Farhan Zaidi throws cold water on Giants-Blake Snell rumors

The San Francisco Giants have done a nice job salvaging what looked like another lost offseason by signing Jorge Soler and Matt Chapman late to solid deals. San Francisco ranked 24th in runs scored and 19th in home runs last season. Chances are they'll improve dramatically in both areas thanks to those two signings.

While their offense looked much improved, the Giants still have a lot of work cut out for them if they want to seriously compete with teams like the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in an extremely competitive NL West. An area they must focus on now is their rotation, as after Logan Webb things look incredibly bleak.

Fortunately, even after the Chapman signing, the Giants seemed to still be open to improving their roster further, as reports surfaced that they were still in on Blake Snell. Unfortunately, if what President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi says is true, Giants fans shouldn't be refreshing Twitter hoping they see a Snell announcement.

What looked like a perfect fit might not come into fruition after all thanks to Farhan Zaidi's comments

Zaidi reiterated point-blank that they don't plan on adding another high-end free-agent starter.

"We have talked all offseason and been very consistent that our plan was to continue to graduate some of our young players. The off-season is really over as far as I'm concerned.''

Bummer.

As of now, the rotation is a major concern, and should be in Zaidi's mind. Other than Logan Webb, they don't have a single proven starter. Kyle Harrison is a promising prospect, but he has just seven MLB starts under his belt. Jordan Hicks is an elite reliever but how will he perform as a starter?

As for the rest of their rotation, who knows at this point? Robbie Ray is out as expected for much of this upcoming season. Alex Cobb is sidelined as well and is expected to miss Opening Day. Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck both came up with injuries early on in Spring Training. It's abundantly clear that this team needs another arm, yet the Giants are showing no urgency whatsoever.

How the Giants can possibly express no interest in the reigning NL Cy Young winner on what could be a similarly structured deal to the one they just signed with Matt Chapman is baffling. If they could only choose one of the two, how can Chapman be the choice over Snell anyway?

This could just be an example of Zaidi acting as if he's not interested in Snell only to get his price down even further. For now, all we can do is take him at his word, however, and express disappointment in the Giants passing on a two-time Cy Young winner who is likely going to sign a team-friendly deal.