With the addition of Jung Hoo Lee, the San Francisco Giants’ outfield is set, right? Maybe not.
The Giants made their first splash of the offseason with the KBO star, signing the 25-year-old to a six-year, $113 million deal. He can be penciled in as San Francisco’s Opening Day center fielder, although some evaluators are said to consider him a better fit in right field.
Assuming Lee is the center fielder, that would leave Mike Yastrzemski and Michael Conforto as the corner outfielders. Mitch Haniger, Austin Slater and LaMonte Wade Jr. would be other options for outfield depth.
That presumably would take the Giants out of the running for Cody Bellinger, who they’ve been linked to throughout the offseason. The 28-year-old is coming off a fantastic bounce-back season with the Cubs after down years with the Dodgers that followed his 2019 MVP campaign.
Bellinger can play in the outfield or at first base, and Audacy MLB insider Jon Heyman told Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score that he thinks the Giants still could make a push for him.
“I wouldn’t eliminate the Giants, they’ve got money to burn, right?” Heyman said. “They were in there big on (Shohei) Ohtani, they’ve been in there big on a million people – (Bryce) Harper, (Giancarlo) Stanton, (Aaron) Judge – they've tried hard, and $113 million (for Lee) isn’t going to be much for them. Their financial situation was outstanding, it’s about to be even better with the A’s presumably about to move to Las Vegas.
“The Giants have money, and they can keep going. It does feel like they have enough outfielders, but they don’t have a good enough team to beat the Dodgers -- I think they know that. And they don’t sell out and they want to get some stars, they’ve been all about getting stars, obviously they didn’t get the biggest star, they tried hard. I’m not ruling them out on Bellinger.
“Toronto is one of the teams, I wouldn’t rule out Seattle. There probably are mystery teams, Cody Bellinger had a pretty good year, .306 batting average, .881 OPS. So, I’m not going to assume they’re out, but I do think the Cubs should have a good chance. I think he loved it there and I think he’d like to go back.”
Even if it would create a bit of a longjam, adding Bellinger undoubtedly would boost San Francisco’s overall talent level. They could put him in center field and push Lee to right, which theoretically would allow Yastrzemski and Conforto to handle left and designated hitter.
They also could put Bellinger at first and roll with a Conforto-Lee-Yastrzemski outfield, which could allow for Wade to add versatility from the bench. However, that’s still a lot of guys who can play outfield as likely bench options when you put Slater and Haniger in the mix. No matter where he plays, if the Giants land Bellinger it likely would be a precursor to a trade elsewhere on the roster.
Ultimately though, having to put all those puzzle pieces together would be a good problem for the Giants to have, as it would be a sign they landed one of the best free agent position players available.