The Giants and third baseman Conor Gillaspie have agreed to a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (via Twitter). San Francisco’s latest postseason hero will make $1.4MM with the team in 2017, per Heyman. That figure checks in quite a bit north of his $900K projection.
Gillaspie, 29, returned to the Giants, the team that originally drafted him, on a minor league deal last February. He’d spent the bulk of the past three seasons with the White Sox, logging significant playing time as the team’s primary third baseman. He sputtered in 2015, however, and was ultimately designated for assignment before being traded to the Angels in exchange for cash. The Halos cut Gillaspie loose following that 2015 season, in which he posted a disheartening .228/.269/.359 batting line.
Gillaspie had a brief stint with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate in 2016 but quickly made his way to the big league roster, seeing his contract selected in late April. He’d go on to appear in 101 games for the Giants, primarily in a bench role, hitting .262/.307/.440 in 205 trips to the plate. Gillaspie went on to cement himself in Giants lore by crushing a three-run homer against Mets closer Jeurys Familia, which broke a scoreless tie in what had been a masterful pitching duel between Madison Bumgarner and Noah Syndergaard for much of the night. He turned in a valiant 4-for-4 effort in the roller-coaster game that proved to be the Giants’ final contest of the season — a 6-5 loss to the Cubs in Game 4 of the NLDS.
The Giants will be able to control Gillaspie through the 2018 season if they wish, as the Hendricks Sports client enters the 2017 campaign with just over four full seasons of big league service time under his belt. Gillaspie figures to enter the season in a reserve role, with Eduardo Nunez lined up to be the team’s primary third baseman.
good signing
Little bonus as a result of the WC game homer apparently….
I think you’re right. SF has a habit of doing these reward kinda deals. They did it for Ishikawa too. But I am okay with it. Not that anyone asked my permission.
It’s a really bad habit
The bad habit is the Lincecum-esque “fans love you and you used to be good here, so here’s millions of dollars to continue, though you are no longer good” contract. (Sorry, Timmy)
If that’s the case, I’d say that dinger and his performance in gm 4 of the nlds was worth a few hundred grand. I don’t think he’ll ever see a huge pay day, and I’d say he’s earned that 500K (over projection). Even minor heroes deserve some reward, and I think it shows some of the class of the Giants org that they’ll throw him a few extra bones. It’s not like a few hundred k is going to make or break the budget.
I agree. What seems like a small amount on the grand scale of baseball, makes a huge difference to a guy like Conor, who has been grinding for years. Both financially and mentally.
Good for him liked him when he played in chgo no problems
Mediocre player at best, so is Rollins at this stage in his career, but at least Rollins comes with a vast array of experience specifically at the playoffs. I would rather have Rollins hitting .225-to.240 with an OBP .340-to.360 and be a threat on the base pads coupled with his versatility at 2B/3B/SS than Conor hitting .262/.307/.440 – you know what this is, it’s a waste of USD 1.4 mil
Hit the wrong keys when doing the OBP. Rather have Rollins with .320-to-.330 OBP
.220-.230 AVG and .290/.300 OBP is about what Rollins has done lately. That’s garbage. The Giants have enough veteran leadership already, so there is no debate here in my opinion.
Gillaspie plays 3B. We have no other backup at that position. Rollins is SS where we have about 2345893485uy2349 backups lol
Here we go again
Did you mean base paths? I’m not trying to shame you I’m just making sure I am not the one saying wrong lol
Yup, $1.4M most often gets you a mediocre player. It’s not flashy, but he fills a need relatively inexpensively. Theu should be way more concerned about the value they’re going to get from the $41M that Cain and Samardzija will earn this year.
At this point, expecting much more than a March cut from Rollins is probably wishful thinking.
1.4 Million is peanuts. Good bench player, something the Giants need.
I think Conor has proved himself in the clutch and thus far, I have no reason not to start him in a big game down the stretch.