With Jason Heyward finally off the board, the rest of the outfield market can begin to shift into place, writes Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. Here’s a sampling of what Crasnick sees shaping up around the league:
- The Royals would like to bring back free agent Alex Gordon at the right price, but they could also jump into the market for one of the Rockies outfielders. Per Crasnick, Carlos Gonzalez would require a serious haul – perhaps one or both of Raul Mondesi or Miguel Almonte. He doesn’t believe Charlie Blackmon or Corey Dickerson would require either player. I’m not sure I agree with this assessment. While Gonzalez is definitely the more recognizable name, Dickerson and Blackmon cost less, are younger, and come equipped with more club control. It’s also arguable as to which of the trio is expected to be best over the next few years. In any event, with the Royals window wide open, they do match up well for one of the Rockies outfielders.
- If the Royals fall short of Gordon or a trade asset, an outfielder like Denard Span, Gerardo Parra, or Dexter Fowler should help to keep the pressure off Jarrod Dyson. All three would cost substantially less than Gordon, but they also carry assorted warts including platoon issues and checkered injury histories.
- The Angels and Giants would like a quality outfielder, but they have multiple positions to fill with limited resources. If the Giants go in on another starter like Mike Leake, they’ll be out on top outfielders like Justin Upton. Similarly, the Angels still need to address second base and left field. Their barren farm system will force them to use the free agent market.
- The Reds have only received a couple of feelers on outfielder Jay Bruce. Entering his age 29 season, Bruce has been a below average hitter in each of the last two seasons. This despite hitting in one of the friendliest parks for hitters. While I do think a team will eventually roll the dice on Bruce, it won’t be until after more quality outfielders leave the marketplace.
So there’s no market for Justin Upton? Surprise, surprise. . .
How would the Giants immediately be out on top tier outfield free agents? They were willing to give Greinke near or over 200 million and are one of the wealthy teams in the league. Think Arizona has money? Psh, the Giants could sink them. Especially with what they have coming off the books and the new approval that was just passed that won’t require revenue sharing.
How about taking some bad contracts from the Braves for young arms.
Markakais and Tehran for …
The giants might of offered him over 200 million but they prolly didn’t give him the 6th year like the diamondbacks did
So they offered him $40m AAV through age 37? Good call…
Its been well reported that neither LA or SF would go six years and their AAV topped out in the low 30’s.
greinke at 30ish aav
“another starter like mike leake” 16-20m aav.
30-(16 to 20) < what one of the top outfielders will get.
$30M (what Greinke got) – $18M (what they paid the Shark) – $15M (what they’d have to pay Leake) = a $3M deficit.
But what your forgetting gmenfan is that for a 3 million deficit your gaming double the amount of innings, double the amount of starts and I’m gonna go out on a limb here and and say that 15 more wins than one pitcher can achieve. That’s worth the deficit. Question is, will the Giants pull the trigger on Leake or another mid tier starter?
They were willing to give him $200 million, but the number that counts against the cap is AAV. Signing Greinke might’ve convinced the owners to spend a little more to bring in an OF, but signing Leake isn’t exactly a move that will convince owners to “break-the-bank”.
Also the Giants would be out on top outfielders if they sign Leake because they signed Samardzija to like 90 mil. Top outfielders will cost at least 100 mil and Leake won’t be cheap.
I think CarGo would actually be the cheapest (talent wise) to acquire. Crasnick needs to stop playing The Show and understand real baseball.
I’m pretty sure Crasnick has been around “real” baseball a lot longer than you.
You really know nothing about baseball do you? CarGo is only 29. With only 2 years left on his contract at 17 million per. Which is considerably cheaper than any of the free agents out there. CarGo has put up better numbers in his career than Upton. CarGo is also a gold glove winner.
I think price would be pretty high on all 3 Rockies OF’s. If I were a team, I would probably want to most roll the dice on a guy like Dickerson.
Preller, any chance you offer Justin Upton something more than a QO? How about you give him a 7 year deal for 150 million where he can optout after 2 – even if he says No
Don’t really see the need for the Giants to go after one of the big name OF’s, they have an amazing position player core: Posey, Duffy, Crawford, Belt, and Panik were all 4+ fWAR players and Panik played in 100 games, then you have Pence who was pretty damn good when healthy (tho at his age maybe injuries become concern).
Blanco is a solid regular as well. Are all these guys going to keep it up? Maybe not but it should still be a really good position player unit for next year and you shouldn’t bet on them collectively missing so much time. They should still use resources to go after Cueto if they can, maybe something like 15 million in year 1 and weirdly structure it, but I think he’s the guy to put the Giants team over the top.
Blanco is a solid 4th outfielder. Pagan is good but he’s going to get injured that’s a given, last year the pitcher spot I believe had more home runs than LF. Cespedes or Gordon would be the ideal guys to get, because both are productive and are capable of playing outfield , Cespedes especially is capable of manning CF when Pagan goes down. Even if they get Cespedes or Gordon they should trade for a speedy outfielder because Blanco has shown many times he’s inconsistent as a starter and lead off hitter.
Cueto is risky he’s already shown problems with his elbow and he’s shown he can be hot or miss, not to mention he wants too much money. Leake would likely be the most likely pitcher the Giants sign unless a trade is made.
Agree completely. Offense is not really the issue, especially if it means forsaking defense in Upton’s case. In 2015, the Giants were first in the NL in batting average and on base, fourth in slugging and ops, and fifth in runs scored. All of that with partial seasons from Pence, Panik, and Pagan. If the starting pitching had been even mediocre, they would have been postseason bound. Stick to the template of pitching and defense.
Yep!
You lose all credibility when you say blanco is a solid regular, I stopped reading your comment when I saw that
Giants fans shouldn’t get their hopes up about Alex Gordon, because he is just simply not going to leave the mid-west. If I were you I’d be focused more on Upton and Cespedes.
Alex Gordon moves the needle about as much as Mike Leake does. They’re both going to cost more than they’re worth for more years than you’d like to see them on your roster. Odds are SF goes elsewhere to fill those holes at this point.
Anybody who would pay more for cargo than Dickerson is off their rocker in my book
Hey the Brewers can trade the Angels Braun and Scooter Gennett; with the Brewers kicking in 10 mil to defer some of his contract for the 3-4 top ten prospects in the Angels farm system. Braun’s from Southern Cal area and be near his home.
I think the Giants a really solid offensive team of healthy, I don’t think they NEED Cespedes or upton unless pence is hurt again, they could pick up a outfielder like Pearce, Ruggiano or Alex Rios and that would give them another good right handed bat in the outfield, Pearce meanwhile could spell belt at first when needed but they already have posey for that, I think if they added one good arm to the pen and a right handed bat with pop the Giants would contend next year