Now that the San Francisco Giants, and their one-man starting rotation, have won the World Series, New Englanders naturally can think of only one thing: How does this affect the Red Sox?

Some thoughts:

• Historically speaking, Boston can no longer be the best dynasty of today. The Red Sox do have three World Series in the last 11 seasons. The Giants have three in five years.

And on the all-time list of championships, the Giants (New York and San Francisco) have tied the Red Sox in fourth place with eight apiece. They trail the Yankees (27), Cardinals (11) and A’s (nine).

• Now, can we look at third base?

Guess who had 26 hits this postseason? The Giants’ Pablo Sandoval, who is now a free agent.

Sandoval, 28, is definitely a person of interest for Red Sox fans (and, reportedly for the Red Sox front office). He plays third base well and is a switch-hitter. He batted .279 (.739 OPS) with 16 home runs this past year.

Concerns are that his career may be on the downside – his peak was in 2011 (.315/.909, 23 homers) – he is not in great shape (5-foot-11, 245 pounds at least), and he will not be cheap (seeking a big raise after making $8.25 million this year).

But he is a clutch hitter who seems well-suited for Fenway, and Boston needs a third baseman unless it wants to gamble again that Will Middlebrooks is major league-ready.

Free agents can begin negotiating with other teams on Tuesday. Teams have until Monday to make qualifying offers – now $15.3 million for one year – to their own free agents.

If a team makes a qualifying offer and then loses a free agent to another team, it receives a draft pick as compensation.

THE GIANTS’ recent dominance brought to mind the time when the team was going to move to my hometown, St. Petersburg, Florida, for the 1993 season. The Giants were stuck in drafty Candlestick Park. Bob Lurie agreed to sell the franchise to an ownership group in St. Petersburg, but the National League didn’t want to lose the San Francisco market and worked to find a new owner to keep the team there (with a new stadium, eventually).

The Giants stayed. The ownership group from St. Petersburg sued Major League Baseball, a move that resulted in an expansion team being awarded, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were born.

GIANTS PLAYERS and other personnel are certainly building up a collection of World Series rings, including Portland native Ken Joyce.

Joyce, who turned 50 on Wednesday, now has four rings. He broke into pro coaching with the Marlins as the hitting coach for the Sea Dogs in 1996. He was with the Marlins organization the next year, too, when Florida won its first World Series.

Joyce moved on to the Blue Jays before hooking up with the Giants in 2010 as a minor league hitting coach. He has been with the Double-A Richmond Flying Squirrels since 2011.

For the 2014 World Series, the Giants flew Joyce and his daughter, Jill, to San Francisco for Games 3, 4 and 5.

SPEAKING OF third base, the end of the 2014 season brought about two realities for the New York Yankees.

They may lose one third baseman, Chase Headley, to free agency.

But they get another back, namely Alex Rodriguez, whose year-long suspension has ended. A-Rod, 39, has three years left on his contract.

Headley, 30, may be another option for the Red Sox. Also a switch-hitter, he hit .243 (.700 OPS) with 13 homers combined with the Padres and Yankees.

IT FIGURED THE Red Sox would strike quickly in free agency to go after pitching, and they did by re-signing closer Koji Uehara. And while the two-year, $18-million deal may seem steep for a pitcher who turns 40 in April, we are talking about one who had a WHIP (walks/hit per innings pitched) of 0.91. And it’s not like he’s a dominant fastball thrower.

Seems like a logical gamble.

The Red Sox bullpen is coming together. Along with Uehara, the Sox still have Edward Mujica, Junichi Tazawa, lefty Tommy Layne and Brandon Workman.

Right-handed reliever Burke Badenhop filed for free agency. It’s possible he’ll comes back. Then there are prospects – Alex Wilson, lefty Drake Britton (who has no minor league options left), Matt Barnes and knuckleballer Steven Wright.

Left-hander Craig Breslow had a $4 million club option, but the Red Sox decline to pick that up.

Lefty Andrew Miller is a free agent after his short stint in Baltimore, but he figures to attract a big contract, and the Red Sox still need to bring in two starters.

Boston’s other free agent, catcher David Ross, is a possibility to come back as Christian Vazquez’s backup, unless Boston wants an upgrade on Ross’ .184 average. Give Ross this: Half of his 28 hits were for extra bases.

Boston will not be offering qualifying offers to Badenhop or Ross.

Other dates to look at beyond Tuesday are the general managers meeting (Nov. 11-13) and the annual winter meetings (Dec. 8-11). By then, deals will start coming into place.

BASEBALL AMERICA is releasing its annual top-10 prospects list for each organization as a prelude to its top-30 rankings.

Boston’s top 10 (in order): catcher Blake Swihart, pitcher Henry Owens, outfielder Rusney Castillo, pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez, pitcher Brian Johnson, third baseman Rafael Devers, outfielder Manuel Margot, pitcher Matt Barnes, shortstop Deven Marrero and third baseman Garin Cecchini.

Owens (2), Swihart (5), Cecchini (6) and Barnes (9) were on last year’s list. From last year, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Allen Webster, Mookie Betts and Brandon Workman are now in the majors (although Bradley and Webster might be back in Pawtucket in 2015).

The only player to be “demoted” from last year’s top 10 is pitcher Trey Ball, the seventh overall draft pick from 2013. Bell, who turned 20 in June, was 5-10 with a 4.68 ERA for Class A Greenville. He was 4-4 with a 3.36 ERA in the second half.

 

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