What in the world is going on between the SF Giants and Shota Imanaga?

The recent rumors surrounding 30-year-old Japanese pitching prospect Shota Imanaga have been enough to give any San Francisco Giants fan whiplash.

Within a span of less than 24 hours the organization has gone from the “favorite” to “another possible team” to “not one of the five finalists” for Imanaga’s services. The optimism began Monday with a report from MLB Network’s Mark Feinsand, who said a source told him that “it’s all pointing to the Giants.”

Tempering that optimism was reporter Jon Heyman, who reported early Tuesday that the Giants were in competition with the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox for the lefty. Heyman described the Cubs and Red Sox as “very much in play on lefthander Shota Imanaga,” while the Giants merely got the “another possible team among 5 suitors” tag. While not great, it was at least better than the fourth team mentioned, the Angels, whom Heyman said “appear to be looking elsewhere at moment.”

Less than an hour later, Heyman updated his report to something a lot less appealing for Giants fans: “Update: Hearing now Giants also looking elsewhere so they are not one of the 5 finalists.”

This is not the first time — nor will it likely be the last time — that Heyman had to correct the record with a report on the Giants. The longtime MLB reporter had his most infamous flub last season when he posted, “Arson Judge appears headed to Giants,” referring to Aaron Judge. Heyman corrected the record seven minutes later and apologized for “jumping the gun,” although not for the Arson Judge typo. The following morning, news of Judge’s deal with the Yankees broke.

For what it’s worth, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said that the team “had conversations with his representation” on Friday. That’s the last thing the team has said publicly about the Imanaga situation. (The San Francisco Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.)

Surely the rabid section of the Giants’ fan base that has been pleading for another big signing this offseason is hoping Heyman’s latest report about their team being out on yet another free agent is closer to Arson Judge than it is to reality.