{"id":550806,"date":"2026-02-02T18:57:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/550806\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:57:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:57:33","slug":"the-as-already-have-what-the-giants-really-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/550806\/","title":{"rendered":"The A\u2019s already have what the Giants really want"},"content":{"rendered":"

Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section 415 email newsletter here<\/a> and subscribe to the \u201cSection 415\u201d podcast wherever you listen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s, the team that abandoned Oakland, ignored its fan base, and hasn\u2019t won more than 76 games in a season in four years, have exactly what the Giants want<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yes, the team owned by John Fisher, widely considered one of the worst stewards of a professional sports franchise, has built the type of young, exciting core that should have people who work inside the walls of 24 Willie Mays Plaza jealous.<\/p>\n

2 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

5 days ago<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday, Jan. 23<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

The signings of Bader<\/a>, Arr\u00e1ez, Adrian Houser, Tyler Mahle, Sam Hentges, and Jason Foley will cost the Giants a combined $67 million and will help patch up the holes of a flawed roster<\/a>. The reason Posey needed to hit the free-agent market so hard is that the Giants have failed to draft, sign, and develop prospects worthy of the type of extension Wilson just signed.<\/p>\n

The 2025 All-Star is the fourth homegrown A\u2019s player to sign a deal worth at least $60 million in the last 13 months. He joins outfielders Lawrence Butler (seven years, $65.5 million) and Tyler Soderstrom (eight years, $86 million) and DH Brent Rooker (five years, $60 million) in securing the bag, a proposition that seemed unfathomable for A\u2019s players of previous generations.<\/p>\n

Of course, the A\u2019s dynamic pool of position player talent doesn\u2019t guarantee much. There\u2019s little evidence Fisher will provide GM David Forst with the resources to sign top free agents, and the team\u2019s inability to develop elite pitching prospects could hinder its ability to contend for postseason berths. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Giants\u2019 answer to all these exciting young players for a former geographic rival-turned-MLB nomad? It\u2019s 2023 first-round draft pick Bryce Eldridge and a crop of promising but inexperienced shortstops<\/a> who have never played above A-ball.\u00a0But as Tim notes, this is the most interesting group of Giants prospects in more than a decade<\/a>, which could eventually enable the franchise to challenge the Dodgers in the NL West.<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s temporary move to Sacramento means the days spent comparing the franchises are largely over. Fisher\u2019s franchise will (supposedly) be in Las Vegas by 2028, and the Giants viewed their Bay Area departure as an opportunity to court East Bay fans. Theoretically, the A\u2019s will fade from relevance, but that might not be what commissioner Rob Manfred has planned.<\/p>\n

If MLB expands and realigns \u2014 plans Manfred has publicly discussed \u2014\u00a0the San Francisco Giants and Las Vegas A\u2019s could wind up in the same division. Those pesky A\u2019s would be farther away, but the Giants might see them up close a lot more often.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s on Posey to make sure that a homegrown core is ready to contend within a few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want more ways to catch up on the latest in Bay Area sports? Sign up for the Section…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,63,66,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-550806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-oakland-athletics","11":"tag-san-francisco-giants","12":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116002572998000201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}