Giants: Outfield among needs to be filled
LAS VEGAS — The winter meetings that begin Monday at the Mandalay Bay hotel are going to be different for the Giants, not merely because the executives can blow off steam at night’s end by going downstairs to a craps table and yelling, “Yo, ’leven!”
Through the championship era, and in the years since then, the Giants largely had older teams that mostly were set, with a need or two. Not now. New president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has a reconstruction on his hands.
It’s the difference between picking at a salad and bullrushing the buffet, loading up on shrimp, prime rib and four types of potatoes.
Zaidi spelled out his philosophy as soon as he was hired a little more than a month ago. He wants to remake the Giants “one good baseball move at a time.”
He has subtracted from the 40-man roster but has yet to add from outside the system. That the roster stands at 35 heading into the meetings, when the Giants typically had 39 or 40 under Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans, shows how much room Zaidi thought he needed in his shopping cart.
The Giants’ primary goals are to get younger and more athletic. Position-wise, their biggest hole is in the outfield.
They have four outfielders on their roster: Steven Duggar, Chris Shaw, Austin Slater and Mac Williamson; five if you count Alen Hanson, who is listed as an infielder. Only Duggar can be penciled into a starting job in 2019, and even he might benefit from a righthanded platoon partner.
The rotation is another target. Madison Bumgarner, Dereck Rodriguez, Andrew Suarez, Chris Stratton and Ty Blach are the only holdovers who ended 2018 healthy. The Giants’ suite could welcome a parade of executives from other teams who want to talk Bumgarner, but for now, signs point toward the Big Fella staying put until at least the July trade deadline.
During a KNBR interview Wednesday, Zaidi illustrated the dangers of rumors when he was asked about a story that said the Giants were ready to trade Bumgarner and listed some of the teams that have inquired. Zaidi said one of those general managers texted him and said, “We heard we’ve been talking to you about Bumgarner. Should we be?”
Zaidi has not made it easy to pinpoint his winter-meetings targets. For one thing, he declared at his hiring news conference that he hates to reveal his strategy. For another, he did not conduct a standard pre-meetings conference call with beat writers.
On Friday night, the Athletic provided Zaidi a good alibi, reporting that he was finalizing two critical hires: former Brewers executive Zack Minasian as director of pro scouting and former A’s evaluator Michael Holmes for the job of amateur scouting director, the person who runs the draft. Holmes replaces John Barr, whose first selection in that role was Buster Posey in 2008.
However, Zaidi offered some clues during his KNBR interview, suggesting he is looking at starters through free agency.
The one target he acknowledged is left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, 27, who was posted by the Seibu Lions on Wednesday and should draw a lot of suitors. Kikuchi might not be the next Shohei Ohtani, but he went to the same high school.
“He’s an accomplished guy from over there. We have scouted him extensively,” Zaidi said on KNBR. “We have done our homework on him.”
Scott Boras is representing Kikuchi, so Zaidi can have a twofer meeting with the agent and discuss Bryce Harper as well. Although the Giants dipped under the luxury-tax cap in 2018 so they could pursue Harper and others without a huge signing penalty, the Giants need volume in the outfield and can’t wait on him.
Though there are less costly options in free agency, Zaidi is constrained by the same issues his predecessors faced — a reluctance among hitters to play at AT&T Park. Thus, Zaidi might find the best route to filling his outfield is via trade.
Zaidi has added some options in the outfield through minor-league deals.
In recent weeks, the Giants signed Henry Ramos, the 26-year-old brother of prospect Heliot Ramos, who hit .297 with 10 homers for the Dodgers’ Triple-A team in Oklahoma City last year.
The Giants also signed Anthony Garcia, 26, who hit 25 homers for the A’s Triple-A Nashville squad.
Zaidi also raved about one mound signing: Kieran Lovegrove, a 24-year-old righthanded reliever from South Africa and the Indians’ thirdround pick in 2012 who is said to throw 100 mph and whom the Giants had been courting before Zaidi was hired.