Giants sign Carlos Rodon to two year, $44 million deal, per report

To say that it was a surprise that the San Francisco Giants would go on to win 107 games during the 2021 season is a massive understatement. The NL West was supposed have the Dodgers favored and the free-spending Padres making the race interesting. However, the Giants got off to a hot start, the Dodgers were predictably awesome although they had some injuries/off the field issues, and the Padres collapsed in spectacular fashion late in the year. Somehow...the Giants won the NL West and it doesn’t look like they want to take a step back in 2022.

Buster Posey retiring as one of the best catchers we have seen in the last couple of decades is certainly going to be a big blow to San Francisco. That combined with Kris Bryant and other pieces hitting free agency and one could reasonably expect the Giants to be not as good this coming season. However, with the transaction freeze lifted, they are clearly not going quietly.

This is not a banner free agent class for those teams in search of quality starting pitching. Rodon, however, was one of the absolute best options available and he is coming off a season where he posted a 2.37 ERA with 185 strikeouts in 132.2 innings of work on his way to a 5.0 rWAR season. While the strength of the Giants was already likely in their pitching, they are clearly leaning into that strength with the addition of Rodon.

They still need to add some offense if they want to attempt to keep pace with the rest of the their division, but the addition of Rodon makes the Giants a scary team on the pitching side and takes a bit of the pressure off of having to have a high scoring offense.