Points change, and things alter promptly. Frequently for the far better; usually for the worse. MLB's Winter Meetings are a point that transformed. Review my Monday morning write-up on the start of the conferences, and you might have anticipated a few billion bucks to have actually been committed to gamers today, and for the San Francisco Giants to have actually already altered their lineup. Rather, the most significant Monday news appears to be that Erick Fedde has a secret group providing him even more than $5 million per year. This tranquility comes in enhancement to or, more properly, as an outcome of rumors/reports/speculation that the 2 greatest cost-free agents, Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, are currently expected to sign sometime after the meetings wrap up on Wednesday Masataka Yoshida Jersey. With couple of dominos anticipated to drop till a minimum of Ohtani and potentially Yamamoto pick homes, the stage is established for a surprisingly silent couple of days. Another example of a point that has actually changed: the Giants quotes relating to money. We're regarding a month removed from chairman Greg Johnson openly teaching a desire to "somewhat break also. " My position is that Johnson's ill-fated quote was more a sign of why he shouldn't be the media-facing head of the Giants than that he shouldn't be running the team; however even so, there's no rejecting the optics of Johnson's quote. Yet things do, without a doubt, adjustment. And on Monday, we were treated to a much nicer quote concerning the shopping routines of the multi-billion-dollar enterprise whose financial financial investments we've made emotional investments in. While joining the MLB Network staff, Giants President of Baseball Workflow Farhan Zaidi provided a sentence that was a delight to listen to, even if it will certainly be really debatable to the Boston Red Sox: "Pay-roll flexibility doesn't win video games. "As the kids claim, do not just speak about it have to do with it. Which, in fairness, the Giants have attempted to do in current years. And it sure appears like they're trying even harder this year. That's just how we finished up with a report regarding Yamamoto from the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser that, "executives from two teams who have had passion in him informed the Chronicle on Sunday they think the Giants have the side. " It's exactly how the Giants have actually planted themselves strongly in the trade discussions for Juan Soto, in spite of him being a Scott Boras rental whose final year of adjudication will likely eclipse the annual worth of every non-Ohtani agreement authorized this winter. However no fish is larger than Ohtani. Therefore there's no better indicator of the Giants intention to replace payroll flexibility with enjoyable success than information that they remain in the running for the biggest freelance in contemporary baseball background, also as his rate tag supposedly slips closer to $600 million than $500 million. Take this with an Arson Judge-sized grain of salt, but Jon Heyman reports that the Giants are just one of 6 finalists for Ohtani, along with the probably surprising Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Angels; the not-at-all unexpected Chicago Cubs; the exceptionally obvious Los Angeles Dodgers; and the most obvious group of all: the Mystery Group of Mysteryville. And even Ohtani, relatively serious on experiencing this process with as much privacy and viewed nonpartisanship as possible, went down a nugget intentionally or otherwise revealing passion in the Giants.