There might be an illness floating around the San Francisco. The giants own the second worst record in the MLB at 30-51. The team has an older group of players that are heavily underperforming. After all of this, Larry Baer, team president and CEO, told NBC Sports Bay Area that the team is not looking to rebuild.
It's retool, not rebuild
Baer said that the team is looking to get back into contention in 2018, and not 2022. He believes that the team can Retool their roster rather than go into rebuild mode. The Giants did make the playoffs last season before falling to the Cubs in the NLDS.
However, those Giants were very different than these Giants.
The Giants do not have a lot of young players. The pitching staff has three players that are over 30-years old. Jeff Samardzija and Matt Cain are 32, while Johnny Cueto is 31. The outfield features Denard Span at 33 and Hunter Pence at 34. Then, you have Brandon Crawford at 30.
We have to give this team the benefit of the doubt. This is the same team that won three World Series championships in five years. However, we can still doubt the direction they are choosing at this present time. The team is veteran laden with no signs of going up if they were to bring some of these players back. They are going to be tight financially, and if their best plan is to bring Cueto back then they are not making the team better.
Last year's Aroldis Chapman could be this year's Cueto
Alex Pavlovic writes that the Giants could do a similar deal to what the Yankees did with Chapman last season. The Yankees sent Chapman to the Cubs for a haul of prospects, and then signed Chapman in the offseason to bring him back. Pavlovic writes that Cueto is undecided if he will opt in, but if he doesn't, he would not hold a trade against the Giants.
Cueto is most likely to get the Giants their best package despite his 4.20 earned run average. Cueto has pitched well as of late by allowing two or fewer earned runs in four of his last six starts. He spots a 3.28 career ERA, and could benefit from playing with a contender.
The Giants can't be greedy if they are serious about retooling.
The Giants are said to be open to resigning Cueto. If the Giants are confident they could resign Cueto this offseason, then they need to maximize his value and bring in a package that will benefit their future. At some point, the Giants can't keep relying on these aging veterans, but that is why they are in this position in the first place.
