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It doesn’t sound like Yasiel Puig-to-Giants is imminent

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Kareem Elgazzar-Imagn Content Services, LLC


Farhan Zaidi rarely closes doors that could lead him somewhere. Flexibility and options are what his front office is built upon, always leaving a path he wouldn’t mind traveling down.

So he did not rule out bringing in outside help, whether through trades or free agency. And yet, he also did not make it seem as if Yasiel Puig would be a Giant any day now.

The polarizing outfielder, whom Zaidi knows from his Dodger days and who had been consistently linked with the Giants — most recently by CBS Sports, who reported the Giants would be players for his services — is still waiting for his team after being left hanging before the pandemic paused baseball in March. The transaction freeze was recently thawed, but still there has not been any movement.

“Our main intent is to continue evaluating internal options,” the Giants’ president of baseball operations said on a Zoom call Monday after announcing the team’s 51-player pool. “But part of not going all the way to 60 is to maintain flexibility as free agents come available or as … trades come available. I think that’s part of our motivation in keeping things a little bit open.”

As always, the Giants are open, even if so many of their fans would like them to be closed to a personality who went to war so often with Madison Bumgarner.

This offseason, in deciding to non-tender Kevin Pillar, Zaidi cited the need to get more at-bats for younger outfielders, freeing up time for the likes of Mike Yastrzemski, Jaylin Davis and Steven Duggar. It’s possible the Giants could change their line of thinking in a season that has just 60 games (if they’re lucky). Development takes a backseat when winning can be done.

Still, it sounds as if the Giants want to know if they can succeed with the crop in-house.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if, as camp moves on, we get all the way up to 60 just on internal options,” Zaidi said. “Because we still have quite a few guys that we’re actively discussing.”