Five Things the Giants Must Do to Get Back to Contention

The Giants fell well short of expectations in 2024, so we come up with a roadmap for them to return to contention in 2025.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 1: Buster Posey speaks during a press conference announcing his new role as President of Baseball Operations of the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on October 1, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 1: Buster Posey speaks during a press conference announcing his new role as President of Baseball Operations of the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on October 1, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images)

After putting together one of the busier offseasons this past winter, it seemed that the San Francisco Giants were ready to make a push for the NL West. The big, bad Dodgers, Padres and even the Diamondbacks all stood in their way, but an active offseason provided a ton of hope.

Then the regular season unfolded and the organization was left with an 80-82 finish, good for fourth place in the division. This is not where they wanted to be at by any stretch of the imagination, and they appear to have enter a free fall from their 107-win showing back in 2021.

Change is coming to the Giants in the upcoming offseason, and some of it has already begun to come into effect. Starting at the top, the team welcomed back one-time face of the franchise Buster Posey as their new president of baseball operations. He will bring some new blood into the front office and he’s going to have an agenda to quickly get this team back into contention.

Having to compete with the Dodgers, Padres and Dbacks is no small feat. Posey is going to have his hands full as he looks to put the puzzle together that is 2025 contention.

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New Leadership Brings New Possibilities

Right off the bat, the Giants replaced Farhan Zaidi with Posey in a move that left many scratching their heads. Posey is one of the most popular Giants of all-time, but is he really capable of leading this team from one of its highest positions?

Nobody knows the answer to that just yet, but this doesn’t feel like a move that needs to be written off from the get-go. Posey has always been regarded as a person with a high baseball IQ, and the Giants ownership clearly saw enough in him to hand him the reigns.

He immediately moved Pete Putila out of his role as general manager and began a search for his new GM. Posey has made it clear that he values scouts and people with scouting backgrounds in his search.

To date, the organization has touched base with Oakland A’s assistant GM Billy Owens, ex-Nationals director of player development De Jon Watson and former Dodgers VP of amateur scouting Logan White.

Bringing Posey aboard in this role could backfire, but it’s one that’s worth giving a real chance before writing it off. His eagerness to move pieces around upon taking office is admirable, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he handles the offseason that still hasn’t officially even started.

Let’s take a look at a handful of ways the Giants can get back into the thick of things as early as next season. It won’t be easy, but there’s a path to get themselves back into the division picture and far, far away from those cellar-dwelling Rockies at the bottom of the standings.

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Five Things the Giants Can Do to Return to Contention in 2025

These Giants have a long list of things that they need to address before next season gets underway. In 2024, they finished at or below league-average in most offensive categories; including home runs, wRC+ and fWAR.

On the pitching side of things, they had the seventh-highest strikeout rate, but also the ninth-highest walk rate. League-wide leaderboards will also show that their pitching staff finished 19th in the game in ERA, which is another area they will need to improve in.

We’re here to get specific, though. Let’s check out what the Giants specifically need to do if there’s going to be any hope in turning things around for next year. Residing in one of baseball’s toughest divisions, they’re going to have to be extremely active in reshaping their roster if they want to keep up with the other heavyweights in the division.

Don’t sleep on the fact that the Giants are set to have a ton of money coming off their books in 2025. Blake Snell is likely going to decline his $30 million player option, Michael Conforto’s $18 million and Mark Canha’s $11.5 million contracts are also going to help San Francisco free up some cash.

That’s not to say that it’s Juan Soto or bust this offseason, but there’s certainly some flexibility.

Address Hitting With RISP

Finishing 24th in the league in batting average with RISP is unacceptable, as is a 25th place finish in wRC+ and 26th in runs scored with RISP as well. The Giants desperately need a boost in this department moving forward, and it’s going to be most beneficial for them to find this help externally.

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The Giants need to improve with RISP and they also need to add some thump into their lineup. This is why I’m proposing they land two players who fit this mold perfectly: Jurickson Profar and Willy Adames.

The switch-hitting Profar will be an unrestricted free agent and is coming off of easily the best season of his career. Not only is he a power hitter who possesses some defensive flexibility, but he’s also one of the game’s best hitters with runners in scoring position.

Profar posted a 165 wRC+ in these situations this year, driving in 54 runs while sporting a .321/.446/.509 line with a 15.3% walk rate to go alongside a 16% strikeout rate. He showed this season that he can handle clutch situations, so he’d be a player that checks multiple boxes for the Giants this offseason.

Then there’s Adames, who’s set to be easily the best-available shortstop on the open market. His 187 wRC+ with RISP was good for sixth in the game and his 93 RBI top the charts by a long shot. He’d be a massive upgrade on both sides of the ball. For what it’s worth, Jon Heyman linked the Giants to him already, too.

Adding Profar would help the Giants in their quest to shake up their outfield. This would open the door to transition Mike Yastrzemski to a fourth-outfielder role, which is where he’s at at this stage in his career.

Don’t Stop at Just One Infielder

Adames at shortstop would be a massive get for the Giants, so you can go ahead and pencil him in there. At second base, the club received well below-average production from Thairo Estrada this season, to the point where he’s now a prime non-tender candidate.

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Estrada sported an OPS+ north of 100 in each of the past three years for the Giants, but that number fell all the way down to 68 in 2024. His spot in the lineup was virtually a black hole every day and getting it upgraded is going to be important.

Moving on from Estrada this winter could open the door for an addition of another high-end infielder: soon-to-be ex-division rival Ha-Seong Kim. He’s got an $8 million mutual option for next year, but he’s proven over and over at he deserves a raise, so there’s no shot he picks up his end of that option.

Kim, 29, is a great offensive option who also has some well above-average defensive chops. He has power, draws a ton of walks, steals bases all while playing award-worthy defense at multiple positions around the infield.

Bringing both him and Adames aboard to cover second and/or shortstop would be a huge boost to a Giants lineup that needs it.

This year, Kim hit 11 home runs with an OPS of just .700, but he’s only a year removed from earning MVP votes and a Gold Glove Award, so a multi-year pact is certainly not out of the question for him.

Upgrade at First Base

I’m not going to sit here and say that the Giants need to go out and sign Juan Soto, Pete Alonso, Anthony Santander, Adames and Kim for this offseason to be a successful one. As nice as that’d be, we’re doing what we can to stay realistic here.

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Since the additions of Kim and Adames will eat up a decent amount of their payroll, we’re going budgetary on the first-base upgrades. Alonso would be nice, but he’s only gettable if the club misses out on one of the infielders we’ve already taken a look at.

Enter: Carlos Santana.

The 15-year veteran quietly led the Twins in home runs this year while sporting a .749 OPS and an OPS+ that suggested he was 9% above league-average at the plate. The switch-hitter may be closing in on 40-years old, but he’s proven year after year that he’s still got some juice left in the tank.

Santana hit 23 home runs, drove in 73 runs and continued to do what he does best: hit homers, draw walks and play outstanding defense over at first base. He finished in the 82nd percentile in walk-percentage and the 97th in OAA at first.

Incumbent first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. had an excellent first half in 2024, hitting .311 with an .857 OPS. During that stretch, he looked to be the latest breakout player on the Giants.

In 53 second-half games, he fell off a cliff in the offense department. Wade hit just .207 with an OPS that fell all the way down to .657. He looked overmatched and lost in the vast majority of his plate appearances. With all of this uncertainty heading into 2025, an upgrade is needed.

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Low-Cost Relievers Needed

Giants relievers finished 15th in the game in ERA this past season and there was even a period of time where closer Camilo Doval was down in Triple-A. There’s a bit of uncertainty surrounding the bullpen heading into 2025, so an arm (or two!) will be necessary to add to the equation.

For teams looking for experienced arms who have proven that they’ve still got it, David Robertson is always going to be one of the first names that come to mind. The right-hander is closing in on 40-years old, but he made 68 appearances for the Rangers (his highest amount of games since 2013) this past season and had an impressive 3.00 ERA, 2.65 FIP and 132 ERA+.

Robertson is a 16-year veteran who’s still performing at an above-average clip and has experience in a variety of different roles. He can be a middle reliever, setup man or closer depending on the day. Due to his age, he likely won’t command much more than a single-year pact.

Another name that comes to mind is Yimi Garcia, who also has a long track record of flexibility and solid results. He was traded to the Mariners at this year’s deadline and only managed to appear in 10 games post-trade, but he’d been rock-solid for the Blue Jays over the previous two-and-a-half years.

Other options that may not require a long-term commitment include Carlos Estevez, Kendall Graveman, Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin. Some come with risk, but there’s upside there as well, especially in short-term deals.

Land An Impact Starter

With Snell most likely returning to the free agent market, that leaves the Giants with the following rotation:

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  • Logan Webb: Ace
  • Robbie Ray: Injured for the majority of 2024
  • Jordan Hicks: Shaky as a starter, might be better off as a relief pitcher
  • Kyle Harrison: Former highly touted prospect who is still finding his footing in the big leagues
  • Landen Roupp: Up-and-down results in his first 50 big-league innings this year

With this group, there is certainly room for another starter, perhaps even two if Hicks returns to the ‘pen and if one of the young guns can’t stick in the rotation.

Re-signing Snell would represent the best case scenario, as his second-half performances this year proved his value in a big way. The left-hander had a 1.45 ERA through 12 starts, striking out 103 batters in just 68.1 innings. That’s a significant improvement over the 6.31 ERA in his eight first-half starts.

Bringing him back is the top option. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other players out there for the Giants to look at, though.

Top right-handers include Michael Wacha, Jack Flaherty, Corbin Burnes, Nathan Eovaldi and Luis Severino. Left-handers include Yusei Kikuchi, Snell, Sean Manaea and Max Fried. Take your pick, Giants!

Closing Thoughts

There are going to be quite a few items on Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants’ 2024-2025 offseason wish-list. And rightfully so. The club was extremely active last winter but their moves didn’t amount to much. This year’s going to have to be different.

With multiple holes in the offense to plug and spots in both the rotation and bullpen, there’s plenty to work with. Since the club is going to lose some of it’s larger contracts to their own free-agent stints, the financial flexibility should be more than enough to bring aboard one, two, three or four “big fish” this winter.

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Once the World Series ends, look for Posey and Co. to come out of the gates swinging for the fences as the new regime looks to have a strong first impression amongst the fanbase.