SF Giants: 3 Affordable Free Agent Starting Pitchers

The SF Giants will likely be in the market for starting pitching this offseason. Let's take a look at three starting pitchers who could be affordable options for the front office.

SF Giants: 3 Affordable Free Agent Starting Pitchers

The San Francisco Giants may well take a look at some of the bigger starting pitching names this offseason like Max Scherzer and Robbie Ray. However, if history is any indication, the Giants may struggle to lure in a premier starting pitcher free agent.

One of these big free agents is Kevin Gausman, who has established himself as a key part of the team's rotation over the past two seasons. The Giants appear poised to prioritize bringing Gausman back to San Francisco in 2022.

Outside of Gausman and the newly emergent ace Logan Webb, the Giants rotation is fairly unclear. Johnny Cueto is almost certainly not coming back next season and both Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood are free agents as well. If the Giants wanted to, they could totally remake their rotation going into 2022.

For the sake of this article, let's assume that the Giants are able to re-sign Gausman and DeSclafani. That still leaves two open spots in the rotation next year. The Giants may try to fill those spots with pitchers similar to DeSclafani, Gausman, Drew Smyly or Wood who all had recent struggles before turning things around with the Giants.

This article will examine three pitchers who could fit the mold of a Gausman. They may have struggled as of late, but as lower cost and higher reward free agents they could bolster the rotation going into 2022.

1. Jon Gray

San Francisco Giants fans have become familiar with Jon Gray over the years as he has spent his entire big league career with the Colorado Rockies. He fits neatly into an Anthony DeSclafani mold as a hard-throwing right hander with a slider and changeup.

Gray has never been a great pitcher by any means. He is essentially a .500 pitcher with a career ERA of 4.59. In 2021 he went 8-12 with a 4.59 ERA in 149 innings with 157 strikeouts.

Those numbers won't blow any Giants fans away, but we must remember that Gray has pitched his entire career in the extremely hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field. If the Giants were able to acquire him, perhaps he would flourish in a more pitcher-friendly environment.

In eight starts at Oracle Park, Gray has a 4.05 ERA in 40 innings pitched with 37 strikeouts. Those numbers are not much better than his career average, but he would still be a bargain compared to the top free agents out there and would probably put up similar numbers to Alex Wood over the course of a full season.

The Rockies tendered him a cotract for one year, $6 million deal prior to the 2021 season. That is the same amount the Giants paid for DeSclafani's services this past season. They could probably get him at a modest price increase for 2022 as a cost-effective right-hander that can be a mid-rotation arm.

3. Brett Anderson

Another lower-cost option for the Giants next season would be left-handed sinker-baller Brett Anderson. He has been a respectable veteran starter for a long time and would be a good fit as a low-cost fifth starter option.

In 2021 Anderson had a record of 4-9 with a 4.22 ERA in 24 games started. Anderson is also well-known for his very low strikeout rate and ability to get lots of ground balls. That could be a good mix with a solid defensive infield like the Giants have.

Plus, Anderson truly would come at an affordable price. The Milwaukee Brewers signed him to a $2.5 million deal last offseason which was even less than the $3 million the Giants paid to Alex Wood.

Anderson is basically a known quantity who would give the Giants a little bit of predictability at the back end of their bullpen. It bears mentioning that Anderson was reeled in by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015 and 2016 when Farhan Zaidi served as a Dodgers assistant general manager.

The Giants may well take a swing at some of the big fish on the market this offseason like Scherzer and Ray. However, that has not been Zaidi's M.O. thus far with the team. They may opt for lower-cost pitchers who are in the middle of their careers that the Giants feel they can resurrect at least for one season. If they opt for that strategy, then the three pitchers highlighted in this article could become targets this offseason.