The Giants' acquisition of Melky Cabrera this offseason has provided a tremendous boost to San Francisco's lineup. Cabrera is hitting .353/.391/.519, and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that he would be open to an extension:
“Of course I would. I’m a free agent next (winter), but the fans and Giants’ organization have treated me very well, so I would welcome staying with the Giants.”
According to Shea, Cabrera told his representatives at ACES to let the Giants' front office "know his intention to stick around."
Last month, GM Brian Sabean told reporters that he'd yet to begin extension talks with Cabrera, but that he didn't think Andre Ethier's five-year, $85MM contract was a good comparable. The Melk-Man may not command that large of an investment, but he obviously did well to reject the two-year, $13.5MM extension the Royals offered him last August.
MLBTR's Mark Polishuk examined Cabrera's extension candidacy in May, but his stock has risen considerably since that time. Cabrera had a historic month of May, and he currently leads the National League with 119 hits. Fangraphs pegs his value to date at a healthy 3.3 wins above replacement — good for 11th among all MLB outfielders.
Cabrera, who is capable of playing all three outfield positions, would be part of a strong class of free agent center fielders that includes the likes of B.J. Upton, Shane Victorino, and Michael Bourn. Nick Swisher and Carlos Quentin are also set to hit free agency, which should create a buyer's market for teams seeking impact outfielders.
Cody Ross also. he’s not really a CF, but at LEAST as good of a CF as Swisher is and both play all 3 OF positions.
Finally, a free agent the Braves won’t be connected with.
Melk dud was a bum in atlanta and lowest offensive player in new york.
He’s just having a career year to secure a large contract i believe he wont live up to.
You mean ANOTHER career year. This makes two years in a row
Would love to get Melky back AND Bourn! We can let Pagan go. That would be an amazing OF!
Blanco RF?
Gary Brown.
I’d be shocked if Gary Brown was our opening day RF…
Gary Brown has started to figure it out and is getting a lot more hits if you look at his last 2 weeks. He’s not Trout or B. Hamilton fast just looking at his stolen base numbers this season but once he learns to read pitchers better he could be a 50 SB guy which is speculation on my part.
He’s still in AA, and his overall numbers still aren’t good there. I’d be shocked if you saw him before late 2013 and 2014 seems like a much more reasonable goal.
I agree with your assessment that 2014 is a realistic target for Brown, but it got me looking at Brown’s recent success. In the past month, over 118 PA’s, Brown has posted a triple slash of .376/.424/.560, good for a .984 OPS. It could be small sample size, but it also could be he is getting acclimated to the higher level. Here’s hoping it is the latter!
Blanco for now…Gary Brown is still a year away.
That’d be hilarious if you got Bourn, Blanco, and Cabrera in your OF. Would be literally stealing ATL’s OF right from under them.
Being an avid Giants fan today was literally the first day I heard about the Bourn to the Giants which was not talked about here in Bay Area at all. I’m wondering if it is Heyman wondering aloud or if he’s playing a game of telephone with Boras mailman.
And how exactly did they become so rich all of the sudden? Bourn is a Brave or so I hope for the future
Giants ownership is cheap so don’t count on it. Melky will also get over paid by whoever signs him. He is not a $85 million guy. Limited power and having his best year. Anything more than a 5/60 deal is way to much.
Don’t know about cheap they are at $130 Million right now with Huff, Sanchez, Affeldt, and Rowand coming off the books at seasons end which equates to about $30 million. Plus they have signed Bumgarner and Sandoval to contracts that covers their arbitration years. Only unknown is Posey’s 1st time arbitration case which I suspect the Giants will sign him to a Bumgarner like contract in the off season. They’ve sold out every game dating back to last season so they should be able to increase their payroll a little.
Its not quite that simple. Bumgarner and Sandoval are signed long term, but they’re both due significant raises over the next few seasons. Cain and Lincecum will each get a pretty big salary bump next year. They’ll have a little money to spend but they have 80 mil committed before any arbitration cases or free agents added. Posey, Casilla, Romo, and Schierholtz will all get pretty decent pay bumps through arbitration. Wilson will be an interesting case, offering him arbitration and committing to a higher salary than the 8.5 he’ll make this year seems like a pretty good way to guarantee you’ll overpay, but it would also be a bit out of this front office’s character to non-tender a popular player like Wilson and risk losing him on the open market. Guys like Belt, Crawford, Blanco, Sanchez, Hensley, Arias, Runzler, and Kontos should help fill the roster cheaply. However, after those arbitration cases (even assuming they don’t give 9 mil to Wilson) you’re looking at 95-100 mil committed and you’re still lacking a starting 2B, at least 2 starting OF, at least 2 bullpen arms and at least one more utility player.
Signing Melky AND a free agent like Bourn seems nearly impossible barring a payroll increase or Lincecum trade (neither of those is likely) Those two guys alone would eat up most of the payroll room. I find it much more likely they keep Melky and Pagan (on a shorter and cheaper deal than Bourn would command) retain Wilson and go dumpster diving for bullpen arms (a good thing) and infielders (a bad thing)
I do believe that this is Schierholtz last season to prove something because as is he has not shown anything resembling a model of consistency when it comes to hitting and could be a trade candidate. As for Posey & Romo I suspect the Giants will lock them up in some sort of deal leaning towards the team friendly type that would limit the cost in the rest of their arbitration years.
When it comes down to bullpen arms they are a dime a dozen especially when it comes down to the Giants scouting in recent years finding them on the cheap. With all that said I agree they’ll keep costs down with players like Belt and Crawford but if we were to read into what Giants ownership has said in the past I don’t think its out of the question that their payroll will increase over the years.
With their mortgage payments up in 2017 for AT&T Park the team could be operating in the upper echelon of teams that spend which is speculation on my part.
Whether Bourn is worth a 4 year deal well I guess it will come down to the numbers in the end. Bourn turns 30 and as we’ve seen in the past speed declines with age.
Giants’ ownership is cheap? They’ve had the 8th-highest payroll in baseball for the last three years, and each of those years they’ve spent more on players than San Diego and Oakland combined.
Probably ranking even higher in attendance.
They nickel and dime their fans on everything. Any giant fan knows this all the while they are scared to take risk on players. no calls to Beltran is a good example. Let Sabean over pay for 1 year wonder Cabrera who has no power.
How do they nickel and dime the fans? I’m a Giants fan and I don’t “know” this. AT&T Park is arguably the best place in the country to watch a baseball game and they have a good product on the field. Something tells me the consistently stellar attendance record over the past 2-3 years reinforces the fact that people believe that whatever they are paying is worth the baseball/ballpark experience that they are getting.
As a side note, if you are a Giants fan, how on earth could you be this cynical at this point in your fandom? Isn’t the franchise in a better place than they have been in, say, 25 years or so?
AT&T is a nice park but they raise the price every year plus to just get a beer is $10 for a small cup. $20 for a sandwich? Every fan experience now is a charge. They raise prices depending on which club is in town. Free giveaways are so limited that you must get to the stadium 2 hours before the game. The franchise is contending only because they are in the weakest division. Sabean rarely pulls a trade unless it is for a dump by another team.
You’re funny John!
A lot of dough coming off the books after this season:
12 mill Rowand
12 mill Huff
6 mill Sanchez
5 mill Pagan (If they don’t resign him)
5 mill Affeldt
1 mill Mota
1 mill Schierholtz (If they decide to non tender)
20 mill off the books from Zito after next season. Possibly 23 mill from Timmy.
If Timmy is showing signs of slowing down already at his age I’d probably let him walk after his deal is up. Hopefully he can get back to what he was and help the Giants win the Division. Good luck to Giants fans.
Huff is 10 million with a 2 million buyout, Brian Wilson is making 8.5 million and has a year left of arbitration and he is not worth that amount based on baseball ability, so he could be non-tendered or be paid 9-9.5 million next year following TJ surgery.
Buster Posey is arb eligible, I’m guessing between 3-4 million at least, Romo and Casilla are also expecting a raise through arb. If they keep Wilson, expect a payroll around 100 million already commited for next season because Cain will get a 5 million raise, Volgenson 2 million raise, and Sandoval a 2.5 million raise. So I’m assuming payroll goes down if they don’t make the playoff’s, and that makes sense for them since 131 million is the highest payroll they’ve had in their history, so I think they should focus on Melky and Quentin, not Bourn
I believe they will non tender Wilson and try to re-sign him cheaper.
A 4 year/$60MM deal seems about right. You might be overpaying him year to year, but the way I see it, it’s more economically sound to not risk a year of deadweight ala’ Huff or Rowand but pay him what you’d normally pay him over a 5 year period.
That would be absolutely insane, 3 years MAX.
Any more than 3/30 would be laughable for a guy with one year like this under his belt. Have fun with the sure to be massive overpayment.
He was pretty good last year as well.
To be fair to Melky he’s really only been actually bad 2 of his 7 seasons and he’s still not an old player. He’s only been THIS good for a half season now, but he’s been a really, really good player for a year and a half now. If he has a good second half he’ll enter free agency under 30 years old with 4,000 plate appearances and a career slash line around .285/.345/.430 thats strongly trending the right direction. Thats a pretty valuable player. Last year seemed like an outlier due to his BABIP, but now that he’ll probably top that rate for the second consecutive year its not crazy to think he’s just gotten better. I’d be very reluctant to give him an Ethier contract but saying anything over 3/30 is an overpay isn’t fair either. He’s been worth well over 30 mil by fWAR over the last 1.5 years alone. I expect Melky will be looking for something like Rowand’s 5/60, and the Giants will be hoping for something more along the lines of 4/45.
Last season Melky hit .335 from July 2 on. If keeps his OPS around .920 for this season, there’s no way he signs for 4/45.
5 for 60 would be giving the Giants a discount. He might rate 15 per on the open market (assuming his current level of performance).
This is a tough one for Sabean. Melky is 3 years younger than Ethier, who has never hit at Melky’s current level (based on OPS). But neither has Melky.
There are red flags aplenty. A big one for me is Melky showing up out of shape one season. Did some life guard kick those genes out of the pool? Unlikely. The best way to reactivate those particular genes is to give him the security of a long term contract.
So what’s the answer?
If they can get him 5 for 60 they just about have to do it.
He’ll go back to his old ways, just like Huff did.
Except Huff was in his 30’s when he found the miracle year for the Giants. Melky has been showing improvement and is entering his physical prime “historically” of 28-32 for baseball hitters
You probably should add Josh Hamilton to your strong free agent OF class
How do they nickel and dime the fans? I’m a Giants fan and I don’t “know” this. AT&T Park is arguably the best place in the country to watch a baseball game and they have a good product on the field. Something tells me the consistently stellar attendance record over the past 2-3 years reinforces the fact that people believe that whatever they are paying is worth the baseball/ballpark experience that they are getting.
As a side note, if you are a Giants fan, how on earth could you be this cynical at this point in your fandom? Isn’t the franchise in a better place than they have been in, say, 25 years or so?
I’m so proud of Melky. I would be a liar if I thought he would be this good but I always thought he could be a solid .285/.340/.450 15 hr/15 sb guy would could play all 3 OF spots.
If 5 is too long and $60M is too much, how about 4/$55M with a team option based on performance?
Its double what he makes now and it shows him the Giants want him but it doesn’t become an albatross after he turns 32. If he can maintain than they revisit later in the deal.
I think he is worth more than what Huff was getting the past two seasons. The kid has finally put his talent together and its showing every day. Seriously. He is what we thought Aaron Rowand was going to be. Only younger and way more talented.
The deal with Cabrera imo is dependent on how much Miami has left after this year which is likely conditional on an extended PS run.
That said I think if Miami can even match the high offer he would take it; he lives there and clearly embraces the Latino culture in S. Beach as his own without trying to assimilate beyond he ball club he’s with. He was rooting hard for Lebron and co. SF has it’s own Latin culture that’s not a small presence but it depends on how much he truly feels at home here as to whether or not – now that he’s in the position to do so – he might not force the issue to be in S. Beach.
SF Giants No Shame Continues – Team Backs All Star Ballot Stuffing
As if the San Francisco Giants don’t already have a bad enough reputation for going beyond the limits to win at all costs, to do anything to get brownie points. The Giants, more than any other team, have parlayed illegal steroid use to the World Series and even this year had at least one player, Mota, suspended for use. During their World Series year there were at least three players and probably more. Just one of them Jose Guillen helped them win a couple extra games when he joined thme in August, prior to his subsequent suspension.
For the past five years the Giants ownership has refused to even discuss allowing the Oakland A’s to move to San Jose, where the Giants claim territorial rights. It was the A’s under Walter Haas who even allowed the Giants such rights 20 years ago, but the Giants are intransigent.
The Giants will go out over the top on everything, like going after problem players other teams don’t want. Now, it’s turned to ballot stuffing. How the heck could a Pablo Sandoval, out half the season, with only 8 homers and a .300 average out vote the Mets David Wright for starting position at 3rd base? (Wright was ahead of Sandoval in nearly every category.) Of course, New York has a much bigger fan base, yet the Sandoval got more votes. Same goes for Posey, at catcher, was no lock with a mere .300 average and only 9 homers, but his votes were way ahead. How could the Giants, in a smaller market, out vote the Mets fans?
Well, Giants ownership not only turned the other cheek but encouraged ballot stuffing. How else could this mediocre team, know more for it’s pitching, place three players in the starting All Star lineup?
No wonder the national announcers made an issue of this, rightfully so. Sure, the Giants players had some key hits; well, they were one-third of the starting lineup, hitting against a pictcher, Verlander, who was taking it easy – every one was hitting him this day.
The Giants and their fans’ boorish attitude can only backfire. Wait until they go to New York and face the Mets and their fans. They will be allr eady to give a special beating to the Giants. Other tieams may follow suit. Some players have already spoken out against the Giants and their tactics such as turning up the PA volume during games to give themselves an unfair advantage (per Kirk Gibson and Matt Loatos).
No wonder they have a huge homefield advantage. (They have a losing record on the road.)
And, by the way, all those ‘sellouts’ are not really sellouts for Giants games. You can generally buy tickets anytime,even after games start. And, you’ll see large sections of empty seats, and the Giants have to give away seats at half price through Goldstar. The media continues to buy into their ’90 straight sellouts (or whatever the number is…)
These are the same Giants who unceremoniously let their new No. 1 man , Bill Newcomb, go following their world series year; this was the guy most responsible for the GOOD THINGS that helped them win it all. Because he didn’t go along with all the off color and ‘win at any cost,’ steroids and all and didn’t get along with the curmudgeonly personalities of Baer and Sabean. (Manager Bochy’s not a bad guy, just caught in the middle)
Finally, the media that is giving the Giants THREE credit for winning the all-star game are way off base. Cabrera, Sandoval and Posey were facing Verlander, a guy who said after the game he was ‘just having fun. EVERYONE was hitting him in the first inning including non-Giant plaers. The fact is that the Giant players just happened to be up in the batting order while he was pitching. No doubt David Wright or Ruiz would have had just as much or probably better chance of getting hits than Sandoval or Posey (Posey didn’t get a hit, but walked)… Cheating, ala stuffing the ballot box , may work for awhile but… wait until the Giants face the Mets late July, not to mention other teams unhappy with what the Jints did…
TimeTraveler
Umad mets fans?
San Francisco Giant’s Are Awesome!! & so are their fans!
Another guy who has great marketing potential for the giants.
The melkman, The Panda, The giraffe, Buster, and The freak.
Plus perfect game Cain, and Guitar man Barry Zito.
Just look at it this way, the Giants are paying more for Aaron Rowand not to play this year, than they are paying Melky, Pagan, and Blanco to play. Penny may have to take Lincecum’s place in the rotation. Will not be long before Boof Bonser is called up to pitch in the bullpen.