FREE AGENCY IS HERE: Giants ALREADY making MOVES | They could be IN on Kyle Tucker

FREE AGENCY IS HERE: Giants ALREADY making MOVES | They could be IN on Kyle Tucker

Free agency just started and the Giants are already making moves. Let’s get on into it. Locked on Giants starts right now. You are Locked on Giants, your daily San Francisco Giants podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Hello and welcome to Locked On Giants, part of the Locked On Network, where it’s your team every single day. My name is Alan Styles and on the show we provide daily episodes Monday through Friday talking about the San Francisco Giants in a way that combines passion analytics with the eye test and a little bit of fun. I’m from the Bay Area but I live in Sacramento now and I host a show at Sacktown Sports 1140 as well as MCing Sacramento Rivercats games. All in all, I’m lucky enough to cover a team I’ve been a fan of all my life. Today we are discussing free agency because it is live and things are happening right now. Are the Giants in or out on Kyle Tucker? We keep on hearing different things and other free agent targets. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the app today. So, this is going to be a very, very fun show. It’s going to be a different show, but it’s going to be a very fun show. It’s going to be a different show because I’m going to be continuing to refresh my feed as things are already going down. I’m was driving home and you know I heard that the Giants have already made a move. If you are just now tuning in, I’m doing this about 40 minutes in to free agency, right? So, as fast as things went live, the Giants aren’t wasting any time. So this is from Alex Pavlovich, Giants claimed lefty San Martin, Reaver San Martin from the Reds and outfielder Justin Dean from the Dodgers. Mason Black was diade, okay, to open a roster spot for that to happen. And if you remember, all right, if you remember Justin Dean, he was Yes, he was the outfielder that was holding his hands up in the World Series when things got wedged and we will see how all of that goes. I know he brings great speed. He was with the AAA team for the Dodgers for a good bit of the season, then got pulled up and really helped for those September callups. and of course is a a great defensive outfielder. He got pulled in time and time again and he’s got the famous meme of his hands up. So that just happened. All right. And what I also wanted to get into and again I keep on refreshing because I don’t want anybody to miss anything. But yeah, that was 39 minutes ago. Nothing else since then, but I will continue to check throughout the show. What I also wanted to do is get into uh the starting pitchers. All right. So, there are three pitchers that I wanted to focus on and why the Giants may or may not be in on them. The first pitcher, and this is all based on the Athletic, they ranked free agents and then said what their projected uh new contracts will probably be or in that vicinity. We know the longer you wait, you can sometimes get better deals. But number 11 on the list, and I think uh fairly likely for the Giants who give him a look, Zack Gallon. All right. He is a name that is making the rounds. He’s 30 years old, five years at 135 million. Out of the other two guys, I’m going to all three of them. He threw the most innings between them. And the other two, I’m talking about Dylan Cece and of course Shota Iaga. Number eight, Dylan Cece. All right. He’s 29 years old. Now, the projection here is a little rich. Six years, $187 million. and number 18 on the list who it just didn’t work out. Had a great first season with the Cubs and last season he was dealing with a couple different injuries so he wasn’t able to find his footing. Number 18 Chota Iaga at 32 years old. They think he might be uh looking at 3 years 72 million. So, you see what the different ages are and you see what they’re being offered or what the projections could be and it seems like IA might more so be up on the uh the Giants list. So, at 24 essentially 24 million a year, it’s the shortest deal as well. Uh Zack Gallon at 27 a year isn’t terrible, but he is 30. So, at the end of that, he’d be 35 years old. I guess the same thing for Shota if he were to sign because he’s 32 right now, but that doesn’t really sound with the like what the Giants would be looking to do. Then Dylan Cece at 31 million a year and six years at 29 years old. They’re all kind of getting to the same age of that uh 35 just in different ways. I don’t think that is what the Giants are looking to do unless they’re running some type of a decoy because uh earlier we heard from Greg Johnson and Greg Johnson said we’re not trying to spend that type of money specifically on a on a pitcher and the reason I say that is because we’re going to talk about Kyle Kyle Tucker a little bit later in the show. So those are the three guys that I kind of had my eye on. There are a ton of options out there. And just to look at it, I know we’re focusing on pitching right now, but you got Dylan CE, you got Brandon Woodruff, you got Mel Kelly, like I said, Zack Gallon, Mel Kelly’s at 15. Uh, and I’m talking about the position on the athletics list. Brandon Woodruff is at 14 and they’re both ahead of Zack Gallon. Edwin Diaz, who of course is a reliever. He’s at number 22. So, a couple names out there. Justin Verlander is at 27. So, not that low on on the list at all. So, that’s something to keep in mind. I saw something about the Giants and Devin Williams. There’s just a lot of uh a lot of different rumors being thrown around right now. So, uh, this is this is a another note and this is from John Morrisy. Free agent reliever Devin Williams has reportedly been receiving a lot of interest in free agency. I would not be surprised. Here’s a quote. I would not be surprised at all to see Devin sign with a West Coast team perhaps like the Giants. The Giants are being connected to so many people right now. That is definitely cool, but it’s hard to keep up number one. And number two, you don’t really know what’s real or if hey, the Giants have all these needs. So, we’re just going to throw the Giants name, the Giants name in there. So, that’s another name that has been thrown around as far as connection to the Giants. And we know the Giants are looking for, you know, bullpen help as well as starting pitching help. Nick Martinez, another name, Adrien Howser. So, a lot of different names and those are later in the list. If you look at the the lefties, Framber Valdez, obviously Framber and Ranger Suarez, I assume are too expensive for the Giants. That’s why that’s just based on what they’ve said. Not a lot of lefties on this list, though. You got Shota, who we already talked about. Foster Griffin coming in at number 44. So, Sha is 41. He is kind of a depressed asset right now. And I wonder if the Giants, the same way they did this with Justin Verlander, I wonder if the Giants are gonna try to play the long game and get Shota and hope that he returns to form uh basically what he was in 2024. I wonder if the Giants might go in that direction or are they just faking us all out and they are going to be willing to pay bigger money for Dylan CE or somebody like that. So, we’re gonna find out here shortly. Like I said, I keep refreshing things and I’m going to do that right now as we get to the other side. And when we return, are you in or out on Kyle Tucker? And are the Giants in or out on Kyle Tucker? Don’t move. More locked down Giants coming up. The NBA is back and there’s no better place to get in on the action than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Even if you miss the start of a game or want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets on everything from who will score next to fourth quarter comebacks. Plus, you can even combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting, especially when your team’s making that late push. Right now, FanDuel is giving new customers $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So, head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game. FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. Kyle Tucker is the name. And it was a very uh fascinating season for Kyle Tucker. Obviously, the Cubs wanted to sneak in a run here before they were possibly going to lose him in free agency. They make a move for him and he was up and down. I mean, there were people calling for him to get traded at some point. And it’s been very uh confusing what the Giants interest level is with Kyle Tucker just based on what uh what we’ve heard and whether or not the idea is that they’re running a decoy. Of course, the Giants do need a right fielder. So, I have for you. Let’s start with where the Athletic has him slated and it’s pretty hot. It is pretty hot. He’s number one on the list according to uh The Athletic and uh they have him as the the number one guy in terms of what other teams and what teams are going to be interested in uh and what they’d be willing to pay. So Kyle Tucker, all right, he is they are projecting him at 10 years 427 million. That’s a lot of cash. Now, I’m going to start with the idea that they’re not in on Kyle Tucker, and then I’m going to give you something a little bit uh more recent from Jeff Passen that kind of says a reason why that might not be the case. So, this is from Jim Bowen of the Athletic. The Giants will focus on improving their rotation in bullpen. So don’t be surprised if they make a strong push for one of the top starting pitchers in the market in the group of Framber Valdez, Dylan CE, Michael King, Shota Imaga, or Ranger Suarez. So that’s that is from Jim Bowen. Greg Johnson saying another thing somewhere in the middle, I think, is where the truth is, and we’re going to find out pretty soon here. They also, he says, could make a run at Max Scherzer on a one-year deal and bring back Justin Verlander for one more season. This is where he starts talking about the hitting. I think they need one more bat to go with Willie Adams, Raphael Devers, Matt Chapman, Elliot Ramos, Jung Julie, and rookie Bryce Eldridge. I would agree. The biggest upgrade position for me would be right field, but it doesn’t sound like they’ll be pursuing Kyle Tucker or Cody Bellinger despite the impact either would have on this lineup. So that came out a couple days ago. Now you have Jeff Passen more recently saying Tucker falls in that interesting bucket where he will rightly demand a contract in excess of 300 million, but the number of teams willing to pay that limit will uh will limit his options. Passin wrote in a recent column that the Dodgers and Giants make sense. Same with the Phillies. So, he’s basically saying a lot of people want Kyle Tucker. A lot of people won’t be willing to pay for Kyle Tucker and you always got to throw the Dodgers in there. You could also throw the Phillies in there. I mean, the Phillies are always spending money, but the do the Giants also have a need. So, could the Giants be another team interested in Kyle Tucker? So, these are two reports that aren’t necessarily contradictory, but this is Jim Bowen saying, “I’m not hearing that the Giants are going to cash out on either of these guys.” And I guess Passin is more so saying the Giants have the money to do it and could be willing to do it. Whether they’re going to do it is is something that might be different. So, uh, personally, if you’re asking me, I don’t I don’t think that the Giants have to pay for Kyle Tucker. It’s not my money. So, if you want to pay, go ahead and pay. But, I don’t think the Giants have to pay for Kyle Tucker in order to compete. I don’t think they have to. I think there is enough out there. I think there are other bats out there that could really help as far as the the right field position is concerned. So, I I do think that Cody Bellinger could be interesting. He could pepper that wall in right field. He could also play right field. He could play center if he needed him to play center. And he’s not going to be as expensive as a Kyle Tucker. I know he might not be as good and give you that same production, but you would be uh getting getting similar production right around there based on we talked about Cody Bellinger earlier this week. So, he’s number 10 on this list. So Cody Bellinger is number 10 and the best fits, he does not pop up on the best fit list for the Giants, but his contract prediction is 6 years 168 million. So 6 years 168 million versus 10 years 427 million. I mean uh and I think the other part of this is will all these guys get what they are what they’re looking for early on and you never can trust a Dodger or anybody associated with the Dodgers but early on we were essentially told or it came out that the Dodgers weren’t really interested in uh in pursuing Kyle Tucker. I don’t know what that may look like now that free agency is actually open but that’s what we were initially told. So, I’m not sure what the truth is. What it does seem like is that there aren’t a lot of teams that are in a position to pay that amount of money. And if there not a lot of teams in a position to pay that uh that amount of money, then maybe that amount of money changes. Because if you’re looking around, okay, well, I know I’m worth this. Okay, well, this is the market and there are not a ton of teams that are willing to pay you that. Now, where do you go from there? But I would look at a Cody Bellinger. Okay. And there’s Kyle Schwarber. Kyle Schwarber. For a DH, the the the Giants, I love it. But for a DH, I just want to see. I just want to see. Five years, 160 million. Not crazy. Probably because he doesn’t play the field. But yeah, that that’s probably still it’s still too much unless you’re talking about moving people, right? Bo Bashette is another name. And we’re going to get into more of these in the other segment. Bo Bashette is another name. He did play some second base. Uh and I don’t know, would you move Willie to second base? Willie Adamus, I don’t know. But it it’s going to be another crazy contract. But the Kyle Tucker thing, that is quite the commitment. And I don’t know if the Giants the Giants haven’t really signal that they’re willing to make that type of commitment. So, not contradictory. Jim Bowen says he doesn’t think the Giants are in. And that goes for that goes for Cody Bellinger as well. when it comes to the uh when it comes to the report from Jeff Jeff Passen, he’s more so saying the Giants have it. I don’t know if they’re going to spend it, but the Giants have it. I do know that. On the other side, we have more targets to look at. I’m going to keep refreshing uh what I have and my feed to see if there’s any more news. Don’t move. More locked on Giants coming up. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. You and I make decisions every day, but on prize picks, being right can get you paid. 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That’s code locked on MLB for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. One more segment with you and we are discussing all things free agency. And as I continue, like I said, to refresh and refresh does not look like anything else has happened quite yet. And you know, it’s not the same, if you’re curious, it’s not the same as uh the NBA where as soon as uh free agency starts, you have the qualifying offers to get through and those types of decisions. So, it’s not exactly the same. And by the way, uh, more uh, managers have been hired. Real quick, just wanted to let you know. Craig Stamon has been hired for the Padres’s. Walt Weiss for the Braves. Blake Bouter for the Nationals. Derek Shelton for the Twins. Craig Alber for the Orioles, of course. Tony Vitella for the Giants. Curt Suzuki for the Angels. And Skip Shoemacher for the Rangers. And it’s funny because things continue to keep changing and keep advancing and you have uh Paul de Podesta’s career highlights. So uh the Rocky’s new head of baseball operations. They just hired him and the funny thing is he was played by Jonah Hill in Moneyball. So if that name sounds familiar that’s what it was. He then guided the Browns to an O in 16 season and traded for and signed Deshun Watson. So that’s what’s going on in the world of the Rockies. And hey, it’s always good to be in the NLS. I know it’s tough with the Padres’s and it is tough with the Dodgers, but at least you always have the Rockies, so we will see all that happens there. Uh just rechecking

Free agency is officially here, and the Giants wasted no time making moves — claiming lefty Reiver Sanmartin from the Reds and outfielder Justin Dean from the Dodgers, while DFA’ing Mason Black to make room. With The Athletic’s top free agent rankings out, we break down how Zac Gallen, Dylan Cease, and Shota Imanaga fit (or don’t fit) the Giants’ short-term pitching philosophy. Plus, Jim Bowden and Jeff Passan have new notes on who San Francisco won’t chase — with Kyle Tucker and Cody Bellinger reportedly off the board. Are the Giants saving up for pitching or running a decoy? And with names like Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander floating around, could Posey’s front office be gearing up for a “bridge year” before a bigger splash? All that, plus my takes on the early roster shuffle, free agent rumors, and what this all says about the Giants’ offseason direction.

0:00 Giants already making moves
9:04 Kyle Tucker Talk
17:27 FA Targets

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