SF Giants Rumors: Giants have been eliminated from the bidding for Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Expectations were very high for the San Francisco Giants this offseason. After missing badly last offseason when it came to adding impact players, San Francisco was hell-bent on signing a star-level player this offseason with plenty to choose from. The ultimate dream was to convince Shohei Ohtani to come to the Bay Area, but he ultimately chose the Dodgers. After Ohtani, all eyes turned to the best starting pitcher left on the market in Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Things had been looking up after losing out on Ohtani while the Yamamoto sweepstakes has gone on. The Giants did manage to sign Korean star Jung Hoo Lee to a six year deal which should give the offense a boost, but he isn't exactly the kind of splashy move that fans had in mind. Yamamoto, however, would have definitely fit the bill.

Sadly, Thursday evening brought the familiarly tragic news that the Giants have been eliminated from contention to sign Yamamoto.

Time is a flat circle as the SF Giants lose out on Yamamoto

While nothing is official until Yamamoto decides on his new team, this report is obviously very grim for San Francisco. Yet another top free agent who the Giants were very aggressive in pursuing has decided to go elsewhere. It was always going to be an uphill battle with competing with the allure of LA or New York, but the Giants had all the motivation in the world to convince Yamamoto and couldn't even make it to final cut.

Pavlovic's report also indicates that San Francisco expects Yoshinobu to sign with either the Dodgers, Mets, or Yankees which lines up with the current state of the rumor mill. The Yankees have pushed very hard to snag him after landing Juan Soto in a trade earlier this offseason, the Mets have an unlimited money pit that is Steve Cohen, and the Dodgers have a great team with a ton of money to spend and already added Ohtani to go with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

Now, the Giants have to go back to the drawing board and hope that they can at least salvage the offseason with Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery reasonable guesses for their next targets.

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