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Giants add starting pitcher, trade for top prospect in flurry of moves

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Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports


SAN DIEGO — Farhan Zaidi warned Monday the Giants were close to significant moves, and he wasn’t lying.

The Winter Meetings picked up steam a day later, when San Francisco added pitching, hitting and a top prospect.

First, the Giants signed Kevin Gausman to a one-year, $9 million deal, a Drew Pomeranz’ian gamble on a promising starting pitcher — a fourth-overall pick in 2012 — who hasn’t quite lived up to that promise. The to-be 29-year-old has spent most of his career starting in Baltimore, where he was solid from 2014-16 (.377 ERA), but finished out of relief in Cincinnati last year and was then non-tendered. He will be in the rotation for the Giants — or at least start there — as the Giants now have three-fifths of a staff complete.

The flier on Gausman will cost money and little else. As will the other move the Giants pulled off Tuesday afternoon, acquiring infielder Zack Cozart — and the $12.6 million he’s owed next season — and top prospect Will Wilson from the Angels in exchange for a player to be named or cash considerations. Essentially, the Giants will eat money to gain a prospect.

Wilson, a shortstop from North Carolina State, was the 15th-overall pick this year and had been rated the No. 4 prospect in the Angels’ organization. Cozart, meanwhile, has played just 96 games the last two seasons and is coming off left shoulder surgery. He was an All-Star in 2017.