This is a GOLDEN opportunity for the Giants...

Right now, the San Francisco Giants can only lock in two starting pitchers for 2027, Logan Webb and Landon Roop. A third, Adrian Hauser, is on the 60-day IL, and the four young arms that they were probably going to rely on, Wisniewski, Tidwell, McDonald, and Birdsong, are going to be out for most of 2027. So, my ears perked up a little bit when I saw this on my timeline today. Matthew Corey, citing MLB trade rumors, listed the teams with starters to spare. The Mariners, Brian Woo and Bryce Miller. The Angels, Reid Detmers. The Yankees, Will Warren and Ryan Weathers. The Pirates, Carmen Majewski. Four teams, six arms, and I think two of them are perfect fits for the San Francisco Giants. A left-hander who just had the best season of his career, and a kid from Oakland whose bad year might not be so bad. Before we get too deep into today's video, about 75% of you guys watching these videos are not actually subscribed to the channel. It's completely free, takes just a second of your time, and really helps us continue to bring some of the best Giants content and analysis on YouTube. If you enjoy the video, make sure to go down below and hit that button. Now here's why all of this matters. The Giants went 65-97, and the pitching was probably the biggest reason. The staff had a 4.33 ERA, 23rd out of all 30 Major League Baseball teams. And it was more than just bad luck. Giants pitchers struck out just 19.5% of the hitters they faced. That was 27th in baseball. They also walked the 6th most hitters in the majors. We even saw Logan Webb have a subpar season for the first time in his career. It was a 3.22 ERA in 207 innings in 2025. This year, it was a 4.31 in 160 and two-thirds innings. Landon Roop, the second arm penciled in to next year's rotation, had a 4-0-1 ERA in 155 innings. He walked 75 hitters, 4.35 per 9 innings, so even the two locks both took a step back in '26. So, to be clear, this is not the winter to add one arm and call it a day. They need at least two, maybe three. And there's no question the Giants can't afford it. They're the fifth most valuable franchise in baseball, and Spotrac has the Giants' 2027 payroll about $50 million under the luxury tax line. And don't get me wrong, I know we are all extremely excited about this farm system. It's the best it's looked arguably ever, but these prospects aren't going to be throwing pitches for the Giants in April. Outside of the very elite prospects, these guys can be the thing you trade to get someone who's going to be in your rotation. Let's start with the Southpaw. Reid Detmers is exactly what this rotation is lacking, a left-handed starter who's durable and just gets outs. Two years ago, he had a 6.70 ERA in 17 starts. Last year, he spent the whole season in the Angels' bullpen, 61 appearances, 63.2 innings, a 3.96 ERA. In 2026, however, he made all 32 starts, 185 innings, a 3-3-6 ERA, 211 strikeouts, and only 48 walks. Again, this Giants rotation walked the 6th most hitters in all of Major League Baseball. Ray Detmers walked only 48 in his 185 innings. His innings total and workload are in the 97th percentile of Major League Baseball. His WHIP was 1.04, and his FIP, the ERA you'd expect from strikeouts, walks, and home runs, was 301, lower than the 336 he actually produced. And to put his season into perspective, this year, only four pitchers in MLB had 185 innings, 205 strikeouts, and no more than 50 walks. Christopher Sanchez, Cam Schlittler, Logan Gilbert, and Reid Detmers. That's some elite company. Those are all legitimate aces, and he's on that list. This is a pitcher who threw a no-hitter in 2022, and then had a 670 ERA the year after. He's 26, so the Giants aren't going to be paying for what he was, they're paying for what he's turned into. He's under club control through 2028, so you'd be getting two seasons of Reid Detmers, and he earned just over $2.5 million this year. That's two more years at a price that leaves you room to add another starter. Now, of course, Detmers is going to be widely popular if he is available. The Twins went after him before the deadline, and MLB trade rumors said their offer wasn't enough for the Angels to part with him. So the price for Detmers is going to be legit. Now, let's talk about the Bay Area kid who's also an option. Brian Wu was born in Oakland, California. A kid from the East Bay pitching for the San Francisco Giants, that's an easy sell for the Giants to make. And just look at what he did in 2025. 15-7, a 2.94 ERA, 198 strikeouts, 186.2 innings, and only 36 walks. He finished 5th in Cy Young voting that season. To put that into perspective, since the start of 2025, only 3 pitchers have had an ERA under 3, at least 190 strikeouts, and no more than 40 walks in a season. Tarek Skubal, Chris Sale, and Brian Wu. This year, however, was a different story. The ERA jumped to 4-0-1 in 173 innings, also 175 strikeouts and 39 walks. Now, sure, the walks jumped by three in 13.2 fewer innings, but his command barely moved. That tells me he's still the same pitcher. That's exactly what buying low looks like. The market and fans are gonna see an ERA north of four, but the Giants will see the 3.24 FIP and what he did in 2025. Now, he has dealt with several injuries over the course of his career, and I'm not gonna hide that. He left a start in August with shoulder soreness and a pectoral injury ended his 2025 season early. That's a smaller reason why he's also a buy low candidate in the first place. He's under control through 2029, three more seasons, and MLB.com called him affordable. In July, Seattle said they had no intentions of trading him, so now his name is on a list. That tells you the price has gotten a little bit more affordable. But before we get too deep into the price of these trades, let's talk about some of the other names. So let's get into it. Who are the rest of these arms? Bryce Miller, the other Mariner on this list, has a 4.17 ERA and 118 and 2 thirds innings over 21 starts. He's a pretty good arm, but he had the fewest innings of the six and a worse ERA than both of my picks. Will Warren, the Yankee we saw shut down the Giants early in the season, had a 3.92 ERA in 156 innings, but he did tally 54 walks. The Giants staff had already issues with the free passes, so they don't need to add more of that to their rotation. Now, Carmen Majinski started the year as one of the better pitchers in the National League, but he made 37 appearances and only 12 of them were out of the rotation. A .395 ERA and 44 walks in 123 innings, that's more of a swingman, not necessarily a fix for the rotation. Now Ryan Weathers is an interesting candidate because he's also a southpaw which we know the Giants desperately need. He had a 3.60 ERA, 143 strikeouts, and 137.1 innings. And don't get me wrong, the Giants desperately need guys with strikeout stuff. But the part I like is that Detmers threw 47 and two-thirds more innings than Weathers, with a lower ERA. Unless Weathers is is significantly cheaper, I like going to get Detmers. So the list has 6 guys on it, but 2 of them, in my opinion, are ideal candidates for the Giants to trade for. Now let's get to the price. ESPN just ranked the Giants 27th in its way too early predictions for 2027. The write-up says they're stuck behind a highly paid veteran core. Devers, Adamas, Chapman, Lee, and Webb add up to about $117 million alone in 2027. That money is clearly spoken for. Now, of course, the other way to add to your rotation is via free agency, and the Giants ought to pay up if they want to significantly add to this group. Michael King, Tarik Skubal, Trevor Rogers, Shota Imanaga, Freddy Peralta, there are plenty of options, but we know the Giants are always hesitant to spend on rotation help. A trade costs prospects, and for the first time in a long time, they actually have some of those to spare. And another piece to point out with this farm system is that the pitching prospect the Giants were going to count on for next season aren't going to be widely available. Wisniewski, Tidwell, McDonald, and Birdsong are all recovering from Tommy John surgery. So the currency is the prospects who are healthy and the position players who are blocked which could mean a Casey Schmidt. That's how you pay for pitching without gutting what you already have. Now I will throw this out there that the top five to seven prospects in this farm system should be untouchable and because the farm system is so deep the Giants can actually afford to get rid of some of those middle tier prospects. For the first time in a long time, a lefty who made 2.625 million dollars last year and a former Cy Young finalist in the American League are more affordable than the guys on the free agent market. And again, I know all of us are excited about a lot of these prospects in the Giants farm system, but the truth is, not everyone's gonna pan out. I think we've seen that plenty in the past. That's where the farm system does its job. Not every prospect you love is going to become a long-term Giant. Some of them become currency. When you put the two side by side, Detmers has the innings and the workload, 185. Wu has more of the strikeouts to walks, 175-39. One's a southpaw, and one is a Bay Area kid. So to wrap things up, both of them fit, but for different reasons. Detmers clearly fills a hole. The Giants need a left-handed starter, and he just threw 185 innings with a 3-3-6 ERA. Wu, on the other hand, is definitely the dream upside play. A Cy Young finalist from Oakland coming off of his worst season with 3 seasons of control and a FIP that says the bad year was mostly bad luck. And if those guys are too pricey for Buster Posey's comfortability, then you can go get a Ryan Weathers from the Yankees, a Bryce Miller from the Mariners, but if the Giants really want to try and contend next season, then those two are your guys. Now let me know what you think down in the comment section below. If you were Buster Posey and going to make a trade for a starter, who would it be in this case scenario? If you enjoyed, hit that subscribe button, thank you so much for watching.