Ranking the top 3 remaining offseason needs for the SF Giants

The SF Giants have had a busy offseason as they have added two starting pitchers, two outfielders, and one reliever while retaining Joc Pederson. There is still work to be done, but what are the remaining offseason needs?

Ranking the top 3 remaining offseason needs for the SF Giants

Whether the Giants have had a successful offseason is a matter of each person's personal opinion. They began the offseason with a bunch of boxes to check, and they have done it for the most part. That said, the roster is still light on impact talent.

Michael Conforto, Mitch Haniger, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling, and Taylor Rogers have all had very nice careers. Many of them underperformed, battled injuries, or a mixture of both in 2022. Stripling is the only one of the five new free agents coming off of a very strong season as he posted a 3.01 ERA in 32 appearances for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Most of the heavy lifting is done but the front office never stops tinkering and that is especially true when it comes to pitching. As spring training nears, I think they will continue to be aggressive on the minor league free agent market by handing out camp invites. Players on those types of deals are auditioning for all 30 teams, so it is a no-risk move that makes plenty of sense.

With the start of spring training just over a month away, the Giants still have voids that they need to fill on the roster.

1. The bullpen

In a minor surprise, the Giants signed Taylor Rogers to a three-year, $33 million pact. The surprise was not the fact that they signed him, but that they invested that much in a reliever.

Not only is Rogers' deal the largest contract that they have handed out to a reliever since Farhan Zaidi was hired, but it is one of the larger free-agent expenditures over the past few seasons. In a sense, they went against their own grain in signing the left-handed hurler.

The front office has been extremely conservative when it comes to spending on relievers. Prior to Rogers' deal, the largest bullpen investment since 2019 was a two-year, $5.5 million deal to Jake McGee.

In a way, their approach to the bullpen makes sense. Heavy spending in one of the most volatile areas of the roster does not always pay dividends. In fact, the opposite tends to happen. The Giants still have plenty of work to do as the bullpen posted a 4.08 ERA last year, which ranked as the 11th-worst mark in baseball.

They did not bring back Jarlín García and Zack Littell, so the current bullpen core consists of Taylor Rogers, Tyler Rogers, Scott Alexander, John Brebbia, Jakob Junis, and Camilo Doval. There is no question that Doval is the closer, but they need to be able to get the ball to him.

The bullpen is typically the most fluid area on the roster, so I do expect that the Giants will continue to look for bargain deals. The Giants have added one reliever on Monday, but they will likely bring in several more on non-guaranteed deals with camp invites. I think the strategy of adding a lot of names with the hopes that one or two pay off can work and the Giants proved that in 2021.

Ranking the top 3 remaining offseason needs for the SF Giants

3. Backup catcher

The Giants finally announced the Michael Conforto signing on Friday. In doing so, veteran backstop Austin Wynns was designated for assignment. Wynns filled the role of backup catcher nicely as he hit just enough and provided quality defense. In fact, he was the only plus defensive catcher on the Giants last season according to Baseball Prospectus' Catching Defensive Adjustment (CDA).

He has the profile of someone that could be claimed on the waiver wire, but the front office is likely hoping that he clears. As things currently stand, Joey Bart and Blake Sabol are the only catchers on the 40-man roster with any type of experience.

Sabol is a Rule 5 pick from the Pittsburgh Pirates, so he is trying to win a spot on the Opening Day roster. That said, he did not generally grade out as a good backstop in the minors, and is currently listed as an outfielder on the Giants' 40-man roster. Does that last detail matter? Probably not.

Backup catcher is one of those roles that teams can generally fill in spring training. That said, the free-agent market is thin on potential options with Gary Sánchez, Jorge Alfaro, and Roberto Pérez as some of the top remaining veterans. Sánchez is likely looking for a chance to start, whereas Alfaro and Pérez could fill that backup role.

On the trade market, the Giants could target someone like Victor Caratini of the Milwaukee Brewers or Jacob Stallings of the Miami Marlins. Both have a reputation as good defensive backstops, which is generally what teams look for with a backup catcher.

None of the names are obvious upgrades, but give the Giants a little extra security if Bart hits the injured list. Given that Wynns is on waivers, I do expect them to be pretty active in looking for a veteran backstop.