“Balk Talk” podcast host Jessica Kleinschmidt is joined by NBC Sports Bay Area’s Dalton Johnson to discuss what fans should expect from the Giants next season.
At this time of year, sometimes you just have to smile and tip your cap to the agent. Well played, sir ...
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The Giants and Blue Jays are two teams with the ability to spend in this depressed offseason, although as Jon Morosi mentioned, there's a huge caveat here. It's December, less than a week from the original start of the annual Winter Meetings -- which have been canceled -- and NL teams still do not know if they will have a designated hitter in 2021.
For the Giants, that decision makes all the difference here.
"I think we just have to sort of hedge our bets, which we have to do in a lot of different areas," president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said last month. "It's not clear when that decision might be made, so we're just going to have to maintain roster flexibility. We're going to have 13 position players on our roster one way or another, but it may make it more important to have enough defensive versatility and defensive ability on our position player group. That may be something that influences some of these decisions. "
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Ozuna, coming off an MVP-type season with the Braves, would be a great fit if the DH is once again universal. He was a DH 39 times for the Braves, leading the NL with 18 homers and 56 RBI while posting an OPS of 1.067 that was easily the best of his career. He would add an extremely dangerous right-handed threat to a lineup that relies heavily on left-handed hitters like Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson and the Brandons.
Ozuna is coming off a one-year deal and changed agencies a month into the offseason, so he figures to be looking for a big multi-year deal. The Giants could try and squeeze him in alongside Alex Dickerson in left field in 2021 and count on the universal DH being in place after next season, but that seems messy when you're talking about this kind of financial investment.
The chase would be a lot easier if the Giants knew they would have an extra roster spot next season. If only the sport had some kind of governing body that could make those kinds of decisions ...