The San Francisco Giants opened the offseason's first big gathering with a pitching staff to rebuild and a deadline that could arrive well before spring.
General manager Zack Minasian checked into the general managers meetings in Las Vegas on Monday with the rotation and bullpen at the top of the list. "We'll look at everything and anything," he told The San Francisco Standard.
The urgency comes from the calendar. Baseball's collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, and if a lockout follows, clubs cannot sign free agents, make trades or talk with agents until it ends. The last lockout ended March 10, 2022, leaving clubs a compressed three-week spring training, The Standard noted. That leaves the Giants and the rest of the league about three weeks of normal business.
The holes on the staff
San Francisco lost 97 games in 2026, and its pitching staff ranked 23rd in the majors with a 4.33 ERA, according to MLB.com. Adrian Houser, Logan Webb and Landen Roupp are expected back in the rotation, but four young starters, Blade Tidwell, Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt and Hayden Birdsong, are recovering from Tommy John surgery and expected to miss significant time, MLB.com's Maria Guardado reported.
The bullpen has even more openings. The Standard reported openings throughout the relief corps, including the closer's job, and MLB.com reported that Buster Posey, the club's president of baseball operations, has called fixing it a priority.
Minasian said the club would stay flexible about how fast it moves. "Buster's very direct and can be very decisive," he said. "So we've never really been ones to wait if we think something is the right deal. But you want to make good decisions."
He added that the labor situation could speed things up. "There's probably potential for things that are a little faster than years past," Minasian said.
Names on the market
The top of the free-agent pitching class includes Tarik Skubal along with Sonny Gray, Michael King and Freddy Peralta among starters, and Raisel Iglesias, Adrian Morejon and David Bednar among relievers.
Several carry Giants connections that MLB.com highlighted. Bednar, who saved 35 games for the Yankees this season with a 2.47 ERA, is the older brother of Will Bednar, the Giants' first-round pick in 2021. Peralta, the ALCS MVP after a deadline trade to Tampa Bay, is close friends with Giants shortstop Willy Adames.
