Giants sign World Series MVP, reliever who’ll fight Dodgers in 24-hour free agency blitz

The San Francisco Giants have been a laughingstock all season, easy pickings for Dodgers fans as LA has gone on a signing spree and SF has missed out on almost everyone they've tried to offer a contract. KBO star Jung Hoo Lee was a good addition, but not nearly enough to make up for the massive free agent losses the Giants have sustained over the past few years.

For a second, it seemed like the Giants were admitting defeat, with president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi seemingly just lying about why San Francisco was going to pump the brakes on big free agents — something about needing to pay employees as well as sign players.

We knew that was pretty much nonsense after he said it, and the Giants' most recent signing proved it. Jorge Soler, 2021 World Series MVP with the Braves, agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal with San Francisco overnight. In a smaller move, they also signed reliever Amir Garrett, a brawler if there ever was one, to a minor league deal.

Dodgers rival SF Giants sign Jorge Soler, Amir Garrett in 24-hour free agency blitz

Other than Lee, Soler is SF's biggest offseason signing by far, and he could give the Dodgers a lot of trouble. His home run numbers throughout his career have been sort of all over the place, but he managed to hit 48 with the Royals back in 2019 and 36 with the Marlins last year. Overall, he's coming off of a great year in Miami; he batted .250/.341/.512 with 24 doubles and 75 RBI to earn his first All-Star appearance. His market had been buzzing for a while before he chose the Giants, with the equally as easy to make fun of Red Sox expressing interest, along with the Blue Jays, Diamondbacks, and Mariners.

Garrett doesn't have to the kind of star power that Soler does, but you might know him from a viral Jomboy breakdown of a Reds-Pirates brawl that he instigated by charging the Pittsburgh dugout. Garrett's had beef with a lot of players, and given the history of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, he might soon have beef with the entire city of LA.

He'll get an invitation to spring training, and could very well make onto the Giants' Opening Day roster. He had arguably his best year in 2023 with the Royals, pitching 24 1/3 innings in relief for a 3.33 ERA. The Giants' NRI list is packed with pitchers, including former major leaguer Cody Stashak, but San Francisco's bullpen is definitely in need of a few more arms.

Soler and Garrett are both ones to watch out for when the Dodgers take on the Giants in three series this season. San Francisco now has an actual power threat and a pitcher who might charge the dugout.