SF Giants Rumors: Team expected to pursue NPB ace, but we've seen this story before

The SF Giants have a little less than a month of baseball to play, but with the way this season has gone it’s not too early to start thinking about the offseason. Everything will be complicated by CBA negotiations with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire on December 1 and a lockout all but certain, but we can still speculate about who the Giants may go after in free agency.

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic threw an interesting name into the mix. In a recent column he noted that Giants general manager Zack Minasian made a recent trip to Japan where he is scouting for talent. Baggarly writes about one target in particular: “Right-hander Hiromi Itoh, who won last year’s Sawamura Award that recognizes the top pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball, is expected to be posted by the Nippon Ham Fighters in a few months. It’d be a shock if the Giants weren’t a heavy bidder to sign him.”

Haven’t we heard this before? The Giants are linked to a shiny, exciting Japanese pitcher only for them to not land them. Shota Imanaga, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Tatsuya Imai have all been linked to the Giants only for them to sign elsewhere.

What gives us any reason to think Itoh will be any different? 

Maybe with how poorly this season has gone, especially on the pitching front, it finally forces the Giants to do what they have famously avoided doing for about a decade and spend real money on the pitching staff. 

The only two guys who seem certain to be in next year’s rotation if they’re healthy are Logan Webb and Landen Roupp. Outside of that, it’s anyone’s guess who will make up those final three rotation spots. Maybe if the Giants decide they don’t want to spend any money they will go with Blade Tidwell, Matt Wilkinson and Yunior Marte to round out the rotation. 

That seems like a risky strategy, but a lot of their other young starters like Hayden Birdsong, Carson Whisenhunt, and Trevor McDonald are going to be out for most or all of 2027 after undergoing elbow surgery. 

Maybe they add one guy in free agency and hope the rest sorts itself out especially since Adrian Houser was looking better until he went down with an injury but the hope is it is not major and he should be back next year.

Giants will still probably look for pitching discounts

Would they really make a run at Itoh, though? He’s 29 years old and has a 3.19 ERA on the season in 143 and 1/3 innings pitched. He’s struck out 139 batters compared to 33 walks.

Those are solid numbers, but they don’t warrant a massive contract in the Yamamoto range. Plus, with the way Imai has struggled this season for the Houston Astros will MLB teams be scared off a bit thinking Itoh might struggle as well?

One could only imagine the Giants getting Itoh if his market is fairly soft and they can get him for something of a discount. The Giants probably won’t be in a spending mood after 2026 so maybe they opt to shop in the discount aisle like they did last offseason by signing Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser.

Baggarly is pretty plugged into the team so maybe he’s heard people in San Francisco’s front office mention him, but at this point fans probably won’t take these rumors super seriously until the team actually signs one of these pitchers from the NPB.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow