He San Francisco Giants They have been a relentless team during Hot Stove season. Almost every winter, the Giants have tried to bring in that elusive superstar, but have failed. Bryce Harper drove them in 2019 for the Philadelphia Phillies. Aaron Judge was apparently on his way back to California until the whole “Arson Judge” drama happened and the New York Yankees made sure he would remain their captain. These are just a couple of examples.

This winter, former catcher Buster Posey will take charge of the offseason as their new president of baseball operations. Maybe, just maybe, Posey can do what Farhan Zaidi couldn’t: bring in a star free agent. It should come as no surprise that they are linked to the best player available on the open market.

MLB.com senior national reporter Mark Feinsand listed his top 25 free agents this winter and their potential matchups. Obviously, Soto was in first place in Feinsand’s overall ranking, but links to Giants as possible option for star outfielderalong with the Yankees and the New York Mets.

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Feinsand also made an appearance on MLB Network’s “MLB Tonight” show to discuss his article and adjustments for Soto. Feinsand says Soto is likely to remain in New York, whether with the Yankees or Mets. But Feinsand mentions the Giants as a possible option, due in part to swinging and missing free agents.

“The Giants have been looking for that big free agent for several years,” Feinsand said. “Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, (Yoshinobu) Yamamoto, they haven’t been able to sign those guys. Maybe they can make a big play for Soto.”

Giants fans have heard Zaidi mention that his priority was bringing in a superstar to help compete for the World Series again. But that superstar never arrived, as they opted to sign elsewhere. While Judge and Harper are prime examples, Feinsand mentions Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as players the Giants missed last winter.

The Giants did everything they could to bring Ohtani to the Bay Area. In fact, they made a similar 10-year, $700 million offer to Ohtani What the Dodgers did. Ultimately, Ohtani decided to stay in Southern California to play for the Dodgers.

As for Yamamoto, the Japanese pitcher seriously considered the Giants as a possible landing spot, but ultimately ruled them out of the bottom three of the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees. The Dodgers won, signing a 12-year, $325 million contract. Losing two top targets to the rival Dodgers has to hurt the Giants.

Could they finally land that big fish in Soto? Well, as Feinsand points out, it’s going to be expensive, with a 10-year, $500 million contract at the very least. Soto is coming off a regular season in which he posted a .288 batting average, .419 on-base percentage, .569 slugging percentage, 41 home runs, 109 runs batted in, 128 runs scored and 166 hits in 576 at-bats. .

We’ll see if the Giants can actually land Soto, or if it will be another case of “we were close.”