These SF Giants free agent targets will not cost the team any draft picks

The SF Giants need to build up their farm system to truly be competitive. In order to do that, they may try to focus on free agents who would not cost them any draft picks if they signed them this offseason.

The SF Giants are going to be connected to a lot of free agents this offseason. One thing you may hear or read about is whether the player was given a “qualifying offer” or not. This means their team extended them a one-year $21.05 million offer to return. But if the player rejects that offer and the player signs with another team, that means the player’s previous team will receive draft compensation and the team that signs the player will lose draft compensation. The rules are explained a bit more in depth here. 

SF Giants may focus on free agents who did not receive qualifying offer

The Giants lost draft picks last offseason with their signings of Blake Snell and Matt Chapman. With Buster Posey now in charge of things, he is probably not too keen on giving up any more draft picks when he understands how important it is to build up a strong farm system to be truly competitive. 

That is why the Giants may mainly focus on free agents who were not extended a qualifying offer by their team. Some players who were extended a qualifying offer include first baseman Pete Alonso, shortstop Willy Adames, outfielders Juan Soto and Anthony Santander, starting pitchers Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, and designated hitter Teoscar Hernandez among others. This does not mean there is no chance the Giants get any of these players, they just may be more reluctant to given the draft compensation they’d have to surrender. 

Now, let’s take a look at some players who were not extended qualifying offers. These include shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, second baseman Gleyber Torres, designated hitter Joc Pederson, and starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi among others.

This list of players is certainly not as appetizing as the players who received qualifying offers, but they may make more sense for a Giants team that is probably a few years off from being truly competitive and needs to build from within.

The flip side of this argument is that the Giants have not done a great job drafting recently, so they should say to heck with draft picks and try and build a team through free agency. That sounds nice, but it is very hard to do.

The fact that the Giants also reportedly plan to cut payroll in 2025 will not make fans any happier, but perhaps playing in the small end of the pool for a few years in free agency for a few years and holding onto draft capital is what will be necessary to get back to championship baseball.