The San Francisco Giants' very odd and interesting offseason continued Friday, as they sent pitcher Ross Stripling to the Oakland A's in exchange for Jonah Cox and cash. In the deal, the SF Giants save $9.25 million, which is no small sum considering all they gave up was Stripling, who was awful last year, and the Giants also received a prospect in return.

But the deal immediately made it look like a precursor to a bigger deal for the Giants, likely one involving a starting pitcher. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reported today that the Giants were one of the teams in on Corbin Burnes before he was traded to the Orioles, and it doesn't seem like a coincidence that this Stripling trade happened the next day. Perhaps the SF Giants are preparing to back up the Brinks truck on last year's NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, who'd pair exceptionally well with last year's Cy Young runner-up Logan Webb.

But Farhan Zaidi said the trade was mostly about creating more avenues for young pitchers to get opportunities, particularly early in the season, before Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray return from injuries that are expected to sideline them for months. That may well be true, and the Giants do have an impressive pipeline of young arms, but in that case they must trade for or sign significantly more talent for this offseason to be a success. Whether it's starting pitchers or position players, the Giants must do more to improve after fans suffered through two consecutive painfully mediocre seasons.

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