This is not what Brian Sabean and the rest of the San Francisco Giants management expected coming off of a World Series Championship.  The team currently sits 17 games back of first place and has not performed the way they had hoped.  Buster Posey is not having a good follow up to his NL MVP season last year, Pablo Sandoval is continuing to regress and the loss of Angel Pagan has hit this team hard, and all three have been small issues when compared to the roller coaster ride that has been the pitching staff.

So what can Sabean do in the offseason to turn this thing around and get this team back into contention?  He did everything in his power to keep the status quo in place following last season's championship, but this year the status quo will not be good enough.  Luckily enough, Sabean will have money to work with, but unluckily, that money coming off of the books leaves two spots open in the starting rotation, Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito, and a lot of that money is going to be sunk trying to keep a player that the team has already expressed interest in keeping in Hunter Pence.  So, assuming they pay Pence the money that will be asked, and it will be a lot, which leaves the Giants in a situation where they are going to have to sign two starting pitchers with what remains because they do not have a starter that can step into that role right now in the farm.

That brings us back to the question, what should Sabean do?  Sure, he’ll have the money.  Sure, he has a solid foundation to build off of.  The problem is he is going to have two big spots to fill in the rotation, possibly lose his very good lefty specialist and is going to have to use most of that money to keep his right fielder.  So, should he again go out and spend big money to continue to compete, or should he say goodbye to Pence, use that money to add solid role players who can play in tandem with the solid foundation, and use the rest of the money to add young free agents to the farm system?

The way this team has floundered this season, the answer seems to be obvious, they should go with the role players and fill the farm.  This may be an unpopular opinion among the fans, but as witnessed this season, the team is just a few injuries and struggles away from last place.  Sure, you could look to next season and assume that a healthy Pagan and Marco Scutaro will help this team get back, but a hamstring injury can plague a guy who makes his money with his legs, and Scutaro is only getting older, meaning those nagging back issues will just continue to nag. 

Now is the time to patch those holes in the rotation with guys like the recently picked up Guillermo Moscoso and see what the team can build in the minors to take those spots in the rotation.  It is time to let Pence go and see what Gary Brown can do in the majors.  In fact, the only free agent the Giants should truly worry about retaining is Javier Lopez, who is pivotal to the bullpen and the way Bruce Bochy manages it.  It is not time to blow this team up, but the time to drop big money into this season in hopes of keeping up with the Dodgers is over.  It is time for a change in San Francisco.  It may just be a minor change, but it needs to happen, because a last place finish after a championship does not work.  It is time for a change because this team does not have the money that the Dodgers do, and if they’re going to compete, they have to build a championship, not buy one.  It is time for a change, and the time is now.