3 moves the SF Giants must make immediately after losing out on Shohei Ohtani

The news over the weekend was very disheartening for the San Francisco Giants and their fans as Shohei Ohtani decided to not sign with the Giants. Worse than that, he decided to go to the Dodgers of all teams on a huge 10 year, $700 million that includes a bunch of deferred money. Ohtani went from an exciting possibility to a worst case scenario for San Francisco very quickly.

As Ohtani's free agency went on, it did feel as though the Giants' chances of landing him got less and less. While many fans hoped that San Fran not being mentioned as favorites to sign him very much was a function of how secretive Ohtani's free agency was, but all of the chatter about the Blue Jays and Dodgers was illustrative that the Giants' chances weren't the greatest bits of news in terms of keeping the dream alive.

However, none of that changes the fact that the Giants should figure to be big players the rest of the offseason even though they missed out on Ohtani. The only question is what moves will they try to make now that paying Shohei is no longer on the table.

Here are 3 moves need to make now that the Winter Meetings are over

To be abundantly clear, if the Giants don't add at least one star level player this offseason, it is an unforgivable failure that should probably cost Farhan Zaidi his job. Having the amount of payroll flexibility San Francisco has and real needs on the roster and continuing to miss out on top talent is inexcusable. No team gets every guy they want, but multiple offseasons of failing to get the job done is nothing short of ineptitude.

Fortunately, there is still plenty of time and plenty of players available that fit the bill, so here are the moves the Giants need to make after missing out on Ohtani.

Sign Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Without question, Yoshinobu Yamamoto is the best starting pitcher available in free agency right now. He has multiple plus pitches, a track record of success, and guys this young almost never hit free agency. As a result, it is hardly surprising that observers are starting to think that he could end up getting $300 million this offseason.

For the Giants, the fit isn't exactly perfect. In an ideal world, the star they would want to prioritize landing would be a bat given that their offense had just a 93 wRC+ as a team in 2023. The Giants need to find runs somewhere, but no one should blame them if they see Yamamoto as an option that is too good to pass up.

Where the problem arises is that the rest of the league has taken notice of Yamamoto as well. The Mets, Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, and Cubs are all clearly targeting him along with the Giants and most of the league is going to be at least checking in to see how much it is going to cost to sign him.

Those are a lot of deep pockets to compete against, but the Giants can't afford to nickel and dime things when it comes to Yamamoto. Long-term deals for pitchers are always risky, but talent like Yamamoto's does come available often especially at 25 years old. At some point, San Francisco has to push their chips in and he is the guy to do it for.

Bring back John Brebbia and Jakob Junis

For the most part, stocking up on bullpen arms will never lead the headlines. Sure, Josh Hader is available in free agency and when he signs, it will be big news as he is probably going to get north of $20 million a year, but he is an exception to the rule. However, the Giants do need to build their relief corps back up and one way they need to do that is to bring back both John Brebbia and Jakob Junis.

Are Brebbia and Junis high octane arms that will mow through batters in the ninth inning? No, but the Giants have Camilo Doval and the Rogers boys for that. What the Giants need, in addition to adding a big name this offseason somewhere on the roster, is to add quality bullpen depth and both Brebbia and Junis fit the bill and it doesn't hurt that San Francisco is familiar with both of them.

Brebbia misses bats, generally throws a lot of strikes, and is usually a hard guy to barrel up although he struggled a bit with the latter last season. Junis' slider is an absolute weapon from the right side and grades out very well basically everywhere except when it comes to the results of throwing his fastball too much.

Assuming that there are no long-term concerns with Brebbia's lat injury he suffered last year or Junis' late season neck issue, these are both guys the Giants need to bring back. Neither should cost much and getting the bullpen sorted out will free the Giants to do what they need to elsewhere on the roster.

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