The Giants are shopping center fielder Denard Span, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick, but they’ve yet to drum up a market for the 33-year-old veteran.
Span is in the second season of a three-year, $31MM contract with the Giants, though the backloaded nature of the contract makes the notion of moving him especially tricky. Span’s deal came with just a $3MM salary in its first year, so he’s owed $19.2MM through the completion of the 2018 campaign (including the buyout of a 2019 mutual option and one more payment on a partially deferred signing bonus, per Cot’s).
Span remains a highly productive bat, hitting .286/.337/.451 with seven homers, 22 doubles and four triples despite playing his home games in perhaps baseball’s most pitcher-friendly venue — AT&T Park. It’s worth noting, though, that nearly all of his damage has been done against right-handed pitching (.234/.290/.281 vs. lefties; .299/.350/.496 vs. righties). Beyond that, the once-premium center field defender has seen his defensive ratings slip from anywhere to below average (per Ultimate Zone Rating) to disastrous (per Defensive Runs Saved).
Unfortunately for the Giants, there’s no shortage of outfield bats available. While Span is still playing center field, his sub-par performance there could lead opposing teams to view him as more of a corner option. If that’s the case, he joins a market that’s flooded with the likes of Jay Bruce, Curtis Granderson, Melky Cabrera, Seth Smith, Matt Joyce, Rajai Davis, Howie Kendrick, Jose Bautista and perhaps Carlos Gomez (assuming the Marlins do not reverse course and make any of their outfielders available). That’s a fair bit of options when few contending clubs are seeking outfield help in the first place, and Span is owed more money than anyone on that list.
lol
Solid contribution
He’d make a great 4th outfielder/pinch runner. That’s about it.
Span remains a highly productive bat, hitting .286/.337/.451 with seven homers, 22 doubles and four triples despite playing his home games in perhaps baseball’s most pitcher-friendly venue — AT&T Park.
.299/.350/.496 vs. righties
Majority of pitchers are right handed.
So he’d be a lot better than a 4th outfielder. If he were to move to rf or lf hed probably post better defensive numbers.
Doesn’t have the arm for RF. Not much of a market for him. Serious teams the Yankees,Red Sox,Cubs,Dodgers,Astros,Nats,already have a glut. Maybe the Royals could use him like Dyson,but the Giants would have to eat a chunk of his salary.
Despite his above average offense this year, he’s still a -0.4 WAR player because of his inferior CF defense! And his bat doesn’t play well in the corners, except as a platoon with no power, and SF would have to eat some $$ to receive anything in return.
Depends on your preferred defensive metric. He’s been worth 1.3 fWAR, which uses UZR as opposed to rWAR’s use of DRS.
But, the point that he’s below average in center remains, either way. I think most teams would wonder if he can play average or slightly better defense in left, which would be enough for him to provide value in a corner spot.
The big issue with Span isn’t really a question of his productivity but rather of the nearly $20MM he’s still owed through his age-34 season and the glut of outfield bats available to teams that are looking to upgrade.
Add McCutchen to this list. The Pirates must sell now. Quit telling fans you will compete this year.
If I was the pirates I’d sell on startling marte
Who’s gonna buy?
While he’s not eligible for postseason play. Brilliant.
Would have to pay a good portion of his salary.
As much as I hate to say it. The only true way for the giants to get out of this mess is to trade posey. He’s the only player with the exception of Bumharner that will net any return, and bum is so cheap it makes no sense to trade him.
Bumgarner not bumharner
They can trade Matt Moore too. They basically stole him from the rays gave up almost nothing for him. Matt Duffy is on all counts a judy hitter.
Matt Moore has worked out real well in SF……
Thats true my point was the giants gave up nothing for him. They should start over keep bum and Posey. That’s it. My guess is cueto will opt out if he’s smart.
Cueto will opt IN if he’s smart.
His numbers have been trending down the last couple years (because he’s getting older / past prime). He hasn’t pitched well this year, and will probably NOT get an equivalent of 4/84 or better on a new contract.
Judy hitter for a terrible pitcher … seems fair honestly. Thanks, I’d rather have Lucius Fox and an oft-injured Duffy back.
Please spare us, that’s about the most pathetic rationalization I’ve yet heard from a Giants fan on this season.
It’s been a year of grasping at straws, what can we say.
Bumgarner being cheap is what makes him so valuable. Giants could net a huge return for 2 full seasons of Bum at roughly 12mil per season.
That said, it doesn’t make any sense to trade him until July 2018 (at the earliest), unless someone offers a stupidly over-the-top deal for him, which is unlikely due to several top arms still being available.
I get that but with 45 mill coming off the payroll this year with cueto and cain. And another 20 next year in pence, if they were to trade posey for a 2nd starter and ready to go center fielder better than span. That would be another 20 off the books. So for 80 mill you can get 2 great corner outfielders and a 3b and fill in your bullpen. Not to mention u go younger, contend, and still have bumgarner. I know this is all armchair qb stuff but unless they are wanting to up there payroll 100 mill. This team ad it stands is no where near anywhere but the bottom of the nl.
Only $34.5M comes off from Cain and Cueto. $21M each but the Giants will owe Cain a $7.5M buyout.
I don’t see how that solves anything, at this point if you can get a couple of returns for people like Strickland or shark, with a high pick next year you have done enough to help the system and your main concern is getting out of the luxury tax so eating some cash on span or pence and moving Moore, shark or declining Moore’s option would play a lot more than trading Posey or bumgarner
I don’t think a trade happens and they won’t get anything of value back except maybe salary relief. Any ideas on what teams could possibly be interested?
If they can get salary relief and a garbage prospect, do it. With $179M already committed for next season, it’s going to make for bare cupboards this off-season.
Not necessarily 179 mill. U bet ur but they are buying Cain out for 7.5 mill and Cueto is not sure thing.
No, you’re definitely right. If Cueto opts out and the Giants don’t select Cain’s option, that puts them at $144.5M, which is still the 5th largest commitment in the league. Still not a great spot, but better.
He’s owed HOW MUCH til the end of 2018?? Wow. Sounds like a contract the Tigers would have given out.
Giants need to shop Bumgarner and/or Posey to get anything in return.
I think it’s safe to pull the plug on the whole “They’ve won 3 championships this decade, so they must know what they’re doing” rhetoric. This team is LOST. I don’t see where the money can come from to sign free agents and there are no spark plug prospects on the horizon. Losing Span and eventually losing Pence and one of the two, between Cueto and Shark, and this team is nearing “complete rebuild” territory. They need so many pieces, it would be impossible to handle over 1 off-season.
As ridiculous as it sounds, yeah, they need to start thinking about shopping Bum or Posey. Between the two, Posey has value at 1st, making Belt expendable, potentially bringing more value and *hopefully* avoiding a complete rebuilding year in 2018.
Trading either Posey or Bumgarner is utterly laughable and equally unthinkable for the Giants organization, whether that might net the only returns of real value or not. Given his defensive position, Posey is arguably the most valuable player in all of baseball- the gap between Posey and the rest of baseball’s catchers is greater than the gap that any other elite player enjoys over the rest of the field in their respective position (that includes Trout, who I think we can all agree is the “best player” in the game). All of this is to say nothing of the value that Posey represents to the Giants organization and fan base- they’d lose half of their 30 thousand season ticket holders over night. Buster Posey is literally the equivalent of Derek Jeter in NY and he will 100% retire as a San Francisco Giant, just as Jeter did in the Bronx.
The same could be said on that last point about Bumgarner, though perhaps to a marginally smaller extent (but not much). The Giants are a big market team and big market teams don’t trade franchise players, save for some very rare exceptions in the twilight of their careers. Neither Posey nor Bumgarner are anywhere near the twilights of their careers.
Span hasn’t had that bad of a year. He’s batting .286. I think he could be a good leadoff man for anybody. The Giants may not get that big of a return though since Span’s contract is so big
They won’t get anything for him. Not an elite base stealer anymore and no value as a corner OF. It would be a straight salary dump and they’d have to send money.
Back to the twins
Giants’ brass have been clear that Bumgarner, Posey, and Crawford will not be traded. Sabean said,
“You’ve got a franchise pitcher, a franchise catcher and one of the best shortstops no matter what he’s going through this year. Those three animals are divine.”
Any speculation about trading them is beyond idle.