THE San Francisco Giants have been a relentless team during Hot Stove season. Almost every winter, the Giants tried to bring in this elusive superstar, but were unsuccessful. Bryce Harper boosted 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 few examples.

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

MLB.com senior national reporter Mark Feinsand has listed his top 25 free agents this winter and their potential matches. Soto was obviously ranked first overall by Feinsand, but he Ties Giants as potential candidate for star outfielderalongside the Yankees and New York Mets.

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Feinsand also made an appearance on MLB Network’s “MLB Tonight” to discuss his article and adjustments for Soto. Feinsand says it’s likely Soto will stay in New York, whether with the Yankees or Mets. But Feinsand mentions the Giants as a potential candidate, partly because of their swing and lack of free agents.

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

For Giants fans, they heard Zaidi mention that their priority was to bring in a superstar to help them compete for the World Series again. But that superstar never arrived, as they chose to sign elsewhere. While Judge and Harper are the main examples, Feinsand points to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as players the Giants missed last winter.

The Giants did their best to bring Ohtani to the Bay Area. In fact, they made a similar offer of $700 million over 10 years to Ohtani that 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 potential landing spot, but ultimately ruled them out of the Dodgers, Mets and Yankees’ final three games. The Dodgers won by signing him to a 12-year, $325 million contract. Losing two top targets to the rival Dodgers must sting for the Giants.

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

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