SF Giants reportedly closing in on a pair of starters

The SF Giants will be able to complete a lot of the legwork in rebuilding the starting rotation if a pair of contracts are finalized soon. According to multiple sources, the Giants are close to finalizing deals with both Alex Wood and Alex Cobb.

SF Giants reportedly closing in on a pair of starters

News broke last week regarding both players but the team has yet to make an announcement. There could be a good reason as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area notes that Alex Wood was taking his physical on Monday and that is usually one of the last steps in finalizing a deal. The same could be holding up Cobb's deal as well.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco confirmed last week that the Giants were making a strong pushfor Cobb but the news front on that went quiet. Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported on Monday that the Giants and Cobb are finalizing a deal.

This is all to say that the deals for both Wood and Cobb have been seemingly in limbo for about a week but it appears that they are now nearing the finish line. Given that the Giants' 40-man roster is full, the front office will need to make a pair of corresponding roster moves to add them both to the active roster.

Of course, the Giants are familiar with Wood as he signed a one-year, $3 million contract last offseason. That was a move that paid dividends for the team as the left-handed hurler registered a 3.83 ERA, 3.48 FIP, 1.18 WHIP, 9.9 K/9, and an outstanding 3.90 SO/W ratio across 138.2 innings.

On the other hand, the Giants have never faced off against Cobb as he has spent the entirety of his 10-year career in the American League. The 34-year-old starter had a nice bounceback season in 2021, registering a 3.76 ERA, 2.92 FIP, 1.26 WHIP, 9.5 K/9, and a solid 2.97 SO/W ratio in 93.1 frames with the Los Angeles Angels.

The terms of the contracts have not been confirmed yet but both are likely to receive similar deals of two years and in the neighborhood of $20 million ($10 million average annual value). The Giants have the spending capacity to bring in at least one more notable arm on a lucrative, multi-year deal.

That said, their projected rotation for 2022 will include Logan Webb, Anthony DeSclafani, Wood, and Cobb. There is still work to be done as both Wood and Cobb have durability concerns and they cannot be expected to make 30 starts per season. Given this, the Giants will continue to add starting pitching depth to a rotation that will need seven or eight starters to handle a significant workload.