MLB Free Agency 2017-18: Biggest Holes for Every Team
30. San Francisco Giants: 64-98 (Last in the NL West)
When your roster has MLB legend Madison Bumgarner, you can at least find a few bright spots from even a terrible season. With that ace on the shelf a good portion of the season due to an extracurricular accident, there’s not much to choose from that is positive.
There’s not enough time or money for the MLB Free Agency to help this team. The Giants’ offense was almost dead last in the MLB in both runs scored and on-base percentage. Add to that being last in home runs and slugging percentage, and you can see why they had problems with production.
Hunter Pence‘s .260/.315/.385 statistics were easily the worst of his career, hindering an ordinarily steady Giants offense from taking that next step.
What can this Giants team do to bring back the swagger of 2010, 2012, and 2014 World title teams?
Catcher Nick Hundley was a ghost on the base paths (.272 OBP), with outfielder Gorkys Hernandez providing zero power production (.326 SLG). Rookies Ryder Jones (.173/.244/.273) and Christian Arroyo (.192/.244/.304) were utterly overmatched every time they stepped up to the plate.
Matt Cain, the Robin to Bumgarner’s Batman, had an injury-plagued, average campaign. The aforementioned Mad-Bum missed half the season with that freak accident. The ordinarily steady Johnny Cueto had an inflated 4.52 ERA. Matt Moore had the least amount of success with 5.52 ERA, while Ty Blach‘s 4.78 ERA wasn’t much better.
What can this Giants team do to bring back the swagger of 2010, 2012, and 2014 World title teams? First off, they need to stay healthy. The Giants had the third-highest payroll in baseball heading into this season, and it was wasted on the DL.
2017’s $172 million dollar payroll was wasted and those massive contracts are still looming, so the team won’t change a lot in 2018.
They do have some hope within their farm system but need to pick up some key free agents. Kansas City Royals third basemen Mike Moustakas would be a nice addition and the team would be wise to not pick up the worthless contract of the overrated Denard Span.
2018 is an even-numbered year, and we know what often happens when that’s the case; another banner is hanging up in the City by the Bay. However, they can’t rely on the past and need to fill those holes before they can return to the top of the NL West and MLB once again.