The Giants have exercised Jeremy Affeldt's $5MM club option for 2012, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link).
As Schulman notes, that's $9.25MM on a pair of left-handed relievers for the 2012 season given today's two-year extension for Javier Lopez. However, Schulman tweeted earlier today that he spoke with Affeldt via text message prior to the Lopez news, and Affeldt told him that he's spoken with the club about the possibility of the team exercising the option and then working out a new contract.
Affeldt put up a very strong season in 2011, posting a 2.63 ERA, 7.9 K/9, and 3.5 BB/9 in 61 2/3 innings for the Giants. Perhaps most impressively, he kept the ball on the ground 62.1% of the time — a mark that ranked seventh among all relievers in 2011 (Lopez ranked sixth at 62.6%).
By the Giants resigning Lopez and exercising Affeldt’s option the market for left handed relievers has gone down drastically.
It’s expensive to keep these guys but I think it needed to be done.
Good job Giants, you’re spending more on two LOOGY’s than my team will on it’s whole bullpen.
Affeldt is not a loogy. He pitches to righties too.
as does lopez
he shouldn’t pitch to righties half as much as he does though. hopefully Affeldt works out some sort of extension for less per year
see below. lopez has done better than affeldt against righties the last two seasons
not that i’d be pleased to spend this kind of money on either of them
Lopez is not necessarily a LOOGY, but unless he comes in to face a lefty-righty-lefty combination, he shouldn’t ever face a RHB. I like the team keeping him around, but 4.25 mil per year is a lot to commit to him
Lopez had a 0.88 K/BB and a .761 OPS vs RH last year. He’s a LOOGY.
k/bb and OPS-against?
lopez is a lefty specialist, but not a LOOGY. he pitches as many innings against righties as he does against lefties and averaged 2.3 outs per appearance the past two years. beyond that, he had a FIP of just 4 against them this year and a 3.42 FIP against them in 2010 (affeldt had a 4.54 FIP against righties this year and a 4.02 FIP the year before while averaging just 2.8 outs per appearance. his OPS-against, fwiw, was .764)
not all lefty specialists are LOOGYs
Well there goes my hope that they’d concentrate spending money on Beltran. Apparently two LOOGYs is more important than a bat.
Beltran is up after the starters. Sabes’ made it clear he was going to lock up the pitching staff first, then concentrate on offensive moves. Seems about right to me since Buster and Freddy will be back next year.
My main concern is that once certain players receive raises through arbitration (Romo, J Sanchez, Sandoval, Casilla, Vogelsong) they’ll have reached their payroll limit and no funds will be left over for any impact OF (Beltran)
That is a legitimate concern. However, once the land development deal for all of the space near the ballpark is finalized the Giants should be the second or third richest sports franchises in the world. They could have a Yankee-esque salary figure if they don’t mind spending before the money is actually in their pockets.
We need to acquire a good leadoff hitter before Beltran is interested in coming back.
I hope we are doing this for trade bait! We NEED Beltran back! Another F’n year of losing 1-0 will piss me off!
Pitching is how this team wins. To be upset in october is ridiculous.
We have a lot of raises to our pitching staff. We need offense plain and simple.
i just hope the giants don’t sign any Type A free agents. The Giants cannot get back in the habit of throwing away draft picks.
it would have been nice to see Lopez get signed elsewhere and get the comp pick for him. At least then the Giants could sign a type A and not really lose much.
an established player, and they have to be good to recieve type a status is worth it over an unproven draft pick
josh willingham too. the only guy I think that would be worth it is Jose Reyes.
Totally agree. I’d only sign a Type A if that player was a difference maker.
Andrew: Our core is based around first round draft picks- Posey, Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, and hopefully Brown. You can’t just throw top picks away. A Type A player like Michael Cuddyer would be a horrible signing. He’ll be 33 years old, averages a little over 16 home runs, and has a career .273 average ever since becoming a full time starter in 2004. To me, that shouldn’t warrant a 1st round pick.
Completely agree about Cuddyer. He’s a medium sized fish in a school of minnow this offseason and is going to fetch a king’s ransom because he’s the best of whats out there. His situation smells like a 2011 version of the Jayson Werth deal(except that Werth had legitimate power numbers).
Resigning these guys were expected. Im sure we’ll get bats, sabean doesnt want to lose the fan base, after watching maybe the worst giant offense in its history? This franchise has always had a solid lineup
that was one of the worst offensive teams in the history of baseball, never mind giants history.
Point being, adding players like Coco Crisp and Alex Gonzalez is just not going to be enough to elevate this offense.
So let the hotstove season begin. Good luck Giants we’ll be watching with anticipation at the offensive upgrades. Trades perhaps?
I really expected one of these guys to be gone and for Runzler to step in as the other (much cheaper) lefty out of the bullpen. So I guess they will continue to try to tansform Runzler to a starter or they just don’t have enough confidence in him being a big part of the bullpen.
Now that Beltran has dumped Boras, some sanity may be restored to the game. I’d say 2 years at about 12, with an option for a third at 15. Now the big fish: Matt Cain must be locked up as soon as possible. He’s at 9.5 this year and should command somewhere around 13: I’d say 4 years with an increasing salary, through 2015: 58 for 4 years, with a fifth year option. Timmy will be around 14, for two years though his record belies his under 3.00 ERA. That money would be about a 4 million per year raise over his current contract.
Cain was at $7.3 M last year and jumps to $15.3 M in 2012. Timmy was at $14 M last year. These guys are gonna be expensive to lock up.
My info showed different figures. My info also tells me that Cain is an FA as I write. Timm-eh is on the last two years of arbitration-eligible. That’s why he only wants a two-year deal.
Great to have both of the nLefties that one the WS back in 2010. They are well deserved to get paid. Now I see a lead off hitter coming. An impact bat would be great.