While about a week ago, it looked like there was at least a halfway decent shot at the Giants potentially landing both Giancarlo Stanton and Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani, the team reported Friday that they are indeed out of the running for both players services.

I can't say I'm shocked at either pieces of news, even though the Giants were considered one of a handful of finalists for each player. With Stanton, they had the huge contact as a hurdle, but ultimately it was Stanton's unwillingness to waive his no-trade clause to head to Northern California as he's still holding out hope a trade to one of his preferred teams, primarily the Dodgers, can happen at some point in the future. On Friday, a list of four teams he would accept a trade to surfaced, those being the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees and reigning World Champion Houston Astros, but none of those teams have been heavily in on Stanton this offseason making a trade to any of them before the 2018 season highly unlikely. With that list being released, it basically ties the Marlins hands as they'll have to eat a significant portion of Stanton's deal to get any of those mentioned teams to take him, and it may could force them to keep the slugging outfielder and possibly try again next winter or in July.

Right now, all of Stanton's preferred destinations are pretty set in their respective outfields so, even though Stanton is considered one of the best pure power hitters in the game, they're hardly desperate to add him, as the Giants and Cardinals so clearly were. I figured there was about a 25% chance of the Giants landing him so again, this doesn't come as a big surprise to me, but it certainly reshapes any potential moves the Giants could make going forward.

Stanton wasn't the only player targeted by the Giants this winter who they found out would not be playing for them in 2018, as pitcher/outfielder Shohei Ohtani chose the Los Angeles Angles as the team he'll be signing with and playing for in 2018 and beyond. Now this one is a little bit easier to swallow than the Stanton spurning. Ohtani, as with any player coming for another county, is not yet a proven big leaguer and is essentially a super-prospect at this time. Chances are that he'll end up a quality major leaguer and may pioneer a new way of using pitchers that can also hit at the big league level, but he wasn't going to be that impact bat in a lineup that Stanton could have been and although the Giants starting rotation sputtered in 2017 (mostly due to injuries and a bizarre off-year from Matt Moore), that's still the one area that management feels most confident in with this squad. I didn't discuss Ohtani much here this winter because I really never thought the Giants would land him whereas I at least thought that had halfway decent odds at prying Stanton away from Miami.

With all the latest news coming out, it makes me wonder if Stanton was stringing the Giants and Cardinals along the whole time with no interest in either team but to get the Cubs and Dodgers into the mix as those four teams are fierce division rivals with one another (Cubs/Cards in NL Central and Giants/Dodgers in the West). Regardless though, moral of the story is that neither intriguing option will be in the orange and black next spring, which now poses a huge question to Giants management; where do they go from here?

Well, obviously they'll delve back into the free agent market and revisit the top players on that list such as Jay Bruce, J.D. Martinez, and possibly even former Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez (although Gonzalez has not been mentioned by or linked to the team in any way). Reports had the Giants linked to both Bruce and Martinez earlier in the offseason before the Stanton situation really started heating up over the last few weeks, but let's face it, neither of those guys would bring anywhere near the impact as the reigning NL MVP and Home Run king. Martinez would probably be choice number one of the two, because he's a better all-around hitter and his right-handed bat would be more conducive to his power staying prevalent while playing 81 games per summer in the pitching friendly confines of AT&T Park. That being said, I do think that Bruce has the power to succeed at AT&T Park, but some of those cheap home runs he's had over the years in Cinci and New York may wind up being two-baggers instead of round-trippers. Martinez would still have a shot at 40+ HR per year, in my opinion.

I am surprised CarGo hasn't gotten more attention. I know he's coming off a down year and has been injury prone in the past, but two of his previous three seasons were all-star level years and if this guy's healthy, he's a 30+ HR, 100+ RBI threat with a .288 career average and .857 career OPS. I'm not saying he should be their prized target, but if they could get the 32 year-old on a one-year, "prove yourself" deal along with someone like Martinez, that would really add some depth to this lineup. Although it would mean Denard Span would be the primary center fielder again in 2018 which I think the team is trying to avoid if at all possible.

If it came down to the Giants insisting on bringing in either Bruce or Martinez, obviously I would much prefer Martinez, even if he's going to command more money than Bruce. Again, he's not the impact bat Stanton would have been, but he's the closest thing to the Marlins masher than any other free agent/trade option and if the Giants indeed continue their pursuit of improving their 2018 roster, the 30-year old outfielder should be at the top of their list. However, with the latest turn of events, the Giants could do decide to stand pat and make 2018 a "show me what you got" season for their young in-house players. They could maybe add a couple second-tiere outfielders to help deepen what was one of the worst units in baseball in 2017, in attempt to just stay relevant and then try again next offseason. I know every Giants fan is certainly hoping that doesn't become the case, but if J.D. Martinez, who's now arguably the biggest position player available via trade or free agency and has leverage, is demanding a ridiculously high price in the neighborhood of $20-25M per season for 5 years, I doubt the Giants would go that high on a guy who's hit over 23 home runs in just 2 of his 7 seasons in the bigs'. Granted, he does sorta has that Jose Bautista-type vibe going for him in that he looks like he's getting better with age and certainly his power seems to be inclining the last few years, but betting on that continuing to happen well into his mid-thirties as it did with Bautista is a risky wager.

So again, as we stand now, on December 18th 2017, I repeat for probably the fourth or fifth time on this blog since the season ended and that is the fact that I still have no idea what this Giants team is going to look like come March? Will they stay quiet and make some under-the-radar moves just to add depth to their roster and hope guys like Hunter Pence, Denard Span and Pablo Sandoval all revert to the players they were 3-5 years ago, or will they take a plan B approach and full on pursue one of these free-agent outfielders? Or they could potentially revisit another trade scenario, perhaps for a guy like Andrew McCuthchen who has been discussed on a number of Giants' media outlets from KNBR and NBC Sports Bay Area to online sources like McCovey Chronicles and even our site last month when we first got wind of the chatter.

I've always been a big McCutchen fan, but like with any other bat not named Stanton, I just don't see he alone being the answer to the offensive woes. He's now on the wrong side of thirty, and his speed has deteriorated some, resulting in a drop of his batting average and defensive prowess in the outfield, though he did slash a strong .279/28/88/.859 with 11 swipes in 2017 after a major down year in 2016. On the pro's side, he'd be an upgrade over any Giants outfielder they currently have though, even if Pence has a big bounce back in 2018 like he's plotting. Also, PNC Park plays somewhat similar to AT&T Park in terms of being a little more friendly to pitchers than hitters, yet McCutchen has put up MVP caliber season after season playing in that yard which means his offense shouldn't suffer if he did come over to play at AT&T. Finally he could also allow Bochy the flexibility to move Span into a corner outfield role and possibly platoon him him with Hunter Pence in right or Austin Slater in left (if they don't bring in an additional corner outfielder).

So yeah, I'd take McCutchen for 2018, but the question is would he be worth parting with a couple of high-end prospects for just one guaranteed year of his services (free agent after '18 season)? The Giants may not think so and I'm not so sure I'd blame them. If he could be had for a couple of prospects outside of Tyler Beede, Heliot Ramos or Chris Shaw though, I think I'd pull that trigger.

I could go on forever about possibilities, and the negatives and positives each possibility consists of, but I'm going to cut the post here because I do expect the Giants to do one of two things over the next week or so, and certainly before Christmas and the new year rolls in. They're either going to go hard at another free agent or two and/or re-visit other potential trade options, or they're going to stay completely quiet, and wait until January to kind of go through the scrap heap and find any players that may be able to help them in 2018.

If they don't find any options they feel are suitable upgrades to their outfield and possibly third base, then we'd be looking at perhaps the first full-on rebuilding season in San Francisco in close to a decade as players like Austin Slater, Chris Arroyo, Ryder Jones and Chris Shaw etc. will be forced into ample playing time and be given plenty of chances to show what they got. Reports coming out about the teams interest in re-visiting Martinez and Bruce suggest they're still going forward with full attempts to upgrade the roster, but it's going to take more than slotting one of those guys into left field to turn this 98-loss team around and the Giants' brass has to know that.