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San Francisco Giants’ Biggest Winter Meeting Need is Frontline Starter

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San Francisco Giants’ Biggest Winter Meeting Need is Frontline Starter


The San Francisco Giants are heading into the Winter Meetings with some new-found momentum. 

After another mediocre season in 2024, the Giants made a big decision to bring in Buster Posey as their new president of baseball operations. Bringing in their former star catcher into this new role was to help create some legitimacy when it came to recruiting free agents. 

So far, that move looks like it has worked out. San Francisco has reportedly reached an agreement with shortstop Willy Adames on a massive seven-year deal that is the biggest in team history, eclipsing the deal Posey signed as a player.

This is a big deal for the Giants, as Adames was one of the top free-agent hitters available this offseason and fills a positional need for them as well. Plus, because he can play shorstop the Giants can move Tyler Fitzgerald to second base, which was also an offseason objective.

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Coming into the offseason, improving their lineup was a top priority. The addition of Adames certainly is an excellent start in that department. 

While bringing the slugger is big, San Francisco has other needs as well. Recently, Manny Randhawa of MLB.com wrote about the biggest need for the Giants at the Winter Meetings being to add a front-line starter. 

“Now, president of baseball operations Buster Posey and company will turn their attention to replacing two-time Cy Young Award winner (Blake) Snell in the rotation after he signed with the Dodgers.”

Two pitchers to watch on that front, Randhawa writes, are Corbin Burnes and Max Fried, both among the Top 10 free agents on the market. Both turned down qualifying offers, which means the Giants would give up draft picks if they signed them.

With priority No.1 accomplished, the time is now for Posey to address the starting rotation. While bringing in Adames was a big move, they also did see Snell leave in free agency for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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Seeing the former Cy Young leave for their rival was certainly a tough pill to swallow, but the Dodgers came in with a massive offer to lure him in. 

Now, with the addition of a new star in the lineup, Posey must try to find a way to replace Snell in the rotation. There are a lot of good pitchers still available in free agency. But Burnes and Fried are the top tier.

With a weak farm system, a trade for a frontline start seems unlikely, but there are great options to spend on in free agency. There was a notion that the Giants might look to cut payroll, but the big splash over the weekend might indicate otherwise. 



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San Francisco, CA

Sea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’

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Sea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’


A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.

The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.

The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.

Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.

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“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.

During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.

Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.

The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.

“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”

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Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.



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Giants Head Home to San Francisco After Shutout Loss

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Giants Head Home to San Francisco After Shutout Loss


After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.

The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.

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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.

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Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.

Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.

The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.

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They just didn’t get the job done.

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Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.

With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.

San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.

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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.

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The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.

All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.

Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.

That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.

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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.

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Why do gray whales keep dying in San Francisco’s waters?

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Why do gray whales keep dying in San Francisco’s waters?


The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.



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