SF Giants Rumors: Team yet again linked to free agent slugger Cody Bellinger

The SF Giants have mostly made minor, modest moves this offseason. However, a lot of big players remain unsigned and one of them is slugger Cody Bellinger who has yet again been linked to the Giants.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post shared on social media that the Giants are showing interest in Bellinger. The same thing was reported back in December so if these reports are true it seems the Giants are still in the running for the former MVP.

SF Giants reportedly linked to Cody Bellinger yet again

Bellinger's agent, the notorious Scott Boras, shared that the Giants were one of the many teams interested in his client in December as well at the Winter Meetings. However, the Giants are one of a number of deep-pocketed teams reportedly interested in Bellinger as the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and New York Mets all reportedly have interest as well.

It seems highly unlikely that the Giants would be willing to outbid all of these teams to win the Bellinger sweepstakes. What they have to hope for is that all of these same teams get caught up fighting over Kyle Tucker and then maybe the Giants sneak in and can get Bellinger.

Bellinger is coming off a solid campaign with the Yankees. He slashed .272/.334/.480 with 29 home runs and 98 runs batted in across 152 games. The Giants obviously have a lot of familiarity with him dating back to his time with the Los Angeles Dodgers and they have a clear need in right field.

As of right now the Giants have Drew Gilbert, Jerar Encarnacion, and Luis Matos as their best options to play right field. Those options are better suited as bench pieces so it would be wise for the Giants to make some kind of upgrade in the outfield.

The reasons to want Bellinger are obvious. He has a lot of power and is very strong defensively. He should be able to play right field very well and could potentially even be moved to center field if Jung Hoo Lee continues to struggle there.

However, there are certainly drawbacks as well since it is unclear how well his power would transfer to Oracle Park which is historically tough on lefties.

Then there is the price tag. Boras is known for getting as much money as possible for his clients. With so many teams in the running and Bellinger probably not wanting to go to a park where it is tough to hit, the Giants would probably have to give him a long, expensive contract. The sort of contract that they already have on the books for players like Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers.

The Giants do not seem interested in another long-term deal for a position player, so maybe they are hoping Bellinger's market shrinks considerably but it does not seem super likely that he will end up with San Francisco.