right-hander Logan Webb<\/a> prior to last Saturday\u2019s San Ramon leg of the FanFest tour. \u201cBut, at the end of the day, you just have to play better.\u201d<\/p>\nLos Angeles isn\u2019t the only coastal team that flexed its financial muscle this offseason.<\/p>\n
The New York Mets underwent the \u201cMets-odus\u201d to begin their winter, losing long-time pillars in D\u00edaz, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Jeff McNeil through various avenues. In their place, New York added an influx of fresh talent: Bo Bichette, Freddy Peralta, Luis Robert Jr., Marcus Semien, Jorge Polanco, Devin Williams. After barely missing the final NL Wild Card spot in 2025, New York has the blueprint of a playoff team.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
New York and Los Angeles aren\u2019t the only big-city teams backing up the Brinks Truck. The Chicago Cubs started the fall with some jabs, signing a handful of relievers to create a deeper bullpen. Then, they landed their haymakers by trading for right-hander Edward Cabrera and throwing the bag (five years, $175 million) at thre-time All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman.<\/p>\n
The Atlanta Braves, unlike Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, haven\u2019t had one singular headline-grabbing move, but rather a series of very solid acquisitions that accentuate a talented core.<\/p>\n
For the bullpen, they re-signed Raisel Iglesias and added Robert Su\u00e1rez. In the outfield, they inked former Giant Mike Yastrzemski to a two-year, $23 million deal. They brought in infielders Ha-Seong Kim and Mauricio Dub\u00f3n, though Kim will miss the beginning of the season after slipping on ice.<\/p>\n
Last season felt like a year-long testament to Murphy\u2019s Law for Atlanta, but with Ronald Acu\u00f1a Jr. back for a full season after mashing in his return from ACL surgery, the Braves could put last year\u2019s awful season behind them.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most intriguing team in the National League is the Pittsburgh Pirates, who haven\u2019t made the playoffs in more than a decade. Following a ninth straight year of finishing fourth or fifth in the NL Central, the Buccos spent a modest amount of money (by their standards) to surround the superlative Paul Skenes with a better roster.<\/p>\n
Their lineup now features Brandon Lowe and Ryan O\u2019Hearn, a pair of left-handed hitters who will provide some thump. Their bullpen added left-handers Gregory Soto and Mason Montgomery. The Skenes-led rotation has tremendous upside, and No. 1 prospect Konnor Griffin could make his debut next season.<\/p>\n
On the flip side of the equation, there are those contenders who haven\u2019t done a ton.<\/p>\n
The Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers each won their divisions \u2014 the latter had the best record in the majors \u2014 but each lost a top-of-the-rotation starter. The Brewers traded Peralta to the Mets for a pair of prospects, while the Phillies let left-hander Ranger Su\u00e1rez walk in free agency. Both teams still have the facilities to compete, and the Brewers, in particular, always find ways to churn out starting pitchers.<\/p>\n
Even with pitchers and catchers to report in about two weeks, there are still other avenues for the Giants to continue adding, to be sure.<\/p>\n
San Francisco reportedly tried pursuing Washington Nationals\u2019 shortstop CJ Abrams with the intention of moving him to second base but those plans did not materialize. The Giants have also been linked to a pair of NL Central second basemen in the Chicago Cubs\u2019 Nico Hoerner and St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 Brendan Donovan.<\/p>\n
A successful offseason doesn\u2019t guarantee a successful regular season; winning games in the summer is more important than winning headlines in the winter. If the Giants are truly done adding, the following months will determine whether their acquisitions were enough to get back to the dance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the regular season ended and autumn leaves started to fall, the Giants had very clear needs around…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2356,363,2329,99],"class_list":["post-434933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-california","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}