A month ago, the Giants’ 2022 rotation consisted of Logan Webb and Logan Webb only.
Now, on Dec. 1, as the baseball world braces for its first work stoppage since 1995, San Francisco has Webb, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Alex Cobb officially locked in.
But the Giants’ front office isn’t done.
“I think we still have some work to do there,” president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said Wednesday. “Obviously, we added three starting pitchers. We expect them to be a big part of the rotation picture for us, and we’re just going to continue to work on it.”
Cobb, Wood and DeSclafani each project as strong mid-rotation options behind Webb, the clear ace of the staff. But the Giants also lost Kevin Gausman in free agency to the Toronto Blue Jays, meaning SF will have less top-end arm talent.
Zaidi said the Giants and Gausman had discussions during the season and negotiations spilled over into the offseason, but didn’t expound further on the nature of those talks.
With Webb, Wood, DeSclafani and Cobb, the Giants have four established arms. The Giants philosophically don’t subscribe to the linear idea of needing to replace Gausman, per se, they rather emphasize building a staff that can “shoulder the load” of a 162-game season.
Finding a 1-2 punch like Webb and Gausman in 2021 doesn’t appear to be the main priority.
“There’s some advantage to having starting pitchers that offer some flexibility, whether it’s the ability to go back and forth between the rotation and the pen, younger guys who have options, particularly in a situation where we could build them up a little bit at Triple A and rely on them at different parts of the season,” Zaidi said. “That wouldn’t rule out adding a fifth starter, it’s something we’ll continue to look at.”
The veteran starters still on the free agency market include Marcus Stroman and Carlos Rodón. As for trades, an obvious potential parter is across the Bay in Oakland, where there has been less activity than perhaps expected.
“Everybody could use more top of the rotation options,” Zaidi said. “I think we feel like some of the other options we have could emerge and could be part of that scenario. Some of the starting pitchers that are still available in free agency and trades could be part of that. But again, I think we just try to build the best roster that we can.”
More building will have to wait for the foreseeable future, as a lockout is expected to begin after the clock strikes midnight.
“We’re excited about some of the pitchers we brought back and we have a lot of offseason left to continue to improve our team,” Zaidi said.