With their sights allegedly set on lefty Shota Imanaga, the San Francisco Giants are hoping that this offseason, their third attempt at pursuing a Japanese talent, will be lucky.
According to a Monday report by MLB reporter Mark Feinsand, the Giants are the team that the 30-year-old southpaw from Kitakyushu is most likely to sign with. According to a source Feinsand quoted, “everything is pointing to the Giants.” The anonymous source said that the baseball team is particularly driven because they “don’t want to miss out again” following their failure to recruit either Yoshinobu Yamamoto or Shohei Ohtani, who both signed with the Dodgers.
In other news, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on Sunday that the Giants are becoming less interested in a different big free agent. According to Nightengale, San Francisco is not interested in defending Cy Young champion Blake Snell unless his “price tag dramatically drops.” Snell is a famous Dodger killer who has spent the last three seasons with the Padres.
While Feinsand says that Imanaga is seeking a $75 million deal spread over five years, Snell is reportedly aiming for upwards of $200 million. Selecting the less expensive option is undoubtedly consistent with Giants owner Greg Johnson’s statement at the end of October that the team would “somewhat break even,” but it doesn’t align with what the team has said it is doing to entice the big stars they have so far failed to sign.
Still, the Giants are not the only team appalled by Snell’s asking price. Teams are apparently concerned about his lack of longevity in starts, as Nightengale pointed out. Snell has never completed eight innings in his career and only made it past six innings three times in the previous season. It’s hard to believe that at 31, he could start going the distance on a whim.
Imanaga’s career numbers are comparable to Snell’s, which raises concerns because he is performing at a lower level than major league players. Nevertheless, Imanaga has proven his abilities against Major League players. Imanaga started the first two innings for Japan in the World Baseball Classic gold-medal game against the United States, striking out two and giving up one run. His stuff off the mound also appears to incite a frenzy among pitching nerds.
In the end, the Giants can’t really afford to be too particular about the players they sign since they want to prove that 2021 wasn’t a one-time exception and that they are more talented than this patch of poor records suggests. If the subpar players are going to stay, what good is coaching and housecleaning?
Fans seem to be primarily hoping that the Giants sign someone, anyone notable, at this time. All right, if that someone is a reliable 30-year-old Japanese prospect who can perform admirably in the lineup’s third spot at a cost the ownership doesn’t deem prohibitive, then OK.