Hey, uh, do you remember the multiple newsletters I have written over the last couple months about how Giants fans should absolutely not, for the love of God, get excited about potentially signing a free agent? Like, the ones where I said “The Giants never actually get the guy” or “The Giants never really had a chance to get Ohtani,” as a couple of examples? Remember those? Why? No reason. No reason at all.
Anyway, it looks like the Giants might get Shota Imanaga, and I’m definitely getting played for a sucker, because I kind of believe it.
It all started on Saturday, with a report from a Japanese news outlet called Sankei Sports (also called Sanspo) saying that the Giants and Angels were finalists for Imanaga. This was a day after Jim Bowden said that the finalists were the Red Sox, Cubs, Angels, and Giants, but in their report, Sanspo said that the Cubs (along with the Phillies, not mentioned by Bowden) had withdrawn for budgetary reasons. Yesterday, Chris Cotillo reported that the Red Sox are a long shot. Patrick Mooney said that the Cubs aren’t likely to sign him. So it does look like the Angels and Giants.
And look, I don’t want to come off like a homer here who thinks that players will sign with the Giants because the Giants are pure and good. But if all that reporting is true, and the finalists really are the Giants and the Angels…I mean, come on. Every baseball fan is extremely well aware that the Angels are a disaster of an organization that will never win anything. Every baseball player knows that too. And every Japanese baseball player who’s watched Ohtani win nothing in Anaheim for six years while winning two MVPs — and that’s every Japanese baseball player — knows goddamn well about who the Angels are.
So with all that in mind, I was already predisposed to thinking the Giants had a good shot. I mean, on the one hand you had every bit of evidence pointing to the Giants being a choice, and on the other hand you had that little voice in the back of your head saying, “Come on. Come on. No way. This kind of thing doesn’t happen for the Giants. Get real.”
That’s loser talk. More to the point, it’s wrong. This kind of thing does happen for the Giants. They signed Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija before the 2016 season, and they can do it again. They are perfectly capable of making this signing happen.
And I thought all of that before Mark Feinsand reported that the Giants were the front-runners.
“It’s all pointing to the Giants,” the source said. “They missed out on [Shohei] Ohtani and [Yoshinobu] Yamamoto, and although Imanaga isn’t on the same level as those guys, they don’t want to miss out again.”
Farhan came into this offseason with an organizational mandate to spend some money and get baseball players for that money, and by gum, he’s gonna do his best. Sure, they got Robbie Ray, but that was a cash neutral deal, and anyway, he won’t be ready until July at the earliest, so the team should really get another starter before then or else they’ll be doing all the stupid bullpen game bullshit that everyone’s been tired of for years.
Side note: God, wouldn’t it be funny if Mitch Haniger hits like .270/.345/.500 in Seattle? And the Giants outfield is still a horror show? I mean, it wouldn’t be funny to us, people who will watch a lot of Giants games, but taking an objective bird’s eye view of the entire league, it would be hilarious. I just can’t express enough how much the Giants deserve that.
And look, Imanaga isn’t as unique a talent as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, or as electric as Blake Snell, but he’s still a good pitcher, and interesting, and would likely be worth his contract. He struck out Paul Goldschmidt in the WBC, and it sure would be nice to have someone on the roster physically capable of getting Goldschmidt out. He struck out a bunch of guys in Japan last year and barely walked any; his big problem was home runs, which would be somewhat suppressed by Oracle Park; he is said to have “some of the best pure stuff in the world.” He would make this roster better, which is the exact direction the roster needs to go.
So bringing Shota Imanaga to the Giants is a good move for both sides. It has a really good chance of working out, and he will bring a high level of stuff and polish to a pitching staff that needs solid pitchers to eat innings. Is he going to be a perennial Cy Young candidate? Probably not. But does he have a good chance at eating a good number of innings with above average run prevention? Absolutely.
I mean, sure, Bay Area Bob says it’s not happening, but…
Aw.
Aw, fuck.
They’re gonna disappoint me again, aren’t they?
Well, joke’s on you, Giants. There’s no way I’m writing an entire newsletter about Marcus Stroman.
Puerto Vallarta Paul trumps (god I hate that verb now) Bay Area Bob.
Show-tah San is in the bag!