Only one team was going to be the lucky one to land former Los Angeles Angels superstar Shohei Ohtani. The crosstown Los Angeles Dodgers were the fortunate ones to acquire the reigning AL MVP, but acquiring Ohtani as well as Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot will not guarantee the Dodgers an NL pennant or a World Series title. That's why teams like the San Francisco Giants should continue to be aggressive in free agency and searching for trades.

The Giants already have made one big move this offseason. That was acquiring Korean and Japanese outfielder Jung-hoo Lee in free agency. Lee starred for the Kiwoom Heroes of the KBO for the last five seasons. He's posted outrageous stats during his time in the KBO. In seven seasons as a pro, Lee has career slashing lines of .340/.407/.491/.898 to go with 65 home runs, 515 RBI, 581 runs, and 383 walks. Lee may not be a supreme power hitter, but he does just about everything else exceptionally well.

Lee was one of the best free agents available this offseason, so while adding him was a great move by the Giants, they should not be satisfied. There are still plenty of avenues this team should look to improve upon. Adding a couple of available free agents, in particular, could really set the Giants up nicely to make a run at the Dodgers in 2024.

Sign Cody Bellinger

Cody Bellinger in a Giants uniform.

While Jung-hoo Lee will help the Giants exponentially in getting on base, he is not regarded as a power hitter. And to say that the Giants need a power hitter would be a severe understatement. Lee will help the Giants improve upon their .235 batting average and .312 on-base percentage which ranked 28th and 24th, respectively, in MLB last season.

But the Giants could not hit it out of the park to save their lives in 2023. Their .383 slugging percentage ranked 27th in baseball and their .695 OPS ranked 26th in the league. That's just not good enough to compete in today's game.

Individually, the Giants just didn't get any breakthroughs on the power front. Their leading home run hitter last season was Wilmer Flores with only 23 of them. He was also the only player on the team that exceeded 20 home runs in 2023. The Giants need a bonafide power hitter. Enter Cody Bellinger.

Cody Bellinger's MLB career got off to a scintillating start. He hit 39 home runs and brought in 97 RBI in his first full season as a pro. A couple of seasons after that, Bellinger belted 47 home runs and drove in 115 RBI en route to his first and only NL MVP award. He slumped for the next few seasons after that MVP campaign, which led the Dodgers to sour on him and left Bellinger seeking a fresh start elsewhere.

He got just that in Chicago with the Cubs, where he bounced back to the tune of a .307/.356/.525/.881 season while hitting 26 home runs and 97 RBI in 130 games.

Bellinger played like an MVP again, which has led to him and his agent asking for MVP money, via Darius Glover. Not everyone will have the bankroll to pay that price for Bellinger, but the Giants should be able to. They currently rank 11th in payroll for the 2024 season and were roughly $22 million above the average payroll in 2023. Bellinger would be an upgrade over just about anybody on the Giants' roster at outfield save for Lee. The Giants could really use him, and should really go after him as a result.

Sign a starting pitcher

On the surface, it might not look like the Giants need big improvements on the pitching front. Last season, the Giants ranked 11th in ERA as a team with a 4.02 mark. They were also 11th in WHIP (1.25), but were 23rd in opponents' batting average (.253) and tied for 18th in quality starts (51). That's because their bullpen really covered for their starting pitching in 2023.

Last season, only four pitchers for the Giants made at least ten starts, pitched at least 35 innings, and had an ERA below four. Logan Webb (3.25) and Alex Cobb (3.87) pulled it off while combining for 367.1 innings and 61 starts. The other two, however, were primarily relievers in Ryan Walker and John Brebbia. Those two combined to make only 23 starts and pitch just 99.2 innings.

Logan Webb was also the only pitcher among those four to post a WHIP below 1.1. Brebbia, who pitched only 38.1 innings all season, was the only other one to post a WHIP below 1.2. The Giants could really use another starting pitcher. Luckily for them, there are still plenty available on the market.

Marcus Stroman, Michael Lorenzen, Jordan Montgomery, Lucas Giloito, and Brandon Woodruff, among others, are all currently available as free agents. If the Giants could even sign one of those guys, they could be a very dangerous ballclub in 2024 and beyond.