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.

Sign Cody Bellinger

Speaking of bats, this free agent market sucks when it comes to position players. Juan Soto was an exciting option on the trade market, but getting the Padres to trade him in the division never seemed likely and he ended up getting moved to the Yankees. However, one bat that sticks out on the free agent market is one that used to terrorize the Giants on the regular and that is Cody Bellinger.

Bellinger's career has been a weird one. In a period of three years with the Dodgers, he won National League Rookie of the Year and NL MVP and appeared to be primed to become one of the best players in all of baseball. Then, he seemingly forgot how to hit altogether for three years while failing to eclipse 20 home runs in any of those three seasons. However, he bounced back in a big way after joining the Cubs for the 2023 season where he slashed .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs and 20 stolen bases.

There are some concerning peripherals with Bellinger still as he still isn't hitting the ball hard consistently, but his track record there is such that everyone knows he has it in him. It was also encouraging to see him bring his strikeout rate down which was certainly a problem earlier in his career. That said, the early rumors of Bellinger asking for north of $250 million this offseason is a bit optimistic.

Most of the sane contract estimates for Bellinger's next deal instead fall more in the six year, $150 million range. The Cubs would love to bring him back with the Blue Jays and Mariners also being in the fray. San Francisco needs offense badly and while Bellinger is far from a perfect option, they still need to push to sign him. The next best position player on the market is Matt Chapman who is inconsistent at best at the plate (although he is a stellar defender) and the offensive options drop off A LOT after that.