For the look of things, it appears the San Francisco Giants are determined to maintain their spot at the top of the National League West division.
Anthony DeSclafani, Kevin Gausman, Alex Wood, and Johnny Cueto are hitting free agency.
That is 80 percent of the rotation: only Logan Webb is under contract.
However, that is about to change.
Making Moves To Re-Sign Key Pitchers
The Giants re-signed DeSclafani on Monday, on a three-year, $36 million contract.
It’s Tony Time ⏰
The #SFGiants have signed Anthony DeSclafani to a 3-year deal. pic.twitter.com/eFG1odJcbo
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) November 22, 2021
The soon-to-be 32-year-old starter broke out in 2021, in large part thanks to the Giants’ player development staff.
He will now make $12 million per year for the next three seasons and gets to stay on the NL West powerhouse.
San Francisco hadn’t extended a qualifying offer to “Disco”, but they ended up retaining him.
In 2021, the former Cincinnati Red had a 3.17 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 152/42 K/BB ratio over 167.2 frames, making 31 starts.
Additionally, and according to Robert Murray of FanSided, the Giants are close to re-signing Wood.
Free-agent pitcher Alex Wood is close to a deal with the San Francisco Giants, according to sources familiar with the situation.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) November 22, 2021
Wood didn’t exactly break out because he had already done that in the past, but he had quite the resurgent season with the Giants in 2021.
The talented left-hander returned after he left behind a couple of injury-shortened, mediocre seasons to finish 2021 with a very good 3.83 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and 152/39 K/BB ratio over 138.2 innings.
Wood has had to deal with lots of injuries in his career, but remains a very talented southpaw when healthy, one that can help stabilize a rotation and provide quality innings in the regular season and playoffs.
If that wasn’t enough, the Giants may be looking for some outside help to shore up their overall rotation depth, too.
Bringing Some Outside Help
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported, also on Monday, that the Giants have their eyes on another free agent pitcher.
Sounds as if the Giants are making a strong push for Alex Cobb. One source telling me he thinks it looks like a match.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) November 22, 2021
Alex Cobb seems like the type of signing that could work for the Giants thanks to their fantastic coaching staff.
He had a good 3.76 ERA and 1.26 WHIP in 2021, but was limited to 93.1 frames with the Los Angeles Angels.
If the deal is indeed finished, he will remain on the West Coast on a talented team prepared to get the best out of him.
He struck out 98 hitters and, judging by his 2.92 Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP), he was better than his 3.76 ERA suggests.
In a span of just a few hours, San Francisco made giant steps (no pun intended) toward retaining their hard-fought NL West title.
This season, they were the best team of the regular season after winning 107 games.
They will be hard-pressed to repeat the figure, especially without the retiring Buster Posey and with Gausman’s future up in the air.
However, the Los Angeles Dodgers also have some pending free agents, and it’s possible they can’t retain all of them.
By shoring up their pitching staff, San Francisco is off to a great start in the offseason.
NEXT: 4 Giants Players Ended Up Earning MVP Votes In 2021
