It was an odd-numbered year so what did you expect? An end to their run of winning it all in even-numbered seasons? Despite an injury-racked rotation and a lost season for right fielder Hunter Pence, the San Francisco Giants stayed in the NL West race until a closing 15-19 run sank them for good. Thanks to breakout seasons from Brandon Crawford and Matt Duffy, adding to Buster Posey and Brandon Belt, the Giants were still able to score, and the bullpen was generally sound, but the rotation’s struggles sapped their ability to generate and protect leads consistently.
What do they need? In both the rotation and the outfield, the Giants have to decide whether they need one big addition or two. For starting pitchers, they need a top-shelf right-hander for the front of the rotation and ideally a solid No. 3 candidate as well -- all the better to pick their No. 4-5 guys from among Matt Cain, Jake Peavy and Chris Heston, instead of having to count on all of them to be healthy or effective. In the outfield, they could obviously use a left fielder, but they also have to make a decision about whether they think there’s anything left in the tank of Angel Pagan. Do they want to chance carrying the oldest regular center fielder (at 34) next year despite his measurable decline on defense and the worst year of his career at the plate? At 32, fourth outfielder extraordinaire Gregor Blanco isn’t much younger.
Guy on the rise: Third baseman Duffy is the easy choice because nobody anticipated he would not only pry the starting job from veteran temp Casey McGehee but would smack 46 extra-base hits and a dozen homers after hitting just 13 over his minor league career. If he’s left alone at third base, the former shortstop might also blossom into a premium defender.
Prospect to anticipate: The easy thing to note is that Giants prospects don’t gather anticipation, they just arrive, because guys like Duffy, Heston and second baseman Joe Panik didn’t really accumulate hype. But shortstop Christian Arroyo, a 2013 first-rounder, might change that. Despite a 2015 season hampered by injuries (first an oblique, and later an elbow), he put up an .803 OPS in the Cal League, and he’s been swinging a hot bat in the Arizona Fall League. There’s concern that he will need to move to second or third eventually, but he’s just 20, and Crawford is Giants property for two more years, so there’s plenty of time to sort that out.
Winter action plan: The track record for success and the reputation of the coaching staff make the Giants an attractive destination for free agents who would like a ring, so the Giants should be players in the market. Going for one of the top-flight right-handers to pair with lefty Madison Bumgarner seems like the major order of business, but we’ll see if that means Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann or Johnny Cueto. But it might be a better balance to buy two from a list that includes John Lackey, Wei-Yin Chen, Hisashi Iwakuma, Jeff Samardzija and Mike Leake so they can afford the outfield help they also need. Denard Span would be a decent fit in center, but the market’s limited options at the position might instead put the Giants in the position for a trade. Gerardo Parra's defensive versatility and bat, however, might profile best as a guy they will be able to afford after paying top dollar for pitching help.
Christina Kahrl writes about MLB for ESPN. You can follow her on Twitter.