San Francisco Giants' NL West Rivals Have Widened Gap with Stellar Offseasons

The San Francisco Giants have a lot of work to do to catch their NL West rivals as many of them had great offseasons.

Jul 25, 2024; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani (17) reaches second on a double against San Francisco Giants second baseman Thairo Estrada (39) during the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium. | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

The first offseason for the San Francisco Giants wil Buster Posey running the front office as president of baseball operations got off to a bang.

Early in free agency, the team agreed to a record setting seven-year, $182 million deal with shortstop Willy Adames, plugging a massive hole in their lineup. It is the largest contract signed in franchise history.

He is going to provide the lineup with some much-needed pop, creating one of the best left-sides in baseball along with third baseman Matt Chapman.

However, things slowed down after that splash, as the only other potential impact addition the team made was signing starting pitcher Justin Verlander.

Those two should help raise the team’s floor, but the Giants didn’t do enough to close the gap that existed already between them and their National League West rivals.

The defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks all finished at least nine games better than San Francisco in 2024.

Some steps were taken back by the Padres, but the other two teams loaded up significantly, making it hard to envision the Giants finishing above third or fourth place again in 2025.

Ryan Phillips of Sports Illustrated put together a list of the teams who had the five best offseasons heading into spring training and unfortunately for San Francisco, two of their division rivals made the list.

The Diamondbacks were ranked No. 5 and bolstered what was already a strong rotation by signing Corbin Burnes, someone the Giants were also pursuing in free agency. Burnes, who lives in Phoenix, opted to return home year-around.

They weren’t without losses either, as first baseman Christian Walker left in free agency, agreeing to a deal with the Houston Astros. But, they pivoted and came out with a great replacement, acquiring Josh Naylor from the Cleveland Guardians.

Coming in at No. 1 was the Dodgers, who are running laps around most of MLB when it comes to talent acquisition.

Their starting rotation features multiple aces after stealing Blake Snell away from San Francisco and landing international phenom Roki Sasaki. They will be joining Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani, who will return to the rotation in May. Clayton Kershaw also re-signed with the team but likely won't be available to start the season.

Los Angeles poached another player away from the Giants in free agency, agreeing to a deal with outfielder Michael Conforto. Teoscar Hernandez was re-signed and the team landed another international player, infielder Hyeseong Kim.

In the bullpen, two of the top closers who were available this offseason, Tanner Scott (formerly of the Padres) and Kirby Yates both joined the Dodgers’ bullpen along with Blake Trienen re-signing.

Everyone is looking up to the Dodgers right now in baseball, as the gaps to catch some of their division mates has only widened for San Francisco this offseason.