ORLANDO, Fla. — Meetings have been made. Talks have been had. Plans have been made.
MLB’s Winter Meetings was not without its fireworks. Kyle Schwarber re-signed with the Phillies after being loosely connected to San Francisco while Edwin Díaz and Pete Alonso left the Mets for the Dodgers and Orioles, respectively. The Giants’ roster, though, is effectively the same now as it stood on Sunday.
The team’s lone transaction this week was the acquisition of catcher Daniel Susac, who might have the edge in the backup catcher competition. San Francisco’s brass departs Florida having yet to make a make a deal that moves the needle forward, but they believe they’ve at least set the table for the coming weeks.
“I don’t know if there was much more we could do as far as conversations, meetings,” general manager Zack Minasian said on Wednesday afternoon. “We feel like some things are heading in the right direction. It’s tough to handicap when a deal’s going to get done, but we try to put our best foot forward, and I think we’ve shown we’re willing to be aggressive.”
The Giants entered the Winter Meetings — and the offseason — needing starters and relievers, but left-handed reliever Sam Hentges remains their only free-agent signing.
San Francisco’s rotation currently features three locks — Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp — and two vacancies. The Giants have a plethora of young starters — Hayden Birdsong, Blade Tidwell, Carson Whisenhunt, Kai-Wei Teng, Trevor McDonald — but still needs proven arms capable of providing quality innings. Whether the Giants would actually trade top prospect Bryce Eldridge for pitching remains to be seen.
Birdsong, 24, could be an option for the bullpen down the line but the Giants still view him as a starter. Despite his plus stuff, Birdsong was plagued by command issues and ended the season with Triple-A Sacramento. He walked 67 batters over 104 2/3 innings in the majors and minors last season, but the upside is high enough to warrant patience.
“We see him as a starter still,” Posey said. “With the stuff that he has, still see the possibility of a guy that can pitch at the front of the rotation. Obviously, there needs to be some adjustments made, but yeah, we do see him as a starter. Now, it could change, but that’s the way we see it now.”
As far as the bullpen, San Francisco could use one or two high-leverage arms to compensate for the loss of All-Star Randy Rodríguez, who will miss all of next season after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
Ryan Walker technically started and ended the season as the Giants’ closer, but he endured an extremely volatile season and lost the role by late May. Walker found his groove in the middle of the season, but didn’t reassume the role until after Camilo Doval was traded and Randy Rodríguez was injured.
“He’s somebody right now that we’re counting on,” Minasian said. “He’s one of our more proven arms, so hopefully it was a valuable experience for him to kind of go through that and realize he is a very good major-league bullpen arm because we need him.”
The Giants could’ve used the Rule 5 Draft as a way to add an arm to their bullpen but elected to pass when their turn came up. Minasian said San Francisco looked at the available options but decided that trading for Susac was the best fit.
“It can be difficult with pitchers in the Rule 5 with the amount of pitchers you end up using over the course of the season and being locked into a (roster) spot,” Minasian said. “You try to set a pretty high bar where if we’re taking a reliever, this has to be someone we feel like can contribute at the major-league level — not necessarily a player we can stash and try to hide.”
The Giants had a dearth of left-handed relief options last year during spring training, but currently feature an abundance of arms with different profiles. Even after non-tendering Joey Lucchesi, San Francisco’s 40-man roster features four lefty relievers: Hentges, Erik Miller, Reiver Sanmartin and Eric Gage.
“I don’t know with pitching if you ever feel covered, but feel much better about it,” Minasian said when asked about left-handed relievers. “The interesting part is their games are all a little bit different even though they’re from the left side. You have a stuff, you have a little bit more combo, you have a funky look — low slot, funky look with deception. Hopefully, the manager feels like it gives him some different options to go to.”
On the position player front, the addition of Susac addressed one of their lower priority needs, but the Giants still need a right fielder to flank Heliot Ramos in left field and Jung Hoo Lee in center field. Former Giant Mike Yastrzemski would’ve been an upgrade over the Giants’ internal options, but he reportedly signed a two-year, $23 million deal with the Atlanta Braves.
Second base isn’t as pressing as pitching or right field, but it remains a position that the Giants should examine. Casey Schmitt is the incumbent at second base and Tyler Fitzgerald was the Opening Day starter, but San Francisco may want to continue exploring its options at that position as well.
The Giants leave Florida without having made a truly seismic move, whether it be a trade or signing. The coming weeks will determine whether they truly laid the groundwork to improve their roster.
“Some things, still working on,” Minasian said. “Some things, we feel like maybe there’s a path. We’ll see where it goes. Right now, it’s still kind of anyone’s guess.”