This is due to a number of factors, but the team seems to have been a bit spooked by the exorbitant seven-year $210 million deal Dylan Cease signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. That is a lot more than the Giants are hoping to spend on a free agent pitcher so it seems like they may not even kick the tires on some of the top pitchers on the market like Imai, Framber Valdez, and Ranger Suarez.

This reluctance to sign starting pitchers to long-term deals stems back to the way the deals for Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija aged poorly and also seems to be tied to ownership and a reluctance to spend too much based on Baggarly's reporting.

Any excuses are going to fall on deaf ears for many Giants fans, though. When the Los Angeles Dodgers are printing money and handing out insane contracts to players as they win back-to-back World Series titles, fans are not going to calmly accept the fact that ownership is afraid of the luxury tax or does not want to upset some private equity firm.

Big contracts to free agent pitchers are not all created equal and some can certainly blow up in your face, but the fact that it seems like the Giants are not even willing to try is what is truly upsetting. Sure, maybe the team can catch lightning in a bottle like it did in 2021, but that sort of model for success which was predicated on adding at the margins proved to be ineffective in the following seasons which is why Buster Posey was hired as president of baseball operations.

He has been much more aggressive and successful in landing the big fish than his predecessor as he signed shortstop Willy Adames to a huge contract and made a massive trade for Rafael Devers. But the Giants need to take a similarly aggressive approach with the pitching staff because Posey himself has talked at length about how pitching and defense have to be the strengths of the team.

Alas, based on recent reports it seems like the Giants are not going to be aggressive on the pitching front and are instead going to opt for a lower-budget approach.