The Giants have been active this offseason, but Alex Pavolvic doesn’t think they’re finished dealing.
NBC Sports Bay Area’s Giants Insider joined 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” Thursday with Mark Willard and Matt Kolsky (filling in for Dan Dibley) to discuss the latest on the big-name free agent front for Farhan Zaidi and company. You can listen to the full interview below:
“They’re never done. They’re always tinkering. I know people want [Nick] Castellanos, I don’t see that. I’ve never really seen that happening. I know people want Trevor Story. He’s really interesting to me, because you can probably slide him in there pretty easily in second base I think and move to [Tommy] La Stella to DH a lot and move [Thairo] Estrada around the field. But I would imagine [Story] would find more money elsewhere.”
After the Giants signed Palo Alto native Joc Pederson to a one-year contract, Pavlovic thinks the focus for the lineup should shift from the outfield to the infield.
“I don’t know that the big things are going to happen,” Pavlovic said. “They liked Michael Conforto but Joc [Pederson] kinda takes that spot from him probably. I think they will make more moves. You look at second base especially without [Donovan] Solano with La Stella likely to start the season on the injured list at least for a few games, they probably could use some help there in the infield. I think that’s probably where looking right now, but I don’t know if it’ll be something that leads SportsCenter.”
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So far, the Giants have signed or re-signed five MLB starters – Carlos Rodón, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood, Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd – along with a couple of insurance options in Jakob Junis and Carlos Martínez.
Rodón, who reportedly agreed to a two-year, $44 million deal, is the prized signee of the free-agent class. The southpaw was limited to 24 starts for the Chicago White Sox last year and only went on traditional four days’ rest on six occasions. Pavlovic said the team will be cautious with his workload, saying “140-150” innings would be a realistic target. Rodón only tossed 132.2 innings last year while dealing with shoulder soreness, but still finished fifth in the American League Cy Young voting with a 185 strikeouts and a 2.37 ERA.
Pavlovic noted how the Giants were prudent with Anthony DeSclafani, Kevin Gausman, Alex Wood and even Logan Webb at times last year.
“I think it’s pretty clear, nobody outside of Logan Webb and maybe DeSclafani, if he stays healthy, makes 30 starts for ‘em,” Pavlovic said. “I think they’re gonna be careful with these guys. They know and they’ve talked about it last week – when Rodón is healthy, he’s as good as anybody. They key is to keep him healthy and make sure the shoulder fatigue that kinda knocked him out at the end of last year isn’t a problem.”
