Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports
The most concrete thing that is virtually known about this free-agency season: It will be annoying.
It will be long. It will be drawn-out. The same factors — how players are evaluated has greatly changed in recent years, agents and front offices are far apart in valuing players, prototypical contracts are evaporating in a hurry — are still in play.
So whom the Giants bring in or retain this season probably will not be resolved right away.
“The free-agent market has extended an uncomfortably long time for all involved [recently],” Zaidi said Tuesday at an end-of-season news conference. “… Unfortunately, I don’t see any reason why it would be any different this offseason.”
Further complicating matters for the Giants is their chief need has a moving target. The Giants scored 678 runs this season, the third least in baseball. If they want to contend next season, they will need to beef up their bats.
They will need to find players who can hit at an evolving Oracle Park — which will have slightly different dimensions next season as the bullpen mounds get moved — a pitchers’ park that has swallowed their veterans (Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt) whole.
Zaidi said without knowing the final dimensions of Oracle Park, it’s difficult to ascertain what type of hitters they will target. But the “easy answer” to the type of hitter who would play here: “Power.”
“We’re improved in that category this year, but so was everybody else in baseball,” Zaidi said of a team that hit 167 homers — up from 2018’s 133, but still 26th in baseball. “So I think from our standpoint, it’s going to be continuing along that trend. I guess there’s two things: One is just the total power on the team. And the second is having guys that have hitting profiles or track records of hitting in this park.”
The latter reflects well on Kevin Pillar, an early-season trade acquisition who presents Zaidi with a difficult case of whether he should return. Pillar was dependable, playing 161 games in total this year, leading the team in virtually every category — average (.264), home runs (21), RBIs (87), steals (14) — while manning center field, at times spectacularly.
But his on-base percentage (.293) is poor, and his center field defensive metrics are not as kind to him as fans’ eyes are. He makes great plays but also is a half-step slow for others. Yet, he can hit at Oracle Park.
In a season in which Posey hit a single home run at home and Crawford two, the shortstop slashing .209/.292/.269 at Oracle Park, Pillar hit everywhere. He knocked 11 homers (10 on the road) and slashed .260/.287/.438 in San Francisco, all slightly up from his road numbers.
Pillar, 30, is entering his final year of arbitration, in which he’s expected to make about $8-10 million. He has said he wants to return, and that’s neither a cheap nor extravagant salary. The Giants’ offense will have to improve somewhere, which may hurt his case. The free-agent center field market is slim, which may help his case. With 20-year-old Heliot Ramos already at Double-A and perhaps in position for a promotion, and the notion of a single Pillar season serving as a placeholder for him, that may help his case.
The other immediate area of need for the Giants is the starting rotation, which has Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto under contract, Madison Bumgarner in limbo and a bunch of kids in the wings. The Giants have made significant strides with their farm system, which now ranks in the middle of the league, and Zaidi called it “very possible” that the organization could dip into the prospect level to help their rotation through trades.
“Major league starting pitching is going to be a need for us this offseason. I wish that made us unique in baseball, but it doesn’t,” Zaidi said. “There’s always plenty of demand for those guys that can provide you with quality innings with a high level of confidence. I think that’s something we’re going to look at.
“With the 26th roster spot next year, it could open the door to other configurations on the pitching staff, [which] is something else that we may look at. For us, everything is going to be on the table.”
Additionally, the Giants will be bringing back pieces like Tyler Beede, Logan Webb, Dereck Rodriguez and Shaun Anderson. They will be competing for spots, and Zaidi would like veteran presences not just to push them but to help them.
“It’s going to be a necessity for us and it’s a priority for us to continue developing our young pitchers,” he said. “But certainly having veteran pitchers around them is valuable from a competitiveness standpoint and also valuable from a developmental standpoint.”