It's an idea that would have sounded insane even a year ago, but Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi is now able to push it with a straight face.
As he prepares for his third offseason with the Giants, Zaidi is confident in an offense that has been rebuilt and became dangerous over a 60-game season. When he went on KNBR on Wednesday night, Zaidi hinted the Giants probably wouldn't be in on some of the bigger bats on the market.
The reason? That's no longer the biggest need.
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"With the way our offense performed this year, I think we can be really selective and targeted and maybe look for more complementary players than anybody who is going to come in and play everyday, because we've got a lot of good options there," Zaidi said.
With Buster Posey returning, the Giants appear set with everyday players at all five infield spots, plus wherever they put Mike Yastrzemski in the outfield. They also have Alex Dickerson set to platoon in left field and Mauricio Dubon as an option in center. Those two were among the 10 Giants who finished above league average per OPS+.
Overall, the Giants ranked a surprising eighth in the majors in runs and placed in the top seven in on-base percentage and slugging.
That production should allow them to spend most of their offseason energy on upgrading the rotation and bullpen, with another left-handed bat standing out as the most obvious need for the lineup. Adding a platoon partner -- a complementary piece, as Zaidi said -- at second or third base would be an ideal way to fill that need, and the Giants could also try to add an outfielder who will make them a bit more dangerous against right-handed pitching.
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While the offense didn't benefit much from the addition of a DH, Zaidi said he'll be watching closely this offseason to see how the rules shake out. The universal DH was supposed to be just for 2020, but most around the game expect it to return when a new CBA goes into place after next season. It's possible that the DH will stick around next year.
"One of the things that we've talked about is, if we don't have the DH are we going to have at-bats for everybody?" Zaidi said. "Because Wilmer Flores had a really nice year for us and sort of settled in as a regular DH for us. We had certain guys who had limitations -- Austin Slater, who hopefully will be 100 percent, who had to DH at times. If we lose the DH that's going to create a real at-bat crunch."