Giants listed among favorites to land Yankees superstar in free agency

The San Francisco Giants are a franchise positively famished for a superstar.

They tried desperately to land Aaron Judge in 2022, but the Northern California native turned them down. Then they wanted Carlos Correa, then Shohei Ohtani, then Yoshinobu Yamamoto. For one reason or another, none of them ended up in the City by the Bay.

It's a discouraging trend for the Giants, who now find themselves facing long odds to avoid a third-straight season without a playoff berth. But have all their free-agent failures just been a long build-up to land the biggest fish on the market?

If so, there is no better time than this coming winter for fortunes to change. Current New York Yankees superstar Juan Soto, who is in the middle of his best season ever, will be available for all 30 teams to submit their bids.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post listed the Giants among his favorites to land Soto in the 25-year-old's marquee free agent sweepstakes this winter.

"They showed interest in a Soto trade, and they’ve been trying to land a big positional star for years," Heyman said of the Giants. "Is a pitchers’ park a dealbreaker?"

As Heyman references, Oracle Park in San Francisco is a notorious deterrent to star hitters seeking new contracts. J.D. Martinez of the New York Mets said candidly he didn't want to go to the Giants because of the park.

Soto could likely become a Hall of Famer playing in any park. He has a 1.053 OPS this season, second behind only teammate Aaron Judge for the MLB lead. He leads the majors in runs (103) and walks (102) and is only one home run from tying his career-high of 35 in mid-August.

The majority of front office executives polled by Heyman predicted the total value of his next contract will be over $500 million, with the Yankees, New York Mets, and Los Angeles Dodgers all expected to be power players.

If the Giants want to bring Soto to San Francisco, they'll have to pony up. But money hasn't seemed to be the issue the last few times around the free agent carousel.

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