Dream SF Giants starting rotation for the 2024 season

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The San Francisco Giants have a lot of work to do this offseason if they want to be competitive in 2024. Their pitching staff performed admirably this past season, but their depth was a real problem especially in the second half. The offense may need a complete overhaul as it lacks impact bats, is losing Joc Pederson to free agency, and ranked just 18th overall by fWAR in all of baseball in 2023.

While wondering what can be done to fix the offense will be a hot topic this offseason, the focus here is going to be on the Giants' pitching staff. The strength of this free agent class, without question, is on the pitching side and it sure seems like San Fran should be able to add at least one impact arm to their rotation if they so choose. However, what would it look like if the Giants didn't care about money at all and just assembled the best rotation possible?

The dream 2024 SF Giants starting rotation

The goal here isn't to just assume a bunch of trades that would never happen and assembling an All-Star team. This should still FEEL like a Giants' rotation, but with the idea that it would be a Giants rotation that was built with little regard for fiscal responsibility. The end result may be that San Francisco has some guys under contract like Ross Striping and Alex Cobb that will either need to pitch out of the bullpen or get traded, but again....we don't care about the efficient use of resources here. This is a dream scenario, nothing more or less. Let's take a look at what that could look like.

Logan Webb

The starting point is obvious here as Logan Webb has solidified himself as the anchor of the Giants' rotation. Not only did he post another excellent season with a 3.25 ERA while leading the league in innings pitched in 2023, but he was named a Cy Young finalist for the first time. He may not have the best swing and miss stuff, but he fills the strike zone and is elite at getting guys to chase his pitches out of the zone and keeping the ball on the ground.

The Giants were fortunate to be able to lock Webb into a five year, $90 million extension this past April. He is going to start costing real money starting in 2026, but the trajectory he is on sure makes it feel like the Giants saved themselves some money in getting that deal done. He is an easy inclusion here.

Blake Snell

The first free agent added to this Giants dream rotation is Blake Snell. Snell is arguably the favorite to win the NL Cy Young this year after putting up a 2.25 ERA for the Padres in 180 innings in 2023. His walk rate is pretty concerning and he was actually lucky to put up as good a season as he did given his peripherals. However, he misses bats, would give the Giants a top flight lefty in the rotation, and he does have a track record of success given that he won the Cy Young back in 2018 as well.

Snell is projected to get a nice nine figure payday in free agency and given that we don't care about money here, that is not a problem whatsoever. It is fair to wonder if Snell's struggles with walks could be a problem in the long-term, but his upside with his swing and miss stuff from the left side is too good to pass up and he should excel with the Giants' coaching staff especially Bob Melvin who managed Snell with the Padres.

Kyle Harrison

A certain amount of looking to the future is appropriate here especially when the Giants have a guy with as much upside as Kyle Harrison has. At first glance, Harrison's first season in the big leagues was pretty mediocre. He put up just a 4.15 ERA in 2023 after being called up in August with a good, but not great, strikeout rate at 9.1 K/9. However, Harrison's ceiling is considerably higher than that and he could become a frontline starter if everything falls his way.

Possessing a plus fastball and slider from the left side in addition to a good changeup to keep righties honest, Harrison put up big time strikeout numbers throughout his minor league career while battling walk issues. However, it looked like the Giants were very diligent in trying to get his command where they wanted it in the majors as he only walked 2.9 batters per nine innings pitched in the big leagues. Assuming he can find that balance between trusting his stuff and throwing strikes when he needs to, and we are betting that he can, this is a special arm.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto

With Shohei Ohtani not slated to pitch at all in 2024 due to having elbow surgery, the next best arm on the free agent market actually comes from overseas. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been dominating over in Japan thanks to a high 90's fastball, unfair splitter, and a plus curveball. Expected to be posted this offseason, Yamamoto's destination is going to be a hot topic this offseason and he could easily freeze the starting pitching market until he signs.

The Giants have been heavily connected to Yamamoto so far and are among the favorites to land him. He will not come cheaply as he has been projected to get north of $200 million on a six or seven year deal in addition to the posting fee that will have to be paid to his club, the Orix Buffaloes, which won't be cheap. However, this signing doesn't actually feel all that farfetched and would give the Giants a power right-hander here to help balance the rotation out.

Jordan Montgomery

To round out our dream Giants rotation for 2024, the free agent pool is drawn from yet again with Jordan Montgomery. Again, this isn't completely unrealistic especially in a world where the Giants miss out on signing Shohei Ohtani, although San Francisco really needs to add a bat over another arm in reality instead. However, this isn't reality and Jordan Montgomery had himself quite the breakout season in 2023.

Montgomery isn't a sexy pitcher, but the guy just puts up good numbers each and every year. However, 2023 was his coming out party as he was the only St. Louis Cardinal starting pitcher that actually did his job this season before he was traded to the Rangers at the trade deadline. Altogether, he put up a 3.20 ERA and 4.1 rWAR in 2023 and pitched his brains out in the postseason to help Texas win the World Series. Consistent track record of success, top notch postseason performance, and fills the strike zone? Yes please.

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