Giants General Manager Brian Sabean said that the "stars would have to align" for the club to extend Melky Cabrera during the season, according to Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com (via Twitter). However, the GM wouldn't completely rule out the possibility either.
Cabrera, 27, recently told reporters that he's happy playing in San Francisco and could be open to mid-season contract talks. The outfielder is enjoying a strong start to the 2012 season, hitting .363/.409/.542 with three homers through 46 games.
The Giants already have $80MM committed to next year's payroll and with possible extensions for Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey looming, the club may not have a great deal of room to retain Cabrera. When and if the club sits down with Cabrera to hammer out a new deal, Sabean doesn't expect Adam Jones' impending six-year, $85MM extension to impact talks, Baggarly tweets.
Sabean – Go for it – 5 years, $70 million.
Sincerely,
The NL West
An extension for Tim Lincecum looming?
What does 6.41 mean to you?
Cabrera price is at its peak right now so you don’t want to go crazy with a contract. Best thing to do is wait until the season ends. The giants always seem to over pay anyway so why not see what he is offered by other clubs first.
Yeah, I agree with waiting. It isn’t likely that Cabrera is going to continue to hit around .360 with a BABIP over .400 for a full year. At this point it is better to wait until the season is over to negotiate in hopes that his numbers come down to normal a little. That is a win win situation for the Giants because either his numbers fall and they can negotiate at a lower price or he continues to hit the cover off the ball and that helps your team win more.
1. Don’t extend Lincecum. Even if he rebounds to being pretty darn good, that money is better spent on offense and Bumgarner/Cain/etc. can hold down the rotation without him. The only logic I see for extending Lincecum is if Zito is definitely leaving at the earliest possible moment and the Giants are worried about how they’ll fill out five pitchers given the lack of depth in their farm system (after trading away much of their pitching talent). Still, they’d be way over-paying for what they’d get.
2. I like Cabrera, but extending him now is “buying high.” Wait til the season is over. Melky doesn’t have amazing career numbers, but if he’s solid this year, that will be two good years in a row and he’s just 27 and at the early part of his peak years. Signing him longer wouldn’t be that terrible of an idea…as long as the Giants don’t confuse signing him with “solving” their outfield offense problem. Guy can hit and play solid D. He’d be great in tandem with a power corner outfielder, but not a substitute. (and back to point one, if letting Tim Lincecum go means the Giants can afford both, then they should let Timmy walk).
Pagan/Blanco, Cabrera, Posey, and Sandoval gets you half way towards a solid lineup, but I’d like to see more than that, not just those guys plus some AAA filler (eg. Crawford, Culberson, Pill, Burriss, etc.)
Offer Tim Lincecum 30 million for 8 years. That’s about as good offer he’s gonna get at this point.
Lincecum’s last start getting popped in the head covering home plate may not be helping his next start, he also hurt his left wrist. Will be curious to see how much those effect him, cause he looked like a catcher covering HP after his catcher (forget if it was Posey) lost the location of the ball that got away in his last Oakland start and Tim was forced to cover home.. He took a head shot from the sliding runner, helmet and all to his chin and then bent his left wrist underneath him.
Teams call for their catchers now to cease blocking the plate.. It’s pitchers with no “armor” like Lincecum who shouldn’t be in that position when they are vulnerable as he was.
As a Braves fan, it boggles my mind that this is the same Melky who played in Atlanta not so long ago. He was absolutely terrible! He seemed out of shape, didn’t hustle, couldn’t hit himself out of a wet paper bag, and played the outfield like he was an 80 year old.
So. Either he magically improved (unlikely) or he wasn’t trying at all in Atlanta. I would’nt sign a guy long term if he’s got that mindset.
Before last season he changed his off season routine working out with Arod..something clicked. He is still only 27.
Melky always was good, specially in late innings and high leverage situations, has a cannon for an arm, but can’t field going forward all that well when trying to pick up balls.
He also wasn’t liked in NY because he likes to party and thought he was a superstar, going out daily and drinking, and that affected Robinson Canó in 2007-2008 until the Front Office decided enough was enough, issued him a reprimand before 2009, and after that season they traded him along two young pitchers and 12 millions in exchange for Javier Vázquez.
At the time it was not a very well known fact that the NYY decided to take care of their best player, and one they didn’t have a replacement for (unlike the OF where they already had Gardner and AJax or Granderson if the Tigers decided to pull the trigger in the trade which ultimately happened).
Now, Melky is a good player that once his BAbip goes down towards his usual 0.300, his batting average will be somewhere between 0.275 and 0.300, maybe even a bit over 0.300, with 15-20 homeruns, a cannon and will be a serviceable left fielder (not a very good option for CF/RF).