Free agency has started off with a bang for the San Francisco Giants, as they recently saw their top free-agent head to their arch rival. 

Coming into the offseason, the Giants knew that they were going to have a lot of work to do. With their new President of Baseball operations Buster Posey, the goal has been to improve a franchise that has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons and has fallen behind in the National League West. 

One player who San Francisco knew was going to be a hot commodity from their team in 2024 was starting pitcher Blake Snell. The Giants were able to sign the two-time Cy Young award winner to a very friendly contract just before spring training last season. 

However, likely due to the strange offseason and the lack of preparation, the southpaw got off to a really poor start to the season. After the All-Star break, when he got his feet under him, Snell became the pitcher the Giants expected him to be, as he had a (5-0) record and an ERA under 2.00 in the second half of the season. 

With a player option for 2025, Snell wisely declined that after the great second half, knowing he would get more guaranteed money in free agency. 

Well, that decision paid off, as Snell signed a five-year, $182 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The 31-year-old signing with the Dodgers is certainly a tough pill to swallow for the Giants, but letting him walk could be the best thing for them. 

While the Giants do have hopes of a quick turnaround with Posey in charge, that is still unlikely. This could be a couple of year process for them to get the team in place to truly compete with a team like the Dodgers or the San Diego Padres. Even though Snell is a great pitcher and would help them win games, this is a team that needs a lot more. 

If the Giants were to bring Snell back at the number that he signed with Los Angeles, that likely would have meant that they would have made very minimal upgrades to a lineup that desperately needs to improve. 

Also, the move by the Dodgers to bring in Snell and pay them what they are paying him is to help them win more World Series now. That more than likely wouldn’t have been a realistic thing to expect for San Francisco, and by the time they were ready to, the left-hander might not be the same caliber of pitcher. 

Even though it might feel like a tough blow for the Giants, it could be what’s best for them in the long-run if they allocate their resources to the right areas.  

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — At Clancy’s Christmas Trees in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood, two holidays meshed perfectly together on Thursday.

With a little holiday cheer and even singing present in the background, Stephen Clancy sat down with his family and staff to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.

“It started when we used to get our first load of Christmas trees on Thanksgiving and we’d have customers start coming in, oh we can come buy a tree. And so that just turned into us having Thanksgiving here,” Clancy said.

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But that’s not the only tradition happening here.

Since opening in 1949, Clancy’s has welcomed thousands of people looking to buy Christmas trees on Thanksgiving night.

“We have customers that bought trees from my grandfather, from my father and from myself. And it’s so fun seeing new faces and same faces that we see every year,” Clancy said.

Two familiar faces are Sophie Gregory and Yikoshi Yotake, who found their special tree Thursday night.

“We’ll see if it fits in our apartment. We live in a small apartment so it might be a bit of a struggle,” Gregory said.

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The pair say they’ve been coming to Clancy’s for years and value the family run business in the heart of San Francisco.

They also tell us they’re wasting no time in starting their decorating.

“Oh no, right after. As soon as we get home…It’s what we like to do because you’ve got the Thanksgiving meal and then you come home and you want to lounge around, play some movies and set up for Christmas,” the two said.

With less than four weeks to go until Christmas, Clancy says he’s expecting a busy season.

And for everyone willing to stop by, he just wants to say thanks.

“We always have fresh trees for you and we just really appreciate you guys. And come start a tradition with us, we appreciate it,” Clancy said.

Creating memories, one family tradition at a time.

A family in San Francisco had an unusual ally in getting their turkey cooked on Thanksgiving — the fire department.

The fire crew at Engine 28 got a call midday Thursday for an incident just a block away in the North Beach neighborhood.

“Everybody in San Francisco is your neighbor, but being a block up the street this really is one of our neighbors,” explained Osayande Aikhionbare, a firefighter on the engine that responded to that call.

“So we pulled up on scene, the family was outside and they said they had a fire in their oven,” Aikhionbare said.

The family of four included a mother, a father, and two children.

The fire was out at that point but still smoking. Fire crews wiped down the oven, but then, it reignited.

Crews were able to put out the fire again and save the turkey which the family had just started cooking. However, Aikhionbare said grease from the turkey had leaked down near the oven’s heating element, which fire crews wouldn’t be able to clean without taking the oven apart.

At that moment, Aikhionbare said he and his colleague came to the same conclusion.

“Let’s just take it back to the firehouse and cook it for them as we had another side of our oven that is available,” he said.

It just so happens that the Engine 28 firehouse is one of the stations with two ovens, and the crew had a spare oven available to help this family.

The family accepted the firefighter’s help with their Thanksgiving meal and the crew brought the turkey back to their firehouse oven to cook.

“Two and a half hours later, the turkey was brown and crisp and delicious looking,” recounted Aikhionbare. “We were very happy and honored to be able to take it back up to them and to make sure that they were able to enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.”

“When we have a fire, no matter how big or small it is, it’s devastating, and anything we can do to alleviate that stress and put a smile on somebody’s face is what we do,” noted Captain Jonathan Baxter with the San Francisco Fire Department.

He noted that this fire was actually one of many oven fires SFFD helped put out during the holiday.

Firefighters say they don’t typically cook food for others in their firehouse ovens, but on this occasion, they were happy to do it to help out their neighbors.

“We’re firefighters, we’re known for saving people from car accidents, burning buildings et cetera, and that’s not always the call, sometimes the call and the way you can make the biggest impact in someone’s life is by offering to take their turkey back and cook it,” Aikhionbare said.