MLB

Which MLB Team Has the Best Shot at Landing Shohei Ohtani?

Matt Musico  —  @mmusico8 Dec 4th, 2017
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San Francisco Giants

2017 Starting Rotation Performance: 10.1 fWAR, 4.58 ERA, 4.57 SIERA, 18.8% strikeout rate

Current Rotation: Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore, Chris Stratton

Potential 2018 Impact

Just the thought of having MadBum and Ohtani in the same rotation is fun to think about. And I'm talking more about their ability at the plate than on the mound.

The 2017 season didn't go well for the Giants -- that's the understatement of the year based off a league-worst 64-98 record -- but their future could look very different by the end of this week.

In need of legitimate power for the middle of their lineup, San Francisco appears to be a finalist to acquire newly-crowned NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins. With a core that already contains Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, and a healthy Bumgarner, things could be looking up for the Giants in a hurry if they were able to get Ohtani and Stanton on board.

It'll be tougher to sell the hitting side of things, but being in the National League would seemingly give a lift to Ohtani's impact as a pitcher. It'd get another boost by playing his home games at AT&T Park, one of baseball's most pitcher-friendly parks.

If San Francisco can net two huge offseason additions in Stanton and Ohtani, they'd be primed to attempt a worst-to-first run next year.

Feasible Long-Term Fit?

Since they're apparently willing to take on a majority of the $295 million Stanton is owed over the next 10 years, we can safely assume that there will be no problem keeping Ohtani by the bay if we're strictly talking dollars and cents. And without much resistance in the form of outfielders (outside of potentially Stanton and any other offseason addition), there could be a clear road to getting some at-bats when he's not pitching.

This is a smaller market, close to Japan, and despite the rough 2017 campaign, San Francisco clearly has no desire of going through a full rebuild -- more like a reload and get right after it again.

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