When the Giants traded for Robbie Ray, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi described the former Cy Young Award winner as a nice complement to Logan Webb at the top of the rotation. With Ray rehabbing this spring, team officials have watched Kyle Harrison's continued progress and wondered if his day as the co-ace will arrive sooner than expected.
On Monday, a little bit of pressure was lifted off the shoulders of the two left-handers.
The addition of Blake Snell gives the Giants the top two finishers in the 2023 NL Cy Young race, and it will allow the others in the rotation a bit more time to settle in. It also fills a massive hole on the roster, and potentially will give what had looked like a flawed roster a chance to make some noise in the National League.
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For all of the work they did to upgrade the roster, the Giants still have faced questions all spring about their ability to field a competitive rotation early in the year. Snell, who agreed to a two-year, $62 million contract that is pending a physical, makes all of those dissipate, and he caps what has been a massive offseason for Zaidi.
It was not a popular decision to extend Zaidi when new Giants manager Bob Melvin was hired, and the chorus grew louder when the rival Los Angeles Dodgers spent a record sum on Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two players the Giants long coveted. But Zaidi and the front office pivoted, not quickly, but with patience.
They have added a leadoff hitter (Jung Hoo Lee) they wanted nearly as badly as Ohtani and Yamamoto, along with a DH (Jorge Soler) who finally should give the lineup a 30-homer presence. Matt Chapman's late addition solidified the defense -- something the Giants failed to do a year ago -- and other pieces filled in gaps. Tom Murphy gives the Giants an experienced backup for Patrick Bailey, and Jordan Hicks brings potential to the rotation, with the fallback of being a dominant setup man for Camilo Doval.
The Giants were happy with the offseason haul after adding Soler and Chapman once camp already had started. But it still felt like the cherry on top was missing, particularly when young starters Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck went down with injuries early in camp.
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Enter Snell, who won his second Cy Young last year after allowing 19 runs over his final 23 starts. His addition potentially will give the Giants the league's best rotation down the stretch, and if that vaults them into the MLB playoffs, they'll have enough pitching to be a matchup nightmare for even that loaded team down south. If all goes according to plan, this is how the Giants might line up over the final two months:
- NL Cy Young Award winner
- NL Cy Young Award runner-up
- 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner
- 2023 NL All-Star
- MLB's best left-handed pitching prospect
That group would consist of Snell, Webb, Ray, Alex Cobb and Harrison, with plenty of other options, as well. Hicks signed in San Francisco because of the opportunity to start, and he has looked sharp this spring. Winn is working his way back from elbow soreness, but the Giants are high on his potential.
Since the day he signed to lead the baseball operations department, Zaidi has talked about the war of attrition you fight when putting together a rotation, saying often that you need 10-12 options to get through a season. A year after they leaned heavily on openers and relievers to fill those innings, the Giants now should have more than enough depth to deal with injuries or ineffectiveness, and they're now much better positioned to watch the innings counts on young players like Harrison and Winn, as well as rehabbing veterans like Cobb and Ray.
The Giants came to camp thinking they would peak in the second half, when Cobb and Ray finally would be healthy. Five weeks later, Cobb has made so much progress that he should return in early April, and one of the best pitchers in baseball is about to walk through the door. They now have the ability to hit the ground running, which could be crucial in an NL playoff race where about 10 teams look bunched up behind the Dodgers and Atlanta Braves.
There probably was nothing the Giants could have done after the holidays to "win the offseason," a title the Dodgers wrapped up with their billion-dollar spending spree. But at this point, with Snell set to join Webb atop the rotation, it's also hard to imagine how the last three months could have gone much better for the front office.
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