SUNDAY: The Marlins might be the mystery team vying for Melancon, writes FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Despite its payroll limitations, Miami is committed to building an elite bullpen and is also chasing Jansen, as Heyman first reported last month, and Chapman. As of a couple weeks ago, the Marlins were “highly unlikely” to land Chapman, per one of his associates.
SATURDAY, 9:49pm: Melancon has four-year offers worth upward of $60MM from the Giants, Nationals and perhaps one other team, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. The Giants have likely made the strongest offer, tweets Rosenthal.
2:17pm: The Giants are still on the lookout for a closer, and are more likely to find one via the free agent market rather than a trade, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick writes (all Twitter links). Giants GM Bobby Evans says the team likes all of the so-called Big Three options, which include Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen and Mark Melancon.
Crasnick further notes that Melancon might make the most sense of the bunch since they pursued him last summer and since he should cost less than Chapman or Jansen. (Also, unlike Jansen, Melancon would not require the loss of a draft pick.) The Giants met last month with the agents of all three players.
Melancon is coming off a terrific season with the Pirates and Nationals in which he posted a 1.64 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 1.5 BB/9 with a strong 54.2 ground ball percentage. He doesn’t have the dominating strikeout totals of Chapman or Jansen, but his results speak for themselves. The Nationals have also reportedly pursued him this winter, and his market has been surprisingly robust, with guesses about what he might be able to get trending upward to the four-year/$60-million range.
Melancon!!!
What I don’t get about the closer market is that chapmam and Jensen are going to make close to 100m in their deals while mark might clear 50, but if you look at the bottom line stays, all three are fairly equal. Closers should get paid to close games, not strikeouts. Results are the only thing that should matter.
Melacon is much older. You are buying like his age 32-35 seasons rather than 29-33 with the other guys.
exactly true
Giants still trying to be cheap
Save money
Wouldn’t hold his age as a closer against him. look no further than Nathan and Koji, Hoffman, Mariano etc.. it’s his outpitch and how well will translate as he ages. don’t know myself, but bit biased as he was so poor in Boston, then turned around once back in the NL.
Do think he’s still be an adequate closer and doesn’t rely on premium velocity. Safer move than throwing 100m+ at jensen and Chapman.
The fact is that striking out 12-15 batters per 9 is a much more reliable than balls in play. They wouldn’t just be getting more money for the heck of it, they deserve it because they are more dominant pitchers in the sense of pure stuff.
I enjoyed the dribbler for final out of World Series. Mike Montgomery for president
everyone wants the power arm flame throwers for closer!
As a Cub fan I hope Chapman or Jansen is signed by us. They don’t make the difference in regular season but for playoffs it does. We wouldn’t have won without Chapman . Dodgers don’t make it to nlcs without Jansen. Giants would have pushed us to game 5 with one of them.
Chapman wasn’t exactly great in the playoffs, if anything Montgomery did
He was overused in playoffs because Madden didn’t trust anybody in bullpen. Without him Cleveland wins.
If you think those guys are equal you need to follow another sport!
They are all dominant at their role in closing games out. As far as sabermetrics are concerned they might have differences but from a this fans seat they look pretty similar to me.
Agree no athlete are equal
Strikeouts, however are more sustainable. Putting the ball in play is always going to be riskier, based on defense, luck, etc.
Melancon is going to be the best choice for the Giants. It gets done soon for 4 and 62 is my guess.
I guess anything is better then non
Holland and Melancon, in orange and black. thoughts?
That would be cool, but enough teams are looking for late inning help to where I doubt the Giants will come away with both those guys. There are other reasons too, such as they don’t have a whole lot of payroll space before hitting the luxury tax, and they’ve got a lot of arms on hand to fill the bullpen slots outside of the closer role.
Aside from Law, I don’t have much faith in any portion of the Giants pen as it currently stands. While Strickland’so stats appear solid, he just doesn’t pass the eye test, especially in high leverage situations. Whether its GM speak or not, Evans sounds like closer is the clear priority and that the team is comfortable going into 2017 with a Parker/Williamson combo in left. If they’re not going to spend the money in left, having a shutdown pen combination like Holland/Melancon makes complete sense. It all depends on what Holland still has left and how much he’s going to cost.
Strickland doesn’t seem very intelligent either. Heard an interview with him and he sounds like a dumb frat boy. I don’t know why the Giants are so hot on that guy.
you guys talking about Holland the starter or Holland the reliever
Strickland is terrible on my OOTP game, for whatever that’s worth.
Greg, the closer/reliever.
What about Kontos and Will Smith? Kontos finished the season with a 163 ERA+. Smith after a rough transition, went his final 18 games without giving up an earned run. He finished with a 142 ERA+. Gearrin was sidetracked by injury and so was Osich. Osich was awesome in 2015.
They lost 2 of their worst performers in Casilla and Lopez, and have a number of possible replacements in the minors; Blach (assuming he doesn’t start), Suarez, Stratton, Okert, Heston, etc.
The pen will be fine with a dependable closer. I’d love to see them add Holland along with Melancon, but seriously doubt that will, or even can, happen, The Giants are like many teams where Holland is plan B if they miss out on one of the big 3.
The Reliever
Yep, agree with pretty much everything you said Tad. I didn’t know Smith didn’t give up a run in his last 18 games though, must have been hard to notice since he was used so sporadically.
He’s about as country as it gets, not sure where you get frat boy???
I think they will go with more “reliable” choices given the amount they’ve invested in this team and last year’s collapse. Holland was amazing when healthy, but he now has some lingering questions. I do think they get Melancon, but might let someone else bite on Holland, and then sign maybe Brad Ziegler who might be cheaper as well. Holland is certainly a possibility, however, with arguably the highest ceiling outside of Chap, KJ, and MM.
What about Todd Frazier to the Giants??
Don’t forget….Jonathan Papelbon is still out there. Hello? Hello?
Who wants that head case…..
I think he’ll end up in a situation much like the Red Sox’s last year. 3 closers – all of them also used as setup pitchers (Kimbrel, Ziegler, Koji)
I picked Melancon for the Giants in the prediction contest.
Thanks for sharing!
How is Will Smith as a number two or three reliever ? Free agent Closer; DLaw and Will Smith as a top 3? Then Strickland Kontos and Okert….Need one more arm??
Gearrin or Osich.
Cain, Blach, and Suarez are options for the long man. They could carry an 8-man pen and short bench again… sigh.
Cain is done….. not much left
I know, but I’d be shocked if the Giants released him.
Trade for Kimbrel. Or pick up Koji for 1 year.
I actually have the Giants signing Koji in the free agent prediction contest. One of my “dark horse” pics.
I definitely think that’s where they’ll go if they lose Melancon to the Nats or Cubs.
Really? Where do you have ALL the other FA’s landing?
There’s really no need to be that way. It’s just as annoying to others for you to post things like that as it is for you to have others post about their predictions
It still baffles me that the Melancon that I’ve seen over the last couple years , not to mention the ’11 Astro’s is the same guy that I watched stink up the field in Boston.
Tell me about it!! Had him on my fantasy team that year!
Right?!
Have to love these captain obvious reports.
Mark, do your old team a favor and sign with the Giants soon.
Then, the Pirates can include Watson and get another prospect out of the Nationals.
I had the same thought. Mark would be ideal for SF regardless.
Just sign him Giants….??
That “other team” is the Cubs.
Contenders looking for closers, Nats, Dodgers, Yanks, Giants, and Cubs. Musical chairs, there are only three on the market. All these teams have the money so if I’m Melancon I would wait it out and sign after Chapman and Jansen. He would have at least 3 teams bidding for him and the Marlins. Of course if he likes one team over the other he should just sign. The Cubs seem to be his best option if he wants to win the series. If he signs with the Cubs than the price will go up on the other two. Melancon is already been offered more that thought on this site.
I called it. Once I saw “one other team,” I knew it had to be the Marlins trying to throw away more than 20% of their payroll on a reliever that has lost a lot of velocity, and is dependent on his command staying what it has been over the last couple of years. Never thought they’d play on Chapman or Jansen. Melancon comes with no draft pick compensation and should be about 25 million less than Jansen, so it just made sense to me. As a Marlins fan, I’d much rather look elsewhere for help in the bullpen, at a cheaper rate
Go Marlins! At least they have a plan, whether I agree with it or not. KC got lucky after a 20 yr rebuild and everyone is “copying” it. More starters have dominated the playoffs than relievers.
I have an idea of the names I’d like to see them go after, although its somewhat difficult to predict a couple of those guys’ price points at this moment. Koji Uehara, Neftali Feliz, Brad Ziegler are a couple of the RH names I’m interested in, and then though Cecil signed with the Cardinals, and now Rzepczynski signed with Seattle, there are still a few LH options available. We’re expected to believe they’ll spend $85+ million on a reliever, like Kenley Jansen, on top of giving up their draft pick, with that percentage of the payroll to a reliever? %60 million for Melancon is a lot too. Melancon seems like the type of signing we’ve bitten the bullet on in the past. I’d prefer the other 2 elite options, if they’re going to spend so much for a reliever. Otherwise, I like the idea of names like those I suggested, which would be exponentially cheaper
And the Marlins still need to add a SP, barring an Ozuna or Gordon trade, add a RH 1b to split time with Bour, and now they need to replace Mathis with a new backup catcher. I’m personally still hoping for Napoli, as I was last year, but I doubt they can get him, especially with the reported interest from a few teams so far. Its more likely they look at Steve Pearce
If you are Melancon do you sign with the Marlins, Giant, Nats, or Cubs? I would say either he liked it with the Nats or he signs with the Cubs. Marlins are his last choice.
no state income tax, get to live in Miami, ballpark fits him, he probably knows some people in the organization from their time in Pittsburgh together…Honestly, I still think the Giants and Nationals are the 2 main teams to watch here, with the Dodgers as another possibility if they lose Jansen or dont sign Chapman. I dont know that the Cubs go out and spend that money now, when they could try to add bullpen help elsewhere in free agency, or make a trade for a shorter term, cheaper piece. I think they’re more focused on Chapman, if they sign one of the closers. They’re likely more focused on either 1 more SP, or possibly adding depth to those areas. Meanwhile, both the Giants and Nationals are in need of a closer. Melancon seems like the type the Giants would go after, and I feel like the Nationals seem like the team that would pay Jansen, but all of that is just speculation. This also just seems like the type of move the Marlins try to make sometimes, and they’re somehow able to entice guys every once in a while, when they decide they want that guy
AT
Sorry. AT
Stupid app. The giants’ park helps too.
Hot Take: Marlins get non of the three.