Can Giants find solutions in this offseason's international free agent class? originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — Watching Game 7 of this year’s World Series was painful for just about everybody in the Giants organization. But for a few front office employees who were heavily involved in courting Yoshinobu Yamamoto two years ago, there was an extra layer of discomfort.
For all of the attention that was paid to Shohei Ohtani, Yamamoto was a more realistic addition. The Giants were crushed when they were told that they were out of the bidding, and then they watched as Yamamoto opted to join Ohtani in Los Angeles on a record $325 million deal. So far, the right-hander has been worth every penny.
Giants general manager Zack Minasian led the organization’s pro scouting efforts at the time and made plenty of trips to Japan to see Yamamoto and others. At the GM Meetings last week, Minasian said watching Yamamoto in the postseason brought back some flashes from those scouting trips. This type of success is what he envisioned when he tried to bring Yamamoto to San Francisco.
“It still stings a little bit,” he said on the “Giants Talk” podcast. “But I think one of the things about losing and seeing your rival win, as tough as it can be — we have to turn it into a positive. If it pushes us to go beyond our comfort zone, to challenge ourselves and be more creative about getting players, then so be it.”
The nice thing about being in charge of finding talent is there’s always another class coming, and this offseason is no exception. It’s not considered a particularly strong free-agent group overall, but there are several potential standouts who are expected to come over from Japan.
Right-hander Tatsuya Imai is considered by many to be one of the top-10 players on the market and infielder Munetaka Murakami is right there with him. They could be joined by third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, right-hander Kona Takahashi, Taiwanese right-hander Jo-Hsi Hsu and others. There also are several former big-league pitchers who had success in either Japan or South Korea and are looking to come back, led by former Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Cody Ponce.
Teams will even get another crack at Shota Imanaga — who came over in 2024 and just had his team option declined by the Chicago Cubs — and infielder Ha-Seong Kim, who loomed as an obvious option for the Giants last year before they signed Willy Adames.
The international market has exploded in recent years, and the Giants want to be right in the center of it, or at least right there with any team outside of Dodger Stadium. Earlier this year, president of baseball operations Buster Posey joined Minasian on a five-day trip to Asia to scout some players and lay the groundwork for potential future deals.
“We most definitely want to have a presence there,” Posey said on “Giants Talk” last week. “You can see the impact that Japanese players have had on teams, really, I guess you can go back the last decade now. We know how important it is to try to land those guys and just how talented they are.
“When I was over there I was impressed with the pitching. The pitching didn’t feel like it was too, too far behind. I’d say the hitting is probably a little bit behind still, but (there are) a lot of really good players.”
While the Giants have done a lot of work on Murakami over the years, most of that was before Posey traded for Rafael Devers, which gives them long-term starters at first and third (Matt Chapman), with Bryce Eldridge also in the mix with Devers at first and designated hitter. Some Giants people think Murakami can handle the outfield, but he’s expected to have plenty of big-market suitors who can play him on the dirt.
Imai stands out as the much cleaner fit this offseason, and he is expected to be posted soon by the Seibu Lions, opening a 45-day window to negotiate with MLB teams. The 5-foot-11 right-hander had a 1.92 ERA in Japan last year with 178 strikeouts in 163 2/3 innings. He always has limited homers and has dramatically cut his walk rate in recent years, pairing a splitter and slider with a fastball that touches the upper 90s.
One of the reasons the Giants were so willing to go to $300 million for Yamamoto was his age, and Imai will hit the open market at 27. He is right in his prime, and Posey and Minasian happened to see him during that trip to Japan.
“We’d like to be a destination for those teams and for those players,” Minasian said. “We’d like the NPB and the KBO to look at the Giants as one of the premier Major League Baseball franchises (which) is how we see ourselves.”
The Giants point to their community and fan base as draws. While Jung Hoo Lee hasn’t fully broken out on the field, he certainly has become a fan favorite, and the Giants have put a good support system around him.
Of course, they still are playing catch up. The Dodgers are Japan’s team, and they added Roki Sasaki to Ohtani and Yamamoto last offseason. They always will be mentioned first when a Japanese star is posted, although they might not be a great fit for Imai this time around.
You can never have too much pitching, but it isn’t a need for them this offseason, when they likely will first look to bolster their bullpen and outfield. Any Japanese pitcher intent on joining the Dodgers might find himself behind Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki in the rotation, along with Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and others.
Whether it’s Imai or someone else this year, or a future free agent, the Giants hope to have others from Asia join Lee on their roster. They spent years bolstering their efforts in Latin America and that’s starting to pay off, with Josuar Gonzalez signing last year and another big class on the way this offseason.
Teams on the West Coast often have an advantage with stars from Japan or South Korea, and the goal is for the organization to be able to go head-to-head with the Dodgers when a player is the right fit. Minasian said he doesn’t view it as convincing those players not to choose the Dodgers. He wants them to see all that San Francisco has to offer.
“(We) basically just put our best foot forward about who we are, how we can treat them, how we can take care of them, the things that we can do that separate ourselves from those other clubs,” Minasian said. “We’re pretty fortunate in San Francisco to have such a great fan base, a diverse fan base that appreciates what those players in particular can bring, so I think things of that nature hopefully mean something to Japanese players and Korean players going forward.”
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