When the San Francisco Giants saw Andrew McCutchen and Hunter Pence‘s contracts come off of their books last offseason, Farhan Zaidi made an unpopular decision at the time to not reallocate those resources to other free agents.
In fact, the team’s signing of left-handed pitcher Derek Holland for $7 million represented their biggest free-agent expenditure. The rest of the offseason additions were brought in on cheap major league contracts, minor league deals, and under-the-radar trades.
That decision has given the San Francisco Giants some much-needed flexibility heading into the 2019-20 offseason, and the recent trades of Mark Melancon, Drew Pomeranz, and Sam Dyson created even more financial freedom.