What’s next for Giants after landing Correa?

December 14th, 2022

This story was excerpted from Maria Guardado’s Giants Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The Giants made quite the splash late Tuesday night, agreeing to a massive 13-year, $350 million deal with star shortstop Carlos Correa, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. The deal, the fourth-largest in Major League history, has no opt-out and a full no-trade clause. The club has not confirmed the move.  

Landing Correa required a landmark commitment from the Giants, who were expected to be aggressive in pursuing marquee free agents following their disappointing .500 finish in 2022. In Correa, they found a perfect player to build around, giving them a new face of the franchise who can help close the talent gap with the Dodgers and the Padres in the National League West. 

Correa, 28, will headline a huge offseason for the Giants, who also revamped their roster by re-signing All-Star slugger Joc Pederson and adding outfielder Mitch Haniger and veteran starters Ross Stripling and Sean Manaea. They’ve guaranteed over $463 million to free agents thus far, marking the most lucrative offseason in franchise history.

Most of the heavy lifting is done now that Correa is in place, though the Giants still have a few remaining needs to address. After coming up short in their pursuit of Aaron Judge, the Giants would still like to acquire another outfielder to pair with Haniger.

A true center fielder would be ideal, though there aren’t too many free-agent options available now that Brandon Nimmo, Cody Bellinger and Kevin Kiermaier are off the board. The Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds, the Twins’ Max Kepler and the A’s Ramón Laureano and Cristian Pache could be among the outfielders available on the trade market.

With their rotation in good shape, the Giants could also begin to shift their attention toward bolstering their bullpen. At the Winter Meetings in San Diego last week, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he’d be open to adding a late-inning reliever who could potentially help share closing duties with young flamethrower Camilo Doval.

Doval, 25, posted a 2.53 ERA with 80 strikeouts over a career-high 67 2/3 innings in 2022, but he was one of three San Francisco relievers to finish in the top seven in the National League in relief appearances, joining John Brebbia and Tyler Rogers.

The Giants’ lack of reliable back-end arms made it hard for manager Gabe Kapler to stay away from Doval, so they’ll be hoping to expand their stable of high-leverage relievers this offseason.

“Whether that winds up being in a tandem situation, it just gives you more flexibility,” Zaidi said. “One of the concerns we’ve had with Camilo is just making sure we’re taking the long view on his workload. Having two guys that are comfortable closing, it gets important when you have a save situation and then you’ve got an extra-inning game where you use your closer the third day in a row. It’s just nice to be able to have the discipline to say, ‘You’re definitely not pitching, save situation or not.’ I think it mitigates some of the risk of overworking your closer if you have a couple of options.”

The Giants were rumored to be interested in Kenley Jansen before the former Dodgers closer landed a two-year, $32 million deal with the Red Sox. The most intriguing alternative would be another familiar face: free-agent lefty Taylor Rogers, Tyler’s identical twin brother.

Taylor, 31, recorded a career-high 4.76 ERA over 66 appearances between the Padres and the Brewers in 2022, but he has a track record as an effective reliever and is only one year removed from an All-Star campaign with the Twins. The Giants have developed a reputation for rehabilitating pitchers, so it could be a good fit for both sides.