SF Giants allow obvious mid-tier starting rotation target to go back to D-backs

The SF Giants still have two big holes in their starting rotation as starting pitchers are slowly coming off the board. Merrill Kelly is the latest domino to fall as he reunited with the Arizona Diamondbacks on a two-year, $20 million contract.

Kelly was seen as a reasonable mid-tier target for the Giants in free agency. He has had good success against the Giants in the past as a member of the Diamondbacks so they are going to have to face him again these next two seasons after a brief sojourn with the Texas Rangers after being traded from Arizona last season.

SF Giants miss out on Merrill Kelly who goes back to Diamondbacks

He had a 3.52 ERA between his time with Arizona and Texas last season. The 37-year-old has been remarkably consistent and is not a sexy signing at all but he would have made a ton of sense for a Giants team in need of stability in the rotation that is intent upon delivering that stability on a budget.

The Giants reportedly do not plan on being players for the high-end pitchers on the market like Framber Valdez or Tatsuya Imai who seem likely to command contracts north of $100 million. That leaves mid-tier and bottom of the barrel options but those options are beginning to come off the board.

Michael Soroka signed a one-year contract with Arizona as well and the St. Louis Cardinals signed Dustin May. There are still plenty of options out there, but the Giants need to get going before more of these guys end up being signed.

The Giants finally did make a move on Tuesday as they reportedly signed starting pitcher Adrian Houser to a two-year contract so that likely fills one hole in the rotation.

Some other names who would make sense are Chris Bassitt and Lucas Giolito as guys who would command a two-year deal and then some one-year candidates are Max Scherzer, who has plenty of ties to San Francisco's coaching staff, and maybe even someone like Marcus Stroman.

These are not names that Giants fans are going to do backflips for, but this is the team's reality given the self-imposed limits that have been laid down by ownership when it comes to spending on starting pitching.

Free agent pitchers are always a roll of the dice and the Giants may not be comfortable with some of the prices pitchers are going for right now, but they are going to have to make some moves otherwise they will be stuck leaning on young arms who cannot be trusted to deliver consistently.