SF Giants make another move to what should be a busy start to the offseason

Whether there is a lockout or not, the SF Giants will be among the busiest teams to start the offseason. They will have at least 15 players on the 60-day injured list that they will need to make a decision on.

Okay, it may not be the type of activity everyone wants to see, but it is activity nonetheless!

On Thursday, Keaton Winn became one of the latest players to be moved over. He was originally placed on the 15-day injured list on August 20 with elbow neuritis. The Giants provided no timetable for his return, but his season is now over.

Players currently on the 60-day injured list do not count against the 40-man roster. The 60-day injured list is a lever that teams cannot use in the offseason. At some point soon, the Giants will need to make a decision on these 15 players. That decision will be either bringing them back to the 40-man roster by activating them or placing them on waivers.

The SF Giants 40-man roster crunch is complicated by a lack of free agents

While the lockout looms, this roster landscaping takes place right after the World Series and before the expiration of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). One or another, the Giants will need to make a quick decision on these players before a potential lockout.

Typically, free agency begins at the same time that the 60-day injured list disappears. Teams can fill those open spots created by free agency with players coming back from the 60-day injured list. That is often the move.

What complicates this is that the Giants do not have much in the way of pending free agents. In fact, JT Brubaker is the only player currently slated to become an unrestricted free agent.

Now, the Giants also have a team option on one of the players on the 60-day injured list that you probably forgot about. The Giants signed Rowan Wick in the offseason to a one-year deal with a team option for a second year. He had been recovering from Tommy John surgery, so this move was more focused on 2027.

The Giants could decline Wick’s option, thereby making him a free agent. That still leaves at least 13 other players that they will need to make a decision on.

In fairness, the Giants have a lot of soft spots on the 40-man roster, so they should be able to create a handful of spots with relative ease. However, they may need to create more than 10 vacancies on the 40-man roster, which is not easy to do. It will be a busy start to the offseason for what could be a quiet winter.

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