Can Buster Posey and Tony Vitello attract free-agent stars for Giants? | NBCS Bay Area

Can Buster Posey and Tony Vitello attract free-agent stars for Giants? | NBCS Bay Area

Hey, what’s up Giants fans? Welcome to another episode of Giants Talk. I’m Cole Kyper here with Giants insider Alex Pavlovich. We are talking off season as the World Series is behind us and there is nothing but empty space until spring training. Pitchers and catchers are still a ways away. The off season is upon us and we’ll talk about what the Giants need to focus on, plus get to some manager and coaching updates. uh not updates as much as as much as speculation, but it’s time to discuss that as well. Before we get started, Giant Stock is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. Mancini Sleepworld’s Black Friday sale is on with savings of up to $1,200 on top mattress brands. Plus, for the first time ever, they’re having 14 days of deals starting on November 14th. Every single day, they will feature a brand new limited time deal. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. Okay, Alex, off seasonason’s here. How you doing? How’s it feel? I’m ready to be on call. So, we’re in the uh sweet spot right now. The five days between the end of the World Series and in the start of the offseason, we know nothing really happens until end of November usually, but yes, who knows? Buster’s done stuff at weird times, so yeah. Yeah, this isn’t a traditional team anymore, man. Anything could happen at any time. Um, we’re on emergency pod watch for What’s What’s the overunder on emergency pods this off seasonason? I’m going to put it at one and a half. I’ll take the over on that. Okay. Mostly because I get a vote on when we do them. So, if there’s a borderline one, I can push that in the direction I need it to be. $4 million reliever and you’re like, “Yeah, emergency pod. Let’s go. Fire it up.” I like it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So, I mean, I guess the the first step in any spring training is to assess the team’s needs. And the first part of that is figuring out who is not returning from last year’s roster. Um, several Giants hit free agency. I don’t think any of these were a surprise to us. In fact, we’ve discussed all of them here on Giants Talk already, but just to break it down, that would be Wilmer Flores, Dominic Smith, and Justin Verlander. Um and of course Tom Murphy a what will go down as an all-time Giants signing um his option was declined as well. Yeah, the three we I mean all four of them we saw coming. Um not like a huge n nothing nothing this off season. They don’t have a big arbitration list. There’s not like a you know there’s some interesting role five guys that we’ll get to later this month. Uh but not like a it’s not a huge class of of like huge names. It’s not a year where you’re like, “Oh, that top prospect or whatever.” Um, and then at their free agent class, like it’s some very popular guys in the clubhouse, but not a big class. It’s four guys currently, and there weren’t a lot of options. There wasn’t a lot of There was just the Tom Murphy option, which was the biggest no-brainer in team option history, I dare say. Yeah, it was a obvious one. Uh, so yeah, just not a whole lot going into this, but you know, like you mentioned, you reset at the start of the off seasonason and four guys who I think we have probably, you know, with two of them, we’ve said our goodbyes. Like it was Tom Murphy, we never even really said hello, but um Wilmer Flores had his final weekend. Um, Dominic Smith is the fascinating one to me cuz you could if if they wanted to bring him back and make the argument that this is coverage for Bryce Eldridge and if not he’s on the bench. You could make that argument. You and I both have talked about this one a ton. Going back to how good he was during the season just probably doesn’t make sense for either side like but maybe there’s a reading there. And then Justin Roander like actually fills a huge need for him. I just I don’t know if I would a couple things. One, I I thought he was really he was obviously really good in the second half. I thought he was unbelievable behind the scenes. Um it was something I will always remember is watching his work ethic at 42 and how bought in he was from the start of spring training and during the season and all of that. Like he was everything they could have asked for and then would pitch really well when they needed it the last two months. I just wonder a couple st from the team standpoint and we kind of I think hit on this with Sherzer a little bit like do you want to try that again? like you you maybe got some found money here by doing it with Rowlander once and hitting on it. like do you do you want to keep trying it with the 40somes and hoping that you get you know remember early in the season Verlander goes on the IIL and we’re like oh here you go and then from his perspective you know he lives in Florida he just had a second baby he was away from his family most of the year away from his family all spring first spring in Arizona does he want to have a spring in Florida find a team that can do that and does he want to find a team that you know it’s going to give him a better shot at 300 00 wins is going to give him and he actually pitched well enough to pile up wins for the Giants, but there’s got to be some bad taste in his mouth from going through that and being like, “How did I end up where I ended up?” I mean, he’s such a professional that any bad taste is obviously completely not apparent. Um I he he was cool to have here, but if the conversation comes down to Tony Vitello’s old friend Max Scherzer or Justin Verlander, it seems like you got to really embrace the new wild card dynamic. Yeah, I think I would just and I would say the same with Sherzer. I mean, I think with either one of them, I think I would like more certainty with those final two rotation spots that they have currently up for grabs. And that doesn’t mean Framber Valdez or you know guys at the top of the market. We know that pitching wise they don’t generally swim in those waters. Um they don’t love the nine figure contracts for pitchers. But I think I would like a little more certainty and maybe a little more upside where you know a Verlander like it’d be great if he came back and posted a like if if I told you Verlander’s gonna make 24 starts next year at 3.9 RA you’d be like awesome. Yeah, but that’s probably the best case. I would I think probably like just given what we just saw and and given he is going to be 43. So I think I’d want to like take a real shot on someone where you’re like, “Hey, we figured it out with that dude. He’s, you know, may a one-year if it’s a one-year guy, maybe a younger one-year guy like they had success with Gossman and Dfani at first and Alex Wood. I think I’d rather take those shots. Now, if Ferander’s back, he’s it’s it’s valuable to the team. If Sherzer’s part of it, you know, we saw what he did in the World Series, looked like he still has something left in the tank. But I don’t know. I I think I would want a little more upside. Yeah, I don’t see either of these guys being, you know, that hard. They’re that high up on the rotation. Um I think that’s why obviously it’s pick up one of these guys and get something with a little more mustard on it. Yeah. Um, but presumably both contracts would be roughly what they had this year. Verlander was 15. Sherzer was 15 and a half. I I would absolutely claim one of those guys at that same number. Yeah, one-year deal, you know, they’re always We’ll get to the Murphy contract and maybe compare it to some others, but one-year deal, it’s never really going to hurt. I just wonder if you know if there’s if there’s one year deals where you have a little bit more of a chance to really like hit on a like if if this guy hits if you figure this out you have a number really strong like number two number three starter maybe and I also you know they’re in a position with Robbie Ray’s contract expiring after next season and not a whole lot on the books pitching wise where it doesn’t have to be the six-year contract. They can go get a couple guys on three-year contracts. few year contracts. Um, you know, some guys who are not in it for one season. So, yeah, I it’s gonna be interesting to see how Buster plays this one. I don’t think we’re going to be looking at a bunch of seven-year deals, but um there’s an in between there where you can find some guys who are are valuable for a couple years, two, three years. Well, you mention I’ll just also say I think there’s so many guys this off season like going through some of these free agent lists and you get down like like Zack Allen’s pretty far down some of these lists like that’s a name and unfortunately our guy Shane Bieber the gaucho decided to go back to Toronto but like good those are the type of guys where I’m like is one of those guys me sitting there and looking for a shorter term deal or a does Gallon want a chance to rebuild his value and just go crazy next offseason and get his 150 million because yeah, he’s he was a Sai Young finalist like two years ago with Logan Webb. So, um yeah, it’s those guys. I think there’s some upside there. Yeah. All right. Well, you already mentioned Tom Murphy and his contract. So, let’s let’s touch on that before we move on in this uh free agency discussion. Giants declined the $4 million option. And we’ve had this mailbag question from Travis. Travis says for a while, is it possibly the worst contract in is is the possible worst contract in Giants history finally over? It is. Um, he had two questions. That was one of them. My first reaction was just first thing I thought of was the Mark Moansen contract and then like real older guys like us. Remember Armando Bonitez? And yeah, I started going say Aaron Rowan. Yeah. and you start going through um the lists all time like I know Brian Sabian had a famous quote about Barry Zto’s contract was worth it because of the postseason. It also was 126 million that they didn’t get a whole lot out of over the years. Worth every penny. I would I would give you that argument if you wanted to. But I think even in the the Farhan era which there were a lot of good moves. Um but you could also look like Jordan Hicks four years 44 million. Yeah. Mitcher three years 43 and a half million. Uh the second Dcoani deal three years 36 million. So I think there were a lot of of uh this is also making me wonder about my go get a guy on like a three-year contract but just get the right guy. Uh there were there were a lot that I you know Tom Murphy played 13 games for the Giants. It did not go well. Uh he was not around this entire season just rehabbing the whole year and and never got close. Um but it ultimately is $8 million. Exactly. I don’t think it can even be in the running for worst contract in Giants history when I mean $8 million an insane amount of money to someone like you and me, but jump change for a Major League Baseball contract. Yeah, it is a it’s like the 70th highest contract in franchise history. So, it’s there’s a lot if you go up that list that you just kind of go through and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, that one.” I mean, Moans stands out obviously. Um, Tommy Wella, three years million. Oh, yeah. So, this has happened before, but this one’s fresh. And, you know, it’s unfortunate. I mean, it it cost some Joey Bart. Um, I kind of think Joey probably needed a fresh start somewhere anyway, but maybe not in that way. Um, and it just never really it just felt it just never really made sense. Like we we could never make sense of it. Nobody’s ever given I’ve asked people. Nobody’s ever really really given me a good answer on on why that was so necessary given what was in house. Uh, yeah. And then they just never really got anything out of out of the contract. and you know it over two years where they did need backup catcher help and they did need especially early this year like did need someone who could help Patrick Bailey offensively and just just never got there. So I guess that’s the the additional part of this question. What is the backup catcher situation going to shape up like um in 2026? Is this like basically a toss some non-roster invitees out and see if anything catches? Is this something you go recruit? I mean, we’ve had some wild mailbag questions about um putting someone like JT Realm Mutoo in the mix as a backup catcher. Don’t think he’ll want to be a backup, but um and I don’t think they’ll want to pay that for a backup. Probably this my token answer to everything in the offseason is going to be like if you have this x amount of dollars for that guy, go give it to a pitcher. Yeah. Just go find another pitcher and give it to him. Um, you know, Jesus Rodriguez, they really like he’s been really impressive in the minor leagues. Uh, I think he fits a lot of what Buster wants in terms of bat control and, you know, he’s a batting average guy, not a power guy. It was interesting that he was up the last week of the season and you and I both wanted to see him actually play, but just the fact that it was like it was a very targeted move to get him a week with the big league club, get him those bullpen sessions, get him that time. So, he’s certainly going to be in the mix next year. Now, I don’t I’d be a little surprised maybe if he’s the opening day catcher because I think they probably will bring somebody in to add depth because we see it every single year. Like, you can never have never have enough catching. And so, that they’re going to need to bring some people into camp because they’re short. Um they’re short there. And you know, maybe you find the the veteran guy who’s who’s a nice fit early in the season for six weeks or two months and and you see how that goes. But they’re going to need that’ll need to be something they do in the offseason. Just not Yeah, it’s going to be a non-roster guy or it’s going to be a really really cheap, you know, one year, two million or something like that. I think I I’d be shocked if Look, Patrick Bailey is a loves to catch. Like that’s one of his things. Like he you don’t need to give him a lot of time off. So they don’t they don’t need a guy to start every third game. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, not the highest priority on the Giants off uh offseason list backup catcher. So, let’s talk kind of what the high priorities are. Giants have a long off seasonason ahead of them. They have to focus on something. What do we want to give them like three topics, three things to dial in on aside from coaching, which we’ll get to later? Can I choose pitching for all three? I know you want to. I re I really just think like that’s, you know, it it’s such a need. It’s I think even even in the rotation, you have three guys that you feel great about. Um but Landon RP just missed a big chunk of time with an injury and he missed time with elbow discomfort. Like it’s you just can’t guarantee these things. And you know, you go to the bullpen, I think Eric Miller felt great at the end of the year, but he also missed time with with elbow discomfort like basically the entire second half, the entire second half. So, I just think you had layers upon layers upon layers. And, you know, I would go get two starters that you feel good about and then if you could find like a Jacob Junis type that you feel good about starting on April 20th if you need the help. Um cuz I don’t know that there’s like there’s not this How many of the young guys like do we feel confident in being able to there’s guys where you go like you can see Wizen Hunt you can see the talent there we saw McDonald at the end of the year bird song we hope he figures it out um we haven’t seen Tidwell yet but I don’t know that you can go into the season counting on that many of these young guys to be a real part of this like you’re hopeful that they can help in the second half and they can fill in the cracks. But yeah, I would want to rebuild most of a pitching staff in the offseason. Yeah, none of the young guys are once every five day options at this point. Not currently. No. So, uh, and there’s guys there who who could be and we we really believe in their talent, but um, you have to go add layers of defense here. And it was something, you know, if you go back to the end of season interview that Laura and I did with Buster, I mean, he mentioned that. He’s like the old adage. I mean, we found out you can never have enough pitching. And that’s just I think that has to be in their entire off seasonason is like every pitching market, free agent, minor lewe free agent, um, you know, the rule five draft potentially, international free agents, there’s going to be some options there. I just think it has to be every market you’re adding, guys. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, pitching, great. We’re going to focus on that. Alex, we’ll say two and three. Also pitching and also pitching. Let’s go to number four. Well, we should also say relief pitching like at who’s their closer right now. Yeah. So, who’s their eighth and guy right now? Yeah. I mean, and obviously there’s a lot of talk about bringing back our our beloved submariner. Yeah. Um and that would be awesome, but we’ll see. It’s not my choice to make. He does really check off that eighth inning just right away. where you just kind of go like, “Okay, you’re fine on opening day in the eighth inning.” So, and then you go find your closer and then you build from there. So, that does seem like a really obvious and even the day it happened, you’re like, “All right, just come back in the offseason. See you soon.” Yeah. Beyond that, I mean, you know, we mentioned back and catcher was going to add there. I think for me the main one is corner outfield and specifically right field. I I if they could find someone to play center and move Jung Huie to a corner at some point. I don’t know if it’ll be this off seasonason or next or when. Um I don’t think that’s the worst idea. He was not very good defensively late in the year and and overall the defensive metrics weren’t great on him. Um but I don’t think that’s like a a must this off season and you know he just had his first full season in the big week. So, uh, for me it’s go find a right fielder. Uh, everyone’s going to throw Kyle Tucker rumors at us all off season. I would be shocked given where they have been financially since the Rafi Divers trade if they were swimming in those waters. Um, we know their name will be out there, but I think for me, I’d go find an everyday right fielder and someone you feel good about there. And then you have that guy and Jung Koulie and Elliot Ramos and you know you have Drew Gilbert and whoever behind them. But can you guess who the number two free agent right fielder by war is available? Cody Bellinger. Micsty. I saw him really high on I think it was Keith Law’s top 50 list. Yeah. He was like 20some I think he was really high and I’m like good player. Yeah, we said our goodbyes. You know what? He lives in Nashville, not far from Knoxville. Oh, get the rumors started. We did. We did say our goodbyes. Um, yeah. I don’t I feel like at some point it’s hard to, you know, if you bring back like Rogers and Yas. It’s like, yeah, you can’t do the like we’re starting fresh with a whole new vibe and a whole new strategy and then bring everyone back. You’re just running it back. But yeah, I think they need a guy in the corner. Um, and then they were looking at second baseman before they collapsed in July. I know you’re a you’re a Schmidthead, but I’ve gotten a lot of questions from our listeners about second base. Schmidad’s a good one. Um, yeah. No, they they were looking. I I think it’s not There’s going to be some guys out there, I mean, some veterans, some guys who may be The thing about second base is generally a lot of those guys don’t swing and miss like a lot of the better ones. They’re a little bit more traditional old school back control guys, which this lineup needs. Um, I think I could go either way there. I’d be totally fine with Casey Schmidt running it back, letting him, you know, have a full off seasonason to focus on. I’ve mentioned this here before, but remember like the first week of the season, he’s warning first base on the fly because he’s like, “How can I get on the field?” So, a full off season. I know I talked to Casey at the end of the year like his plan is to lose a little bit of weight and become a little bit quicker out there. uh he had bulked up to play the corners and hit for more power, but I think he realized maybe lost some foot speed there defensively at second base. Uh hit a dozen homers. He was about league average as a hitter, it’d be totally fine if that’s the option. Um but if you find a good veteran to throw in the mix there, and remember, you’re going to need a bench, too. So, yeah. And the news this week was the name that was tied to the Giants at second base all last off seasonason did decline his option. uh which is Hassan Kim. So we’ll see uh if that’s another possibility at least discussed. That was Bow Mill’s guy. That was Yeah, he was I wonder if he’ll get a shot to play shortstop somewhere. But um yeah, he’s he’ll be out there. Uh we will probably hear their name in Bob Bashette rumors even though some of the contract numbers I’ve seen thrown out for him are very very very high. So, it’s that’s one of those where you kind of go like, okay, well, your first baseman has what, 250 left on his deal. Your shorts stop has 150. Your third baseman has one something. So, I don’t know if you want your whole infield to be on Yeah, we’ve we’ve kind of done this before. Like, we’ve done this years ago where you have all these long-term deals and you go like, “Oh, it’s not not great when they all hit their 30s.” Yes. Yes. All right. There is our first thoughts on the offseason. What the Giants should be focusing on, what the situation is. Uh the next must focus on topic is coaching. Giants locked down their new manager and Tony Bella right away before the World Series was even over. Um and he has yet to fill out his coaching staff. Uh, so do we want to kind of talk about who might return or who’s at least confirmed to be gone or confirmed to return and then toss some thoughts around about potentially uh where they could go from here. Yeah, Ryan Christensen got hired by the A’s today. He’s their first base coach. Um, Matt Williams reportedly will not be back. Pat Burl is going to be staying. I think it was Susan Sleser who wrote, “We’ll be talked to Pat. He’ll be staying with the Giants in some role.” Um, I saw, you know, I shouldn’t do this, but I read the quote tweets on that one and was like, I saw that anger. Um, Pat has had a tremendous reputation in this organization going back to being a scout like when they beat the Tigers in the World Series. So, if Tony doesn’t want him to be part of the hitting staff, but they want like there’s still a lot he can offer to Giants hitters and he has remember for years like I think we we I know I’ve written it but we’d mention it here every once in a while like he’s he got a lot of credit for the work he was doing with minor leaguers. So, um there’s a reason he got elevated to the staff at some point. So, I if he’s staying with the organization in some role I think that’s a positive. I I would love to keep Burl on board here. I think he’s, you know, obviously the offense was, to put it, mildly rough last year and that was his purview, but taking him out of that role and keeping him here in some capacity, fabulous. Yeah, I think he I think he can help. Yeah. All right. Well, let’s take a look around the league then at other options. Um, Bello is gonna have a whole new staff to fill. Um, do you have a first a name that first comes to your head? Well, the name that’s been I know I’ve seen in a few stories, but it’s no longer an option is Antoine Richardson, who was the first base coach in New York. He was part of Gabe staff here. It seemed like I’m waiting to read the right story on what happened there because he ends up becoming the first base coach of the Braves and like when it fell apart with the Mets, I kind of thought like he has some friends around the league now. One of them must, you know, maybe he’s going to be a bench coach or there’s some elevated title here. Step up. Nope. Lateral move in division. Um, sounds like it was a salary dispute, which is wild when you’re talking about the Mets. Uh, so that’s wild. I I don’t beyond that, I don’t know that any of the names that we’ve you know, we get asked about guys like Ron Washington. I know Jason Tingler’s name has been out there a little bit. He’s known Tony for a long time. I think they’re really like, you know, they were jumping into this last week like as they were introducing him. So, they’re trying to figure this out here. Does not sound like a lot of people, if anybody’s coming over from Tennessee. I mean, they’ve kind of solidified that staff under their next coach. Um, but yeah, we’ll see what they end up doing here. I know I I think the expectation is at least a couple people stay. Uh, JP makes a ton of sense to me. the the pitching side makes a ton of sense w with what JP and Garvin Austin did with the pitchers. I think that continuity is is potentially really important. And then Mark Hollberg obviously is one of Buster’s close friends and someone we had talked about as a potential manager candidate and I wonder how a new manager would feel about that just but he also has a really good reputation in this game and has done a really nice job the last two years by all accounts. So uh I would expect him to be part of that mix. And then our guy Ron Wus. Um he’s just forever around. Yeah. And if you’re talking about experience and adding someone in the dugout who knows every rule and knows everything, he’s he’s high on that list. Yeah. Um, we can’t really continue the Giants coaching conversation, talking about Giants managers without touching on the news that uh, Giants former manager um, manager of the year award winner Gabe Kapler was named GM down in Miami where he’s been since he left the Giants. Uh, what do you make of this? Does this surprise you at all? I mean, you’ve got your ear to the league better than I do. you hear what people are saying on other teams and other clubouses, but I was I was a big to the chagrin of many of our listeners, I was a big Kappler guy even when he got cut. I think both of us were um you know felt he got scapegoed in a lot of ways. And I did start to see a lot of Giants fans this year who were just like, “Oh, this hasn’t gotten any better.” And also like there’s maybe a lot more talent here than there was two years ago. I wonder if Gabe wins more than 82 games. Um, yeah. So, it I’m not surprised just because I I had been joking with some people who know him like over the course of this year about like when’s he gonna, you know, when’s he going to get the man the manager job there or somewhere like once he’s and they’re like, you know, I really think he wants to do this front office thing and want those that was his roots in player development. And so he Yeah, it’s I’m not surprised. I mean, he he got a promotion from assistant GM to GM and and a big title for him and they’re rebuilding, reloading whatever they’re doing there in Miami, whoever knows. Uh, but I do think at some point he’s going to be the head of a a baseball ops department. Like, I think he he’s an absolute grinder and, you know, there’s for all he’s very polarizing. There’s a lot of rough traits. There’s also a lot of positives. And yeah, I I I I find we’ll talk about the coaches in a second here because someone sent us a question about him, but his coaches, but I just don’t think you can ever ignore like that 107 win season and just kind of go like that was really everything else before and around that has been the same at Oracle Park and there’s something there. I don’t know what this will be for him, but I think this is a good path for him. Um, yeah, I’m excited to see I miss I miss his interviews. So, hopefully there’s some GM sitdowns. We get some fun cap quotes out of it. I’ll be tuning into those. Absolutely. That brings us to a mailbag question from Jacob. Uh, Jacob says, “Could you guys go through most of Kappler’s staff and where they are currently and maybe what their strengths were like Antoine being good with base running?” Um, and this seems like a good question to dive into as the Giants look for coaches. We talk about coaches who were for formerly with this team and potentially have moved on to bigger and better things around the league. And with obviously Gabe um running the uh the GM area with Miami. All right, so let’s start with uh with Craig Albernos. This is a name we threw around a lot in the preliminary post Bob Melvin talks. Um but that dried up quickly as he was announced to be manager for the Baltimore Orioles this October. Yeah. Uh I don’t think he was ever involved with the Giants. Um he’s Steven votes like one of his closest friends, Orioles manager. I think very happy of him. I think what I’ll do is I’m going to go through the list here just for people who have been wondering where some of these people ended up and where they are. And a good signal too which you and I have talked about is like there’s been success post Giants firings. Um, and my main thing with this group is, and this is why I kept thinking of him when Buster was looking for a new manager, and I think he found this with Tony, they were like just an incredible group of grinders, like people who were there incredibly early, their weight, you know, watching opposing teams, batting practice to see if they could pick up anything on anything. um constantly, you know, some of it was probably overkill like the simulated games and all that during during the shutdown, but just constantly trying to find new ways to do things and I think you look back at that season and it was a really special season and certainly Buster and Crawford and Belt and those guys get a ton of credit for it and Logan Webb’s emergence and Camo coming in late, but they did a great job too of developing and finding the right pinch hitters. So, I I I do think I’m curious when we get this Giants coaching staff how much we look at it and go like this is a little similar to maybe what Buster had last year or if they’re going to go totally off the board here and it’s going to be a bunch of really experienced guys. Um but yeah, Alb’s the manager for the Orioles. A nice little spot, too. Like that’s a talented roster. Yeah, there’s like the expectations are low now. Kai Kareah, the bench coach for the Mets. One time Giants manager. Yeah, interimm Giants manager. Nice spot for Kai, too. Like that manager was on the hot seat last year. So, pretty slick move there, Kai. Uh, we mentioned Antoine. Andrew Bailey is still the pitching coach in Boston taking care of our guy Kyle Harrison. Brian Banister, who had a big role here, he is back with the White Socks. Uh, Donnie Eckert, no word of him since he was dismissed as as Rangers hitting coach. He’s the one who was like on the highest trajectory right off the bat. And yes, he very smartly jumped ship and went to be like high up there in Texas. And I think probably, you know, a lot of people thought he’d be a manager by now, but did not ultimately work out there. He won a ring, but um Justin Vy still there in Texas. Dustin Lind, assistant hitting coach with the Phillies, so he’s done a nice job there. Nick Ortiz back in the minor leagues. Alyssa Nackin, we talked about a ton over the years. She’s doing the front office thing as well. um assistant director of player development in Cleveland. And then a lot of guys who are still here. Uh Ron Vodus is still here, my uh my analyst every once in a while. Yeah, I was going to say he’s not only here, he’s part of the family, co-orker. Yeah. Um and then Tyra is still here. Mark Hollberg’s still here. JP Martinez was a Gabe guy. He’s still here. So yeah, we’ll we’ll see how many of those guys are on Tony’s staff, but that group has actually done pretty well and doesn’t surprise me because I I really I thought that was a really good coaching staff. And yeah, I mean, if you could take the 2021 coaching staff, that version of them, and just assign them to this 2020 2016, that feels good. I’d be, you can’t do this, but I wish it was like a video game where we could be like, put the whole environment from 21 Yeah. 22 with last year’s roster. Yeah. And like what does that look like? Um, but yeah, I, you know, I personally got to know a lot of those guys, too, and I like them, so I’m happy to see them. And I also think it’s like kind of cool, like it’s we’re gonna see former Giants coaches coming in as managers. So, um, I like that. Yeah, there were no hard feelings leaving the Giants, at least from the fan side with those guys. So, it is cool to see them climb the ranks, get teams of their own. Um, and you know, the sky’s is the limit for some of these guys. Yeah, there’s not really like coaching trees as much anymore. Um, but that one potentially could be like, yeah, trace it all back to the 2021 Giants. I think Gabe the GM might look around in a couple years and be like, I have two, three managers around the league and assistant GM somewhere else. Yes, I’ve seeded this league. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We peppered in a few mailbag questions so far, but I want to do a dedicated segment to get to some of the questions you guys have been giving us. But first, Giant Stuck is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. Mancini Sleepworld’s Black Friday sale is on. Save more than $500 on top MA mattress brands with prices starting as low as $100 and recliners for less than $300. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. All right, as always, if you have questions for us, send them to us wherever you can find Alex and I on social media. Uh, that’s Twitter, that’s Blue Sky, that’s uh Instagram. Is that Facebook? Are you on Facebook? Um, no. Yeah, not really. Not Facebook. LinkedIn. YouTube. YouTube comments were YouTube. YouTube comments. We’ve grabbed a couple from there. So yeah, get us your questions. We will get to them throughout this off seasonason. Sorry, Zach. We’re give up. I want to start with an answer. Uh many listeners sent this in, so I’m not going to attribute it to anyone specific, but you and I during the Vitello introduction mentioned the mustard thing that uh yeah, Tennessee fans were mailing cases and bottles and crates of mustard Oracle Park. Um, I don’t know it was a protest or it was going to convince Tony to stay. I don’t know what it was just a thing, a thing to do, I guess, a symbolic gesture. U, but we got the answer to what happened. So, I guess during a a particularly contentious game a few years ago, Tennessee fans were throwing stuff on the field and a uh bottle of mustard was included in what got tossed. Yeah, it’s it didn’t really answer our question. Not really. It’s funny because I I guess and I’m sure a lot of Giants talk listeners like got deep into Tennessee baseball for like four days like I did and you see those references and you and it didn’t really answer my question. It is f it also reminded me that like sometimes we’re so insular with our like inside jokes and it’s there’s things that we would joke about or talk about here that like most listeners would be like yeah and if you’re like a Padres’s fan you’d be like what the f are you guys talking about? Um, so yeah, the mustard thing did I will say I did the Ballpark Back Nine last night. They had like a little media event. Um, and I had a hot dog with some mustard on it, so potentially came from Tennessee. That’s great. Yeah, maybe. Uh, also I have you ever done that? You don’t really uh No, but I was eyeing it for this season. Highly recommended. Okay. Like it’s I’ve done it a couple times now. if you golf at all, like highly recommend. It is really really I can’t understate how fun it is and even as somebody who is there every day to uh you know hit a pitching wedge off of uh like the upper deck. So I golfed for the first time in eight years um about a week last week or the week before and I hit a birdie. Alex, I hit a birdie. Look at you. Yeah. So I might retire just with that as my final round. You could Yeah, you could. No, it’s fun. It’s a good thing. And um had the Warriors game on last night on the scoreboard. I’m like, this is I’m hitting golf balls at center field with the Warriors game on. Like this is not a bad way to spend a Tuesday. Alex is living the offseason life. This five days you get off one night. No, I just think they do a really It is It’s one of my favorite things that they do is it’s been like every year now for like four or five years. Yeah. No, I anyway, so I’m just like this is cool. Yeah. All right. Uh, did that answer the mustard question? No, not really. I I never had an answer really on the mustard anyway. I’m like, okay. They they uh I think they threw mustard on the field once during like a half riot. Um, and then they would start to throw mustard on the field just to like embrace that. It’s like throwing tortillas on the field at a at a UCSB soccer game. You know what? I’m putting it on my list for Tony at some point. Maybe he has a better explanation. That’s a great question. We have received a couple of questions for Tony already. We’ll throw this one on there. I don’t know that we’ll ever get a chance to ask him these, but we’ll have them just in case. I’m asking him. Maybe he has a better mustard. He maybe he laughed at it more than we were. We were just like, “Okay.” Yeah. All right. Uh, next question is from Cube. Cube said, “With Tony V’s lack of experience managing a bullpen, do you think the Giants could try a separation of powers by having a pitching coach with more or less final say of endgame decisions for his first year on the job? kind of like a offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator in football. It’s a great question and I will answer it in part by saying that this kind of happens already like a lot of pitching stuff is decided pregame, it’s decided in-game and kind of brought to the manager. um you know and then they have final say obviously and like they’re the ones who decide when to go out there which I think is the most important part of that job and one thing that was probably one of Bob’s biggest issues maybe was deciding which batter to go get someone for. Uh but in general a lot of this now is really decided for you in terms of who’s available and when they’re going to pitch and um you know which pockets of the lineup they’re going to face. So, but I don’t I don’t think he’ll do it that officially, but if it is somebody with a lot of experience and it’s potentially like if it’s JP coming back, like yeah, I think he’s going to lean on that person a ton and just and then go with his gut when he can. Joshua says, “Do you see the Giants as a desirable destination for free agents now that they have a guy like Tony Vatel at manager and Adamus endeavors in the lineup? feel like part of the reason why Otan and Judge spurned us was because they would have had to be the guy here, but now that we have bigger names and a more energetic manager, do you envision more higherend free agents would be willing to sign here? Obviously, the Giants money is just as good as other teams, but it always felt like there were other reasons why the bigname free agents never signed here. Wild take that Otani or Judge wouldn’t be the guy here. Or maybe that they were worried they was it I read it as they were worried they would be the only guy here or Oh, I thought it was like spotlights on you. But sorry, Otani. Now we’re spotlighting on Drew Gilbert. Well, we might after a home run. Yes. Uh well, those two guys, too. Judge clearly used the Giants to get what he wanted out of New York and Otani clearly was going back to Los Angeles. Yes. So, and I can’t fault either one of those guys for the decision they ultimately made. So, it’s Didn’t we do a whole off seasonason, potentially even two off seasonasons of podcasts about how um the reasons that players aren’t signing here are money? It that was going to be my short answer to this is almost every guy takes the big contract. Yes. And I’ll use Adamus actually as an example. He did not know anything about anything here. Like I don’t mean that disrespectfully like he had no connection here. He had no no like nobody calling him and like no best friend here or anything like that. Um the Giants offered him a massive contract and did it early in the offseason and Buster made a compelling case. Like I I think there’s something to be said for like Buster and Tony will be very good in the room and will I think they will get you know every person they want to talk to. So, I think they will get to talk to that person, which yeah, generally the Giants do anyway because agents know they have money and they can use them in that way either to get the contract or get the bigger contract from somebody else. But I think they’re going to be great in that room, you know, they might be if there’s a guy who’s like looking for a like to our earlier conversation, guy who’s looking for $10 million contract somewhere, one year 10 million, he knows that’s what he’s going to get, wants to go somewhere and be successful and build off that next year. Like Buster and Tony are gonna be great in those situations, I think. Yeah. But the big guys either know where they’re going or they go and take the biggest contract. So if you’re talking Kyle Tucker, like Kyle Tucker is going to go to whoever pays him the biggest contract this off season. So it’s that’s how almost all of these things work. And I I think we can like romanticize some of the other stuff. But is there a a notable free agent, big top tier free agent from the past few years who didn’t take the big one? Like I Freddy Freeman comes to mind, but I think that ended up being like miscommunications between agent and team. Yeah. Yeah, I mean that was everything burned in like Atlanta weirdly and they trad and almost every single guy and teams know this and players know this and it’s I you know it’s why sometimes I we can make the connections um and there are certain cases like I think you know Willie and Freddy Peralta are very close not a free agent but like there’s cases like that but um in general almost all these guys take the biggest contract and that’s where you want it you The Giants money is as good as any other money. And if they offer the biggest contract to whoever, let’s say Bo Bashette ends up being the guy they want. Like if they offer him the biggest contract, he will come here. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Great question. Next one is from Sebastian. Sebastian says, “Is Elliot Ramos’s defense fixable and how does that affect the Giants plans involving him?” Yes. One, I’ll say that for two reasons. One, we’ve seen him be better before this year. Yes. In center field, too. So, like, and two, um, I’ll give you three reasons. Two, he was actually better in the second half. He was much better than he was, um, you know, in August and September, much better than earlier in the season. And the third reason is I think he is very, very self-aware about this. Like, he’s I talked to him about this a couple times in the second half. He knows he did not have a good season. He knows it was talked about a lot. He knows he can get a lot better. So, I think it’s going to be a huge point of emphasis for him. And I do think he’s a guy who stands out to me as like somebody that Tony can help. And maybe not Tony specifically. Whoever he brings in to coach outfielders, whoever he brings, like he is a he’s an upside guy. He’s a guy where we know there’s more in the tank with Elliot Ramos. And he stands out to me as as someone that this next coaching staff like it’s going to be crucial to get more out of him. He’s an all-star. He’s just he had a rough year. Part two of this question. With Tony Vitello’s emphasis on player development continuing in the big leagues, could Moss and Luciano have a role in 2026? You know, have you seen Tony’s done a lot of interviews the last few days? Yeah. And a lot of this is because it wasn’t necessarily like Giants. We haven’t gotten a lot of specifics on the roster and I even asked at the press conference and just not a I think this is all new to him as well. One thing I’m curious about and this question brought it up is like does he come in and spend a month looking at everybody and look through people’s backgrounds and look at swings and things like that and go like I really love that like I really believe in that guy like so is that the ca maybe there’s a guy knuckleheads maybe he gets in here and goes like that’s my guy. Yeah it’s um I I love that profile. So uh we don’t know that yet. I don’t think he even knows that yet because I think he is probably so busy trying to put together a coaching staff right now that he hasn’t had time to like dig into Wade Meccllor and Luis Moss and Marco Luciano stats. But um those are three guys they do have to make decisions on this off seasonason. I don’t think you can I don’t think you can bring more than like one of them to camp. It is an interesting thing I hadn’t really thought about was is how having a a manager with such a historical emphasis on player development, just being a college coach impacting some guys that I don’t know I had already mentally cut ties with. Um, yeah, totally could reshape, you know, one of those players futures with the team. I think they’re all out of options going into the next season. I I put Mtos in a little bit of a different boat just because he has played a fair amount the last two years. For better or worse, we’ve seen flashes from him. I mean, you know, the Giants can say what they want about Luciano. They never we never saw him this year. So, we just never saw him. And I, you know, I I think they just have to throw him in a trade this off seasonason and and move on unless Tony comes in and he’s like, I love that guy. I can turn that guy into a big leager. Uh, but I at some point with some of these guys, especially with the 40man roster, like and how much pitching they need to add to it, like they have some guys who are just sitting and they just never use them or take a look at them. Yeah. Uh, one more question for today’s episode. Um, this is a fun one. Troy asks, “Has Alex watched Cot the Caught Stealing movie yet? It’s been out on streaming for a while. We need to get his thoughts.” I have not. Um, you’re talking about I’m going out golfing at the ballpark and I’ve got days off. You haven’t watched it? That was my one social activity in the last six weeks. So, um, people, if any young parents have any ideas on how to get a 2-year-old to go to sleep faster, like send them my way along with mailbag questions. No, we’re stuck. We’re stuck in two types of topics. Yeah. We’re stuck in this weird cycle where he’s just doesn’t want to go to sleep at night and one of us has to spend time with him to put him down and by the time that’s over there’s just not time to watch a movie. So yeah, that’s fair. Have not gotten to uh the offseason movies yet. But at some point we I will I will that is on my list. When you watch this that is potentially emergency podcast one of the offseason. You know what’s the most likely answer here is that that’s like showing on my flight to the winter meetings and I’m like five hour. What is it? Six hours to Orlando. We’ll watch it twice. Yeah. Watch that. Watch whatever Fast and Furious is on the United tab this time and we’ll be good to go. Yep. Fantastic. All right. So, Troy, we’re still holding on Alex seeing um what is likely Cole’s pick for best picture 2026. And for real, if you have advice on how to get a two-year-old to sleep, like I wish I could be more helpful. I come from like a a dog background, so like have you tried crate training? Don’t know if I’d get to keep him if Yeah, that is that is a crate training. Very I’m very good at crate training. Yeah, I’m two-year-olds. No, we’re looking for answers. No. All right. Well, if you have questions or toddler advice for Alex, send them to us wherever you can find us on social media. Until then, don’t forget to subscribe to Giants Talk wherever you listen to your podcast. Don’t forget to give us a positive review if you’re a fan of the show. If you’re not a fan, props for getting this far in the episode. Don’t know why. Um, and go buy Alex’s book, The Franchise, available on paperback at a bookstore near you. I have at least three friends getting the franchise for Christmas this year. Oh, yeah. You know what? Actually, it’s I’ve I’ve signed some for people who wanted like a surprise gift for their husband or boyfriend or wife or son, whoever. Um, November is a great time to get that done because I don’t have a lot going on. If if you hit me up like after the winter meetings when maybe we have a picture coming in for a press conference, it might not get there by Christmas. But yeah, I’d be happy to sign anything for anybody. Awesome. All right, see you guys.

On “Giants Talk,” hosts Cole Kuiper and Alex Pavlovic break down San Francisco’s biggest offseason needs and debate if Tony Vitello and Buster Posey can bring top MLB free agents to the Bay.

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Can Buster Posey and Tony Vitello attract free-agent stars for Giants? | NBCS Bay Area