The San Francisco Giants follow up to their extremely successful 2021 campaign was very disappointing. Just one season after winning 107 games, the Giants only managed to go 81-81 on the season, and ended up missing the playoffs entirely. That set the stage for the Giants to be big players in free agency this offseason.
Instead, the Giants have ended up putting together arguably the most disappointing offseason in the entire league. San Fran made it clear that they were intending to blow their money this offseason, and while they have signed their fair share of free agents, they have missed out on pretty much every big name they targeted this offseason.
San Francisco was believed to have signed Aaron Judge, only to watch the report be labeled as false, and then see him re-sign with the New York Yankees. They also lost Carlos Rodon to the New York Yankees, thanks to spending so much time pursuing Judge. But their riskiest move of the offseason involved the player they agreed to terms with, but were ultimately unable to push it over the hump.
Giants riskiest offseason move: Not finalizing their deal with Carlos Correa
The Giants were the first team to supposedly sign Carlos Correa in free agency this offseason, agreeing to a 13-year, $350 million deal with the star shortstop. It seemed like both sides were getting what they wanted; Correa wanted an absurd amount of money, and the Giants wanted a superstar to build around for the next few years. Even with the large price tag, it was a win-win deal.
The problem was that the deal never ended up becoming official, as the Giants were holding things up due to concerns over Correa's right ankle, which he had surgery on back in 2014. Eventually, Correa ended up agreeing to a 12-year, $315 million deal with the New York Mets instead, and San Francisco's horrid offseason managed to get even worse.
As we all know now, Correa ended up not signing his deal with the Mets either, and finally was officially signed to the Minnesota Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal instead. The point stands, though; the Giants had a chance to land a superstar for over a decade, but ended up losing out on him due to their own concerns.
It's a strange position that the Giants found themselves in with this deal for Correa. On one hand, they made it clear that they were intending on spending money this offseason, and for a point in time, they had spent quite a bit of money on Correa. But their concerns over Correa's health got in the way, and while the Mets backing out of their deal with Correa justifies this a bit more, it's still a tough pill to swallow.
Whichever way you look at it, this deal was a massive risk for San Francisco. But we are forced to look at it through the context of what actually happened. What happened is the Giants got spooked with this deal, and ended up watching a potential franchise cornerstone walk away from their deal. Where does this team go from here?
San Francisco is a team that currently lacks star power. They have managed to piece together rosters that exceed expectations, but that doesn't get you much when you only go .500 on the season. For a point in time, that problem was fixed when they signed Correa; the team had landed the star they made clear they were going to pursue heavily this offseason.
But now everything is different. The Giants could have been a surefire playoff team with Correa, but now, no one knows what they are. And the problem with missing out on this deal in particular is not just that you lost a superstar player, but you now have to watch and see how he does with the Twins. If Correa continues to do damage in Minnesota, the Giants front office may get run out of town.
Anytime you see something you don't like on a physical, it's best to be cautious. Whether or not that was the case, or San Francisco simply got cold feet when it came to potentially paying one player $350 million, the Giants now have to live with the consequences of this deal being a failure.
Maybe Correa will struggle and make the Giants look like the smartest team in the league for backing out of this deal. But as right now, the perception is that they lost a star player to another organization over some relatively miniscule concerns. Whether or not that's the case is unknown, but the Giants have a lot of problems they have to deal with as a result of this debacle, and their inability to finalize the contract with Correa has already proven to be quite a huge risk for this team.
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