SF Giants should be center of attention at next week’s MLB Winter Meetings

About this time last year, Bob Melvin gussied himself up in a black blazer, took a seat at one of two tables set up in a nondescript hotel ballroom a stone’s throw from the San Diego waterfront and answered questions on the state of the Padres, fulfilling the manager’s media obligations at the annual gathering of the baseball world.

Next week, Melvin will go through the same ritual, in another hotel ballroom, a couple thousand miles east, only now representing the San Francisco Giants.

After missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season, the Giants’ biggest moves entering the Winter Meetings, which kick off Monday and run through Wednesday at the Nashville Opryland Resort, have been the new manager and his coaching staff. Farhan Zaidi is the only executive in the NL West yet to execute a move on his major-league roster (though he has more company league-wide, where about half the teams have stood still so far).

But the Giants aren’t expected to remain quiet.

“We plan on being active,” chairman Greg Johnson said last month.

Team officials will talk trades over Tennessee whiskey. They’ll host player agents for meetings in their suites. Nobody will take their eyes off their phones.

The Winter Meetings are traditionally the hotbed of offseason activity, and the Giants should be at the center of attention.

They desperately want a star to build around, and there’s none bigger than Shohei Ohtani, who could end the sport’s most anticipated free agency by the end of the meetings, according to general managers who spoke anonymously to ESPN. And they have plenty of money — about $68.7 million for 2024 before the first luxury tax threshold, according to Cot’s Contracts — after last year’s pursuits of Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa didn’t work out.

Absent Ohtani, the Giants could be aggressive in their pursuits of other free agent position players, namely Korean outfielder Jung-Hoo Lee, NL Comeback Player of the Year Cody Bellinger and Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman, who would all represent upgrades in the field and provide stability to a platoon-heavy lineup that ranked near the bottom of the majors in most offensive categories over the second half of last season.

Chapman, very familiar with Melvin from their time in Oakland, hasn’t played fewer than 140 games in any of the past five full seasons while never posting an OPS+ below league average. He would supplant J.D. Davis, who faded down the stretch but proved he can handle the hot corner while being productive at the plate and would make an attractive trade piece, and might help ease the job of Marco Luciano, who’s expected to take over at short.

Zaidi has pointed to the outfield as an area of need, and both Lee and Bellinger would give the Giants a true center fielder that would allow them to play Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater in the corners and slide Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto into the Joc Pederson role as part-time DH/outfielders.

Both come with their own question marks. Bellinger enjoyed a bounce-back season with the Cubs, hitting .307 with 26 home runs in 130 games, but will he revert to the player who batted .203 from 2020-22, leading the Dodgers to non-tender him last offseason? Lee doesn’t hit for much power, but he’s a career .340 hitter and has walked more than he’s struck out. He is also coming off an ankle injury, and the adjustment to major-league pitching is considered even more challenging coming from Korea than Japan.

Still, either player would represent an upgrade in an outfield unit that finished last season 28th in the majors in Outs Above Average (minus-13), 22nd in Defensive Runs Saved (minus-7), 28th in OPS (.682) and 26th Wins Above Replacement (minus-3.3), according to Baseball-Reference.

The only position where they got less production was shortstop, where the pickings are slim. Brandon Crawford’s agent told reporters at the GM meetings last month that he was listening to offers, and he might be the top option after Tim Anderson.

The Giants could also bolster their rotation, potentially allowing them to trade from their stable of young arms to upgrade their offense.

Zaidi has not hidden his affinity for Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, confirming his visit to watch him pitch in the Pacific League playoffs in October. Likewise, general manager Pete Putila was spotted checking in on Lee in his farewell to the KBO. (Unlike Yamamoto, who can sign from now until Jan. 4, Lee has not yet been posted and is not eligible to sign.)

Jon Morosi reported Tuesday on MLB Network that the Giants are “set” on acquiring Yamamoto or Ohtani.

“They’re pursuing both very aggressively,” Morosi said, citing anonymous sources. “The Giants are devoting their full hearts and finances to one of Shohei Ohtani or Yoshinobu Yamamoto.”

Yamamoto would slide in nicely behind Logan Webb, and possibly free up Kyle Harrison, Carson Whisenhunt, Keaton Winn or other young arms as trade chips in a potential swap, whether it be for someone young and controllable (maybe Brewers shortstop Willy Adames or one of the Reds’ many infielders) or the kind of middle-of-the-order bat the Giants have so far failed to attract through free agency (think Pete Alonso, Juan Soto or Paul Goldschmidt).

While Yamamoto has a diminutive frame and a nontraditional delivery, he is also only 25 years old and possesses a lethal splitter that he pairs with a fastball that reaches the upper 90s that could net him the largest contract of any free agent pitcher, even NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell.

The Yankees, Mets and Dodgers have also been connected to the three-time Sawamura Award winner.

Only the Giants, however, have a manager who can claim credibility with Ohtani’s superstar predecessor, Ichiro Suzuki, Lee’s former teammate Ha-Seong Kim and Yamamoto’s friend Yu Darvish.

“I do have some familiarity there,” Melvin said at his introductory news conference. “Hopefully that resonates.”

In case you missed it

Wrapping up the offseason to date …

• Seven Giants are now free agents: Crawford, Joc Pederson, Alex Wood, Sean Manaea, Jakob Junis, John Brebbia and Scott Alexander.
• A few former coaches have taken jobs elsewhere: Andrew Bailey as the pitching coach in Boston and Craig Albernaz as the bench coach in Cleveland, where Kai Correa is also the new field coordinator under Stephen Vogt. Gabe Kapler was recently hinting on Instagram about a road trip to South America.
• Melvin finalized his new staff, welcoming third base coach Matt Williams, pitching coach Bryan Price and bench coach Ryan Christianson into the fold.
• A couple of the top free-agent pitchers are already off the board: Sonny Gray to St. Louis (3 years, $75M) and Aaron Nola staying in Philadelphia (7 years, $172M).
• The biggest splash within the NL West came from the defending National League champion Diamondbacks, who traded for Eugenio Suarez to fill their hole at third base. The Dodgers moved quickly to re-sign Max Muncy and Jason Heyward, while even the Rockies snagged starter Cal Quantrill from Cleveland.
• In the Arizona Fall League, no Giants prospects were selected for the All-Star game. Former top pick Will Bednar was shut down with recurring back pain, while two-way first-rounder Reggie Crawford struck out in 30 of his 58 at-bats as a hitter only. Luciano has received considerable playing time in the Dominican Winter League but struggled mightily, with eight hits and 18 strikeouts in 47 at-bats (a .170 average).
• Wilmer Flores has joined the Navegantes del Magallanes, his hometown team in the Venezuelan Winter League, according to a social media post from the club. Flores hasn’t played winter ball since 2015, when he was still a prospect, but requested a trade so he could suit up in front of friends and family this winter.  In an interview at the end of the season, Flores said their games were the first he ever attended and playing for them was “something I wanted to do personally for my family.” “I’ve been asking (for the trade) for three years,” Flores said. “The thing is they didn’t want to trade me because they didn’t think I was gonna play. They still don’t think so. They’ll probably be surprised.”