It’s not the craziest idea for the San Francisco Giants to land two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani in free agency.
Not even a little.
For starters, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi himself detailed what the team is looking for this offseason in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea. All of which match up to what Ohtani brings to the table.
OK, maybe I’m just sucking up to Giants fans, but hear me out.
The team is “going to be in the starting pitching market,” Zaidi said. He also mentioned the outfield needs in the range, speed and glove work realm.
Sure, Ohtani will have a bit of a delay in the pitching department, and surely if he should be re-introduced into the outfield after undergoing surgery to repair an injury in his elbow, but we’ve seen hitters be able to come back quickly from similar surgeries.
Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper returned quickly from his Tommy John surgery in November where he remained ahead of schedule, returning as the team’s designated hitter before a full return on defense before the end of the season.
But you know, you wait as long as you need to if you want to sign the best talent of the current MLB era.
Bring him on to pitch and round out that rotation being led by NL Cy Young Award finalist Logan Webb, get the rehab together, and then you have the player you want, and need.
The team has the means, of course. And they’ll need it after the production value for a two-way player could reach in the $500 million range with Ohtani being worth every penny.
He even was interested in playing for the Giants at one point.
The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reported the team’s former GM, Bobby Evans, didn’t think the conversation to go out and get Ohtani was the right time. This, of course, was back in 2017 when the universal DH had yet to be implemented.
“We brought up the fact we would find a way to have a six-man rotation to keep him on the rest he was used to, which was well received,” Evans told Baggarly in August via a phone interview. “But when we talked about having to put him at a position to have his bat in the lineup, I just sensed the discomfort. We had the idea that the outfield would be the safest bet. When we put our presentation together, we felt the hill we needed to climb was not having a DH. And we couldn’t promise him anything about the future about that.”
Ohtani likes the west coast, and while the Los Angeles Dodgers remain the favorites to land Ohtani in the free agent sweepstakes, he wouldn’t look bad in orange and black.
