© Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Spring training is quickly coming to a close as the Giants whittle down their roster to 25-men before opening day on March 28th. Players continue to battle for roster spots at basically every position, but the outfield remains the biggest question mark. The Giants are likely going into the 2019 season with three outfield starters that don’t exactly jump off the page. Mac Williamson, Steven Duggar, and Gerardo Parra are the three favorites to start on opening day.
Giants President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi joined Marty Lurie Sunday afternoon to discuss a myriad of topics, including how he projects the outfield situation to shake out.
“The last piece is to figure out the outfield situation,” Zaidi said. “We’ve looked into some guys over the course of the offseason. We’ve got some guys who are playing well in camp, a couple of guys who have impressed.”
The team has been thought to be in the market for another outfielder all offseason, with the most likely scenario an acquisition via trade. Zaidi discussed how that is still a possibility and when a potential move like that could be made.
“As teams are beginning to look at their opening day rosters, there are players that are out of options and certain teams that have a surplus of players. We’ve known that those teams are going to wait until the absolute last second to make a move.”
Zaidi has been patient all offseason when it comes to making moves, and that might still be the case, even if it’s just days before the season begins.
“We’re continuing to monitor and have those conversations. You can’t force someone to make a deal that’s not there, you can’t force a trade partner to make a trade they aren’t ready to make. As things shake out this last week, teams are going to have to make decisions with their roster, I’ll imagine there will be more player movement.”
Aside from potentially adding another outfielder, the Giants might be in the market to trade out of their current bullpen surplus.
“That’s something we’ll have to do on the pitching side. We’ve got a bunch of kids who are pitching well, some guys that are out of options on our staff, we have a Rule 5 guy in the mix. We’re going to have a bit of a roster crunch on our side.”
Throughout the final week of spring training, the Giants are expected to make those tough decisions, as they will impact nearly every part of the roster. Luckily, the team has established much better depth in the rotation and bullpen, which can allow them to be flexible with constructing a roster to begin the season. It remains unclear what the final roster will look like, but a few moves over the course of the next week remain a distinct possibility.
Listen to the full interview with Farhan Zaidi here: