This will Unlock the Giants...

This will unlock the San Francisco Giants. Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, and this entire front office have a ton of work to do as we enter the offseason after a near 100 loss season. Sports Illustrated highlighted the moves that will unlock this team, and we're going to break down all of those and exactly what they had to say here on SF Giants Digest. If you're new here, welcome to the channel. I am your host, Michael Monreal. And if you've been here before, welcome back to SF Giants Digest. We are so, so glad you found your way back to the channel. Now, before we get into today's video, let me know down in the comment section your thoughts on the Giants' offseason coming up. What do you think they need to do this winter? Let me know down in the comment section below. Also, if you haven't yet, make sure to go down below, hit that like button, hit that subscribe button. About three quarters of you guys who watch the videos are not actually subscribed to the channel. Completely free, takes just a second of your time, and really does help us continue to bring the best Giants content and analysis on YouTube. So if you enjoy, go down below, hit those buttons, that'd be much appreciated by myself and everybody here at Digest Media. Now, getting into today's video, we know the San Francisco Giants have a huge offseason ahead of them. Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, and Tony Vitello, they all think the Giants can contend in 2027. Whereas a lot of the fanbase, including myself, thinks it'll most likely be a developmental year where they see what they have in a lot of these young guys, a lot of these rookies, and maybe some prospects that are ahead of schedule. So it's a really interesting middle area where the Giants are currently at, but if Buster Posey and co. are serious about contending next year, these are the moves they absolutely have to make. The first one is very, very obvious. The Giants must add at least two starting pitchers. So, of course, heading into next season, there are only two starters that are really locked into this group. Starting with Logan Webb, coming off of the worst year of his career, most likely. A 4.31 ERA in 160 innings, only 134 strikeouts, which came out to right around 7.5 strikeouts per 9, 1.3 WAR. It was not Logan Webb's best season. He was dealing with injuries. He was dealing with a lot. So, the Giants are really counting on him to bounce back next season and be the ace that we've seen him to be over the past few seasons. now the other name that is locked into this rotation is Landon Roop who last year had an interesting season he blew past his career high in innings with 155 innings on the year 143 strikeouts and a 4.01 ERA he started the year looking like a legitimate number two regressed over the course of the season it just grew tired and didn't go as deep into games so it was good to see him blow past that innings total from last year was 104 106 something right around there so seeing him throw 155 innings is encouraging and I expect him to be better next season which of course will better this rotation now this is where things get interesting what does Buster Posey do to better this group heading into next season so as a group this Giants rotation had a 4-4-8 ERA last year and Sports Illustrated in this most recent article which was basically five ways to fix the Giants they called for two established starters alongside Logan Webb and Landon Roop And I think one thing is clear, Buster Posey absolutely has his work cut out for himself heading into next year. There are actually some pretty strong free agents. I know this is one of the weakest free agent classes I've actually ever seen in recent memory, but the starting pitching class is probably the most impressive group of this class. So guys like Michael King, Kevin Gausman, Freddy Peralta, guys that have really high upside, and sure there's some risk mixed in with injury or age, whatever it may be, but there are some righties with high upside on this free agent market. I would love, love, love a Michael King right behind Logan Webb. There's also some interesting lefties in Trevor Rogers with the Orioles, who's had some up-and-down years. Shota Imanaga, a guy that the Giants were in on when he originally came over from Japan. And then, of course, we've gone over some here. There are a lot of trade candidates that the Giants can show some interest in. Now, I did want to really shout out a comment from one of our more recent videos. This came to us from that username. Don't want to try and pronounce it. Don't know what it is. But, Logan Gilbert, who would require to trade, should be the primary target. If Mason Miller becomes available, the Giants will not be able to get him without ruining the farm system, the free agent pitchers will be overpaid by other teams, and the Giants would end up with Tyler Mahle again. Would it be such a bad thing if they got Tyler Mahle? Because clearly he was dominant with the Braves. That is a joke. That is a joke. But Logan Gilbert is a guy I would love. It just would be fairly expensive, and I wouldn't say that Mason Miller coming to the Giants would ruin their farm system, because the Giants have one of the deepest farm systems in baseball, but it would 1,000% be extremely expensive. Now, talking about Logan Gilbert, who's a starter, and then mention Mason Miller, who is a reliever, that brings up the next conversation, and that is that the Giants must rebuild the late-inning relief group of their bullpen. Now, last season, we saw the Giants claim Camilo Duval in the last week of the year, and they do have a decision coming on whether he'll be part of this group moving forward, but last year was an interesting year for Camilo Duval. Yes, it was negative 0.3 wins above replacement and a 4.15 ERA in 66 games, 16 two-thirds innings. But he did show some improvement since heading to the Pittsburgh Pirates. It seemed like him being with the Yankees in that environment just didn't really work out. I'm not sure what it was because he's supposed to be Tranquilo Camilo, who's, you know, really calm. But either way, he went to the Pirates, got better. And then the last few innings with the Giants the last two days of the year, he looked pretty dominant. Now, of course, that's a very, very small sample, but if the Giants can get anything close to that next year, then they need an arm like that in their bullpen. And then another person who will be returning to this group is Randy Rodriguez. Of course, we talked about him a few days ago, but a 2025 All-Star who ended up getting Tommy John missing all of this year. He's going to be a big help to the late inning relief group of this Giants bullpen. You look at a lot of green on these sliders. You know, this is a guy who was an All-Star who wasn't a closer, which is extremely difficult to do. He's going to be a big plus to this group, and even if he's not a closer or even an 8th inning guy, if he can be a dominant 7th inning guy for the Giants, that, of course, is going to give them a huge step up compared to what they had in 2026. So here is how Buster Posey can kind of help build this group. The bullpen as a whole had a 4-1-4 ERA and 26 blown saves last year. imagine I mean you're not going to win every single save opportunity but imagine the Giants won 15 of those games 18 of those games you're in a completely different place in the standings you're potentially in the playoff race a lot changes so getting a guy that can shore up that ninth inning or a few guys that can close down these games is going to be huge a Sports Illustrated called for two established late inning relievers and a decision on Camilo Duval which I actually do like sure they're going to add their minor league signings they're going to add their Caleb Kilians of the world guys like that but if you sign two legitimate relievers or trade for one whatever it is and bring back Camilo Duvall and he's better than he's been in past years then that turns into a relatively strong bullpen after having one of the worst bullpens in baseball I will say this is going to be Buster Posey Buster Posey excuse me it's going to be his biggest test because he went into last year thinking it was enough and that bullpen was absolutely trash so he's going to have to build this group up even just for PR reasons because The Giants fans are expecting some big moves with this group and, of course, the rotation. Now, this is an interesting talking point, but the Giants must clarify some of their young infield roles. Of course, Bryce Eldridge was absolutely awesome last year in .825 OPS, 269, 364, 461 slash line, and 2.1 WAR. Rafael Devers put together one of the best offensive seasons we've seen in recent memory with the San Francisco Giants. an .865 OPS, 37 home runs, 98 RBI, so close to a 40-100 season. He was absolutely awesome. He's probably part of the future. And then you talk about Casey Schmitt, who was also absolutely awesome. A .784 OPS, 271-301-483 slash line, good for one and a half WAR in less than 100 games. So he is definitely a building block of the future here in San Francisco. Now this is where things get interesting. Sports Illustrated wants Eldridge at first more, and Rafael Devers mostly as the DH, which I actually agree with. I think Bryce Eldridge is actually the better defender at first base than Bryce Eldridge, and if that is the case, that's how they grade it out, then why would Eldridge not be playing more first base than Rafael Devers? I think it just makes too much sense at this point, and Eldridge is arguably the better athlete too, which I know Devers used to play third, he should be able to translate over to first pretty good, but it just didn't seem that that was the case last season if we're being completely honest now Casey Schmitt and Meyer competing for second Casey Schmitt is in an interesting spot because it looks like right now if I were to guess he'd be the starting left fielder and maybe Marcelo Meyer the starting second baseman but why should the Giants rush Marcelo Meyer let him start the year in AA A maybe for a month similar to what they did with Eldridge last year get his feet underneath him and then come up when he's hot and help lead this team help be the starting second baseman shore up this infield group and then Casey Schmitt can move to left field because we know Casey Schmidt is extremely comfortable as the utility person on this roster so it's interesting to see what Buster Posey does with this group but that will be something that we will be monitoring probably closer to spring training next season now the next conversation is the Giants need probably one right-handed outfield bat and there's one bat that makes too much sense here Randall Grichuk is going to be a free agent, and he was awesome this season. An .880 OPS, .287, .314, .566 slash line. He also hit 15 home runs. He was very good, 1.4 WAR, and now I know you guys are thinking, okay, why is this guy not an all-star with those numbers? He is a pure platoon bat, and that's exactly what the Giants need. They have struggled year after year, mashing left-handed pitching, and that's kind of all Randall Grichuk does. Sure, he'll play outfield. He'll be fine on defense he'll get an occasional hit against righties but he mashes mashes mashes left-handed pitching a perfect platoon partner for a guy like Drew Gilbert and that's something that i would look for the giants to do this offseason now the giants need right-handed outfield help but it's not something that is you know they're absolutely desperate for Sports Illustrated suggest complimentary right-handed outfield hitting without blocking Bo Davidson and then of course Harrison Bader does fit into this conversation but personally i don't think he'll play another game with the giants who knows could be wrong They say he'll be healthy for spring training next year, but I'm sure we'll get a decision on that front over the next few months, maybe even after the lockout. But also Buster Posey could see all of these young outfielders that came up this past season, all these prospects and say, hey, we're good. We're going to throw all these guys at the wall, see what sticks, and then we'll know what we have moving forward. So that could also be what ends up coming up this season. Now, the last part of this conversation is kind of the smallest one and the most obvious, but the Giants must clear some payroll and roster space. They need to just bring some flexibility onto this roster. They have a lot of expensive deals, a lot of aging deals that aren't aging necessarily well. Can they get creative? Get rid of a Willie Adams deal. Pay down some of it. Get rid of it. Can they maybe get Matt Chapman to release his no-trade clause? They have to get creative because there's just too much bad money on this roster, and it'll be interesting to see how Buster Posey navigates all of that. And then they also need some roster flexibility. We saw last year they used 71 guys, tied a franchise record. They're going to have to release a ton of guys because they have 16, 17 guys on the 60-day IL. Buster Posey is going to have to do a lot of navigating and get really creative with flexibility and this roster heading into the offseason. And I am fascinated to see how he does it. Now, let me know in the comments down below. What's the biggest offseason priority? Starting pitching, the bullpen, or the lineup and roster? Personally, I think it's quite obvious that the bullpen and starting pitching need to take priority. But we'll see what Buster Posey and company do. if you enjoyed today's video hit that like button hit that subscribe button that'd be much appreciated by myself and everybody here at Digest Media and leave your comments down below your thoughts on the Giants current situation as always thank you so much for watching and we will see you next time