The SF Giants are diving headfirst into the offseason searching for a superstar. A recent report by MLB Network insider Jon Morosi said the front office was “set” on signing at least one of the top-two available free agents (Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto). Legendary Giants announcer Dave Flemming reinforced the report on the latest episode of The TK Show with Tim Kawakami, and was optimistic enough to say, “I think it could happen pretty fast, I do. This week we could have some big Giants news.
“They’re not only in, they’re in hard on the biggest names,” Flemming said. “So, that doesn’t guarantee success. We’ve seen it over and over again where the Giants come up short on some of these big players for lots of different reasons and different reasons player to player. But they are in hard on the biggest names.”
Flemming noted that Sonny Gray, who signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the Cardinals, seemed like a potential fit with the Giants. However, he believes the Giants are confident enough in their pursuits of Ohtani and Yamamoto that they were not willing to make a sizable enough signing that could impede their financial flexibility.
“They’re in on Ohtani for sure. They’re in on Yamamoto for sure and I would guess, pure speculation-I’m not in on the phone calls or anything, my guess is those are the top two and everything else cascades from those two.”
Ohtani, of course, is coming off his second-MVP campaign in the past three years, where he hit .304/.412/.654 with 44 home runs in 135 games as a designated hitter and recorded a 3.14 ERA with 167 strikeouts and 55 walks in 132 innings pitched as a starter with the Angels.
Yamamoto has long been considered one of the best pitchers not already in MLB, and has drawn interest from the Giants for years, according to Flemming. Across the past seven seasons in the NPB with the Orix Buffaloes Buffaloes, Yamamoto has a 1.83 ERA with 911 strikeouts and just 204 walks in 890 innings pitched.
The SF Giants will obviously have to convince Ohtani that they are ready to win now. After flailing in obscurity with the Angels, it’s no secret that Ohtani wants to be in a situation that will get him to the playoffs every year. Flemming speculated that the Giants may look to sign center fielder Jung-hoo Lee (#9-ranked free agent) or third baseman Matt Chapman (#7-ranked free agent) to try and improve their chances.
“I think there’s a lot of comfort fits with Ohtani here,” Flemming added. “He liked San Francisco. He liked the organization. He liked Buster Posey and the championship pedigree. I guarantee you Melvin is an asset… The biggest hurdle is pretty obvious and it’s just convincing Ohtani that the championship run is primed. That he is sort of the last piece and you can make a run at a championship, and part of that pitch might have to include another player or two.”
Leave a Reply