The San Francisco Giants’ offseason plan thus far has been to keep their championship team intact. General manager Brian Sabean has re-signed Jeremy Affeldt, let formerly suspended outfielder Melky Cabrera depart via free agency and continued to negotiate with free agents Marco Scutaro and Angel Pagan.
Other names the Giants have been linked to such as outfielders Michael Bourn, Nick Swisher, Shane Victorino, Ichiro Suzuki and second baseman Hiroyuki Nakajima appear to be fallback options in case Scutaro and Pagan get away.
While Las Vegas thinks the Giants are the best bet to sign Josh Hamilton, the reality is that they have stayed away from large free-agent contracts since the signings of Barry Zito in 2006 and Aaron Rowand in 2007.
The team will likely stick to short-term deals as they’ve done in recent offseasons with the signings of Edgar Renteria, Randy Johnson, Javier Lopez, Miguel Tejada, Juan Uribe, Mark DeRosa, Freddy Sanchez, Pat Burrell, Jeremy Affeldt, Aubrey Huff and others.
The best bet for a long-term contract would be Buster Posey, who is in line for the type of contract extension that the team gave to Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner during spring training last season.
The Giants have won the World Series twice in the last three seasons; therefore, they just need to bolster the roster through free agency rather than rebuild the entire team. The core of the team is intact, but they do need help in the outfield, at second base and in the bullpen.
Here’s a breakdown of 12 possible free-agent acquisitions for the Giants this winter.