Zaidi previews ‘active’ offseason for Giants

The Giants fell short of expectations this season, regressing to .500 following their 107-win campaign in 2021.

With San Francisco out of the playoff picture, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi met with reporters on a Zoom call on Friday afternoon to look ahead to arguably the biggest offseason of his four-year tenure with the club.

A key priority for the Giants will be getting younger and more athletic, which they hope will resolve the subpar defense that plagued them in 2022. Zaidi said he hopes to target up-the-middle position players who can help the Giants upgrade at premium defensive positions and prevent them from overextending several key veterans who struggled to stay healthy this year.

Even with Brandon Crawford returning next year, the Giants could pursue a free-agent shortstop such as Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson, Xander Bogaerts, who is likely to opt out of his contract with the Red Sox, or Carlos Correa, who is likely to opt out of his contract with the Twins. They’re also viewed as a potential suitor for slugger Aaron Judge, a Linden, Calif., native and Fresno State product who crushed an American League-record 62 home runs for the Yankees this season.

“Our fans expect a winning team, which we didn’t deliver this year,” Zaidi said. “We have to go back to the drawing board and explore every channel to get better. I expect us to be really active this offseason. We do have the flexibility to be involved in every possible option on the table, but our goal is when we get to Spring Training and Opening Day hits in 2023, we feel like we’ve got a playoff-caliber team out on the field. That’s going to drive everything we do this offseason.”

Here are three things we learned from Zaidi’s 43-minute debriefing:

1. The Giants ‘fully expect’ Rodón to opt out
Carlos Rodón earned the ability to opt out of his two-year deal with the Giants after reaching 110 innings this year, and Zaidi said he believes the 29-year-old lefty will exercise that right this offseason.

“We fully expect Carlos to opt out,” Zaidi said. “That’ll create an opening in our rotation.”

Rodón, who logged a 2.88 ERA with a career-high 237 strikeouts over 178 innings this year, is likely to command a lucrative long-term deal on the open market. Zaidi said there’s “mutual interest” in a return, though he’d almost certainly have to step out of his comfort zone to bring back Rodón. Anthony DeSclafani's three-year, $36 million deal stands as the longest contract given to a free-agent pitcher since Zaidi took over as the Giants’ baseball operations chief in November 2018.

“He had a spectacular season for us, there’s no doubt about that,” Zaidi said of Rodón. “He’s going to have plenty of suitors. I’m sure we’re going to be talking to [agent] Scott Boras about bringing him back. The feedback from Carlos and from Scott is he enjoyed being here, he enjoys pitching at our park. I would say there’s mutual interest, and we just have to see how it plays out.”

DeSclafani made only five starts for the Giants this year before undergoing season-ending right ankle surgery in July, but he’s expected to rejoin Logan Webb, Alex Cobb and Alex Wood in the starting rotation in 2023. Zaidi said Jakob Junis would ideally be used as a swingman, allowing the Giants to add at least one starting pitcher this offseason.

Even if Rodón departs, the Giants have another electric lefty coming up in Kyle Harrison, who is ranked the club’s No. 2 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Harrison, 21, is expected to open the season at Triple-A Sacramento, but he could debut in San Francisco’s rotation sooner rather than later.

“We expect him to be in our rotation at some point next year,” Zaidi said. “Could even be relatively early in the season.”

2. Zaidi open to reunions with Longoria, Belt
The Giants have a decision to make on veteran third baseman Evan Longoria, who has a $13 million club option for 2023 that includes a $5 million buyout. While he has contemplated retirement, Longoria recently said he’d be open to coming back for one more season and expressed a desire to remain in San Francisco.

Even with the Giants’ desire to get younger, the 37-year-old Longoria could make sense in a part-time role, as he remained productive when healthy and is still the club’s best defensive option at third base.

“There’s certainly a role for Longo on our team in 2023 with the way we manage our roster,” Zaidi said.

The outlook for longtime first baseman Brandon Belt is murkier, as he underwent season-ending right knee surgery last month and will be a free agent when the World Series concludes.

“He’s everything we want in an offensive player in terms of the power and patience and at-bat quality,” Zaidi said. “We’ll certainly stay in touch. He has a decision to make. He’s going to have to see how he’s feeling. But that’s certainly a possibility of having him back next year because he does a lot of things that we like.”

3. The search for a new GM is underway
Zaidi confirmed that the Giants are in the process of interviewing candidates for their general manager position, which opened up when Scott Harris left to become the new president of baseball operations for the Tigers. Zaidi said he hopes to have a replacement in place before the GM Meetings, which will run from Nov. 7-9 in Las Vegas.

“We’re definitely going to miss Scott,” Zaidi said. “We’ve missed him already. But being where we are and facing a big offseason, I think it’s going to be a great thing for us to have some fresh perspectives in the organization. A new general manager could certainly bring a fresh perspective on our roster, player development and evaluation philosophies.”