As the Giants canvas the market for center field upgrade options, the team has “shown interest” in Billy Hamilton of the Reds, per MLB.com’s Jon Morosi (via Twitter). The 27-year-old projects to earn an even $5MM in his second-to-last season of arbitration eligibility.
It’s no secret that the Giants are looking to add a center fielder. And it’s clear that defensive capability is a significant consideration, given that Denard Span is being moved to the corner in large part due to his inability to cover sufficient swaths of the spacious grassland of AT&T Park.
Hamilton would no doubt help in that regard, as he’s one of the game’s premier defenders — and has been ever since becoming regular in 2014. The fleet-footed Hamilton is also one of the very most valuable players in baseball on the basepaths. Trouble is, he has a tough time getting there, with a .298 lifetime on-base percentage.
Unsurprisingly, Hamilton is likely just one of several possibilities at this stage. Morosi recently connected San Francisco to Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Red Sox, who’d be a more appealing all-around option if he’s made available.
No doubt the Giants are looking into others as well, with trade talks and the open market both offering possibilities. Lorenzo Cain is the top free agent available, though he’ll require a significant outlay to acquire. Other names on the open market that could conceivably factor into the Giants’ thinking (some of them as potential fourth-outfield options) include Jarrod Dyson, Carlos Gomez, Austin Jackson, Jon Jay, and Cameron Maybin.
This reminds me of winter 2012 when the Phillies “replaced”Shane Victorino with Ben Revere and Hunter Pence with Delmon Young.
The Giants rebuild has begun but they’re going to lie about that to get the season ticket holders to renew.
Billy Hamilton is a Long Island Duck.
Those are some bold claims right there
If the Duck could play center, they are interested.
Because of his speed, Billy Hamilton is worth the price of admission. He is a tremendously exciting and entertaining player.
Huh? What are you smoking? Pence played 100 games for the Phillies in 2012, then another 60 for the Giants.
Hey Casey, Giants have a core which includes Posey and Bumgarner. They are in an infinitely better position than that Phillies team was.
They’re still a poorly built team. Two players aren’t going to take them to the postseason
No way is SF rebuilding. One bad season doesn’t mean tear it down and rebuild.
If I am the Giants I am going after Bradley and Hamilton. Both are buy low candidates and would make an amazing outfield defensively. Round out the outfield by signing Jon Jay.
I’d trade Pence if possible.
Pence is owed 18 mill, Span is owed 13 mill. Giants aren’t getting THREE new OFers
I agree with you,but that will be over 30 million coming off the books in a year that will be used to pay Stanton.
Span is guaranteed $15 million. $11 million for the 2018 season and a $4 million buyout of his 2019 option.
Ouch. The problem with Span is that he’s an old 33 – hasn’t aged well and difficult to move. Giants have little choice but to wait for his and Pence’s contracts to expire, and with their injury history Giants will have to once again stock up on low price/low performance backups to fill in for them while they’re on the DL.
Why wouldn’t the Giants trade for Hamilton and Bradley, sign Jay to be the 4th outfielder, and trade Pence to get more athletic in the outfield?..Bradley, Hamilton, Span with Jay to spell guys. OF was such a huge issue for them last year.
Blue Jays need OF help and trading Pence and some cash to the Blue Jays clears a spot for Span. Orioles are another team who’d probably be in on Pence if the Giants were to eat half the salary.
Pence is better than Span. I’d rather keep Pence.
Pence has a full no trade rights. Span doesn’t.
I’d imagine Pence would block any trade. Span is also cheaper and has a more desirable skillset (speed, OBP) whereas Pence has been in decline for some time now.
Pence was barely above replacement level last season. Players in their mid-30’s who decline as much as he has don’t recover. Maybe if the Giants paid $17.5 million of his $18.5 million contract they could find a taker.
Orioles do NOT want Pence. Maybe you meant Tigers.
yeah I agree – but if they hit up the open market – I would try to pick up someone like jay who is low cost and can get you where you need to go for a year or two wile you figure out what you can shake out.bradley would be great though, especially if the sox take belt in the deal to shed some contract money.
So who do you replace Belt with? This concept believed by many Giant’s fans than the team would be better by subtraction, and the position easily filled is completely wrong headed.
Belt is not without warts, but he slots in as about the 10th best at 1B in MLB. If it was that easy to find someone better, 20 other teams would have done so already. He’s a lefty which is preferred for 1B, and he plays gold-glove caliber defense. He makes the entire IF better. As a Giant’s fan I don’t want to see some one-dimensional slugger there just because he hits more dingers, nor do I want to see Posey wasted at 1B.
Trade Belt and his contract to a 1B needy team for prospects and get Flip those prospects for Stanton. We can go hard after Shohei Otani play him in OF, 1B and starter. Then we would be Ok. Posey, Shohei and Pablo can play at 1B. Get Nunez back he can platoon with Pablo at 3B. Wait until next year go hard at Machado.
If Giants go hard and get Stanton. It will might be enough to get Shohei Otani to come to the Bay and pitch with Bum, Cueto, and Otani as our 1-2-3. With Stanton and Hamilton in the lineup we are set for next year. Defense is going to much better and our starters will be solid.
The problem with what you suggest is that Sandoval is on the 25 man roster, which hopefully he won’t be come the start of the season.
A lot big ‘ifs’ in your scenario. Chances are they will not acquire even one of Stanton, Ohtani, and Machado. The defense at both 1B and the entire IF will not be better playing Posey, Ohtani, and Sandoval at 1B, and trading Belt, it will be worse. Posey is wasted at 1B.
No team is going to be using Ohtani in the field, I think, unless he demands it. Almost all talent evaluators see his pitching as far superior – and more valuable – than his hitting. And no, Posey isn’t “wasted” at first base – it keeps him fresh and keeps his bat in the lineup. Most catchers fall off a cliff offensively fairly early in their careers because of the wear and tear on their bodies. Playing Posey at first mitigates that to some degree.
Belt to Boston for Bradley Jr?
Logan Morrison, Lucas Duda, Yonder Alonso, Danny Valencia, or go more expensive and get Hosmer or Santana.
There are 1st base options out there to replace Belt if you trade him.
Big ifs in any scenario. I am not saying this will happen but it would be Giants dream scenario. If everything falls in place it would give Giants best chance at bounce back season. I am just a fan with hopes his team will win another WS.
I think Otani wants to play both play the field and pitch. Giants can afford him to play both they are so desperate for players with superstar potential. Dodgers have no place to play him and the Yankees can really only offer DH part time. He would like the NL better only have to face 8 hitters and a pitcher better than having to face a DH with 8 hitters. He would be smart to go NL.
Did the gaints just find a billion dollars? They are already taped out for this year so how do they spend more money? SMH some fans think teams have this endless supply of money to throw at players.
Over his career Posey has been the best all-around catcher in baseball. He would be only the 8th or so best at 1B. He’s going to the HoF as a catcher, something he wouldn’t even sniff at 1B.
The only way Posey at 1B makes any sense is if the game was all about hitting. It isn’t. Posey is an important part of the pitching component of the game. The Giants are Posey’s team which he runs from the catcher’s position. He’s not running the game from 1B, because he can’t. Good defensive catchers t athat are above average hitters are extremely rare, and you don’t move one of them to 1B to keep their legs fresh.
I don’t disagree that belt is good, I actually really like him there but the contract he is under hurts too much. If it were possible to move pence or span instead it would be preferable but I don’t see a lot of years valuing them.
Add to that, aramis Garcia had a good showing in the afl And will probably be in the mix in the spring I would imagine, if he works out you could see him platooning with Posey in the future I would imagine.
“Did the gaints just find a billion dollars?”
Close to it. They’ve always had money to spend ever since PacBell opened, but now the debt service on the stadium is paid off and they own the park outright, It’s the same reason the Red Sox, owning their own park, also have tons of money to spend.
You have to figure that Garcia is still a couple years away.
I can see Posey moving 1B eventually, but I don’t understand how weakening the team at catcher, and getting a wash at 1B (Posey > Belt hitting, Belt > Posey defensively) helps them win.
There’s probably a reason posey has been so good for so long, and part of it is that he doesn’t catch 140 games a year. Good defensive catchers that are above average hitters ARE extremely rare, because catchers always get hurt and wear down quickly. The Giants are smart to use Posey the way they do.
Looks like a crowded 1B market this winter, which isn’t going to do Belt’s trade value any favors.
As for potential replacements for the Giants: Chris Shaw had another solid season between AA and AAA, he should be almost ready to take the next step up. Unfortunately AT&T Park will probably kill off his power numbers like so many others before him.
I think you’re on to something there. That would work for both teams. Red Sox probably would do that if they can’t land Hosmer or Santana.
good god no
His bat is weaker than any bat on the current roster. NO thanks!
I love the idea of getting a guy in center that can save runs with his glove. Not sure what a guy like Hamilton would command, but assume it’s quite a bit less than Bradley. The spacious ATT outfield could help him too offensively. If cheap enough, I don’t know why you wouldn’t try to get him.
Billy North all over again!
No matter who we get Sabean and Bobby Evans will screw it up and Bochy will botch the managing job again. Fire them all.
hahahaha! Been such an ineffective group.
Si, it’s all about what have you done for me lately huh?
3 World Series is ineffective? Your standards are way too high
I was being sarcastic.
The Giants never get any credit. When they are winning they are “overachieving”, as though you can overachieve and be lucky for 5 years. They made a lot of deals to get 3 rings, and the bad side of those deals are bearing ugly fruit. It is the natural cycle of development if you have any limits on spending from ownership. They had a spectacularly bad year this year, and all the flapping jaws now seem to be saying that their true nature is finally showing. Ridiculous, reductive bias. There were some bad deals, but the truth of the matter is that the Giants are not an attractive destination for a lot of free agents, especially hitters, so the pot has to be sweetened, even for hitters that aren’t all that good. Success means that you don’t get good draft position, and if the picks you have from the bottom of the draft don’t pan out, then you have what you have. The last time they had good draft position (after the ring chasing Bonds years) they got great players.
The biggest criticism that I have of the Giants FO is that the they didn’t just go all in during the international signing season when they signed Lucius Fox. They went into the penalty after that one signing and, knowing they would have a hard cap on int’l spending for years, they should have just keep signing. Now there are many more limits out on international spending, and they traded Fox anyway! The Giants have the 2nd pick next draft, and I’m looking forward to what they will get. I really hope they don’t sign any QO-declining free agents, because they will likely have to be paid too much to sign in SF, or for too many years, and then the Giants will also lose important picks and set them back big time.
Well said. My only exception would be about the international market. The FO got a lot of criticism for losing out on a number of Cuban players: Rusney Castillo, Yasmany Tomas, etc. In retrospect losing out on those guys worked in their favor. I think Jose Abreu and Yasiel Puig are the only guys with any surplus value. And I’m not sure Puig is worth the distractions.
I agree with you that a lot of the enormous spending for Cuban players ended up being money down the toilet (hello Hector Olivera). My criticism wasn’t directed at their overall int’l tactics, but specifically their moves in 2015. They spent 6MM on Fox, and not much more. Knowing they were going to be limited to 300k of spending for the next 2 years, they should have tried to sign more people because they already had the top penalty, but I think ownership was hesitant to pay any more because of the 100% tax. If you look at the list of who was signed that season, there are some good players. Not saying they would have all agreed to sign with the Giants, it just seemed like the Giants were done after “winning” the battle with the Dodgers to sign Fox.
The Giants did try to spend big that season they signed Fox. They had a deal set up with one prospect for around $2M but then another of his representatives brokered a $3M deal with Cubs so the prospect reneged on the Giants deal and ended up with the Cubs. They also signed at least one other guy in the $500K range and I think one in $300K range, they didn’t stop at Fox, and there are only so many million dollar bonus babies available.
We know that the Giants are needing to improve their centerfield situation (Span was horrible there defensively in 2017). It seems like they have two routes to doing that.
Route one is the free agent market. Do they want to spend a lot of money? If so then the Giants should go towards Cain. If they can’t spend quite that much maybe Gomez or Maybin might be options.
Route two is the trade market. The main issue appears to be that the Giants don’t have a lot of highly desired tradeable assets in their cupboard. Do they have the right pieces for JBJ? I’m not convinced that they do. But they surely should have enough to deal for the flawed Hamilton.
Is Hamilton the perfect solution? No, he isn’t but he might be who they end up with.
the giants can’t spend a lot of money, they need to keep under the tax in order to reset in case they need to do a full blow up or somehow enough pieces step up to allow you to ride the tax line in the near future. Essentially the only real options are trading or having someone step up internally – like a shaw or someone – that is unless they can shed some money from the books. if they can finagle a trade that lets them shed some contract dollars it is possible to hit the market but probably not. If they could move a melancon, belt or pence it would give enough wiggle room to make a ‘modest’ purchase
No one is taking Pence in a trade unless he has a remarkable bounce back and gets moved at the deadline, Trading Melancon would be moving him when his value is at a low point. And trading Melancon and Belt only makes sense if they want to tank and start a rebuild. If they do actually want to contend, those trades make no sense.
What was the last good center-fielder the Giants had? They won three WS titles with Angel Pagan and Aaron Rowand out there…I think Hamilton’s defense helps cover up the fact that he can’t hit at all, but the Giants need offense more than anything, somewhere in the lineup. A fun fact about the Giants: Kurt Suzuki hit more home runs in 2017 than any member of the Giants. How weird and sad is that?
Wow, that last little nugget is a pretty sad fact. Especially considering Kurt Suzuki played only part time as Atlanta’s #1(b) option at catcher, limiting his at-bats…Although, Tyler Flowers did miss a little bit of time, which gave Suzuki a few extra starts throughout the season…But still, he didn’t have nearly the amount of at-bats as your typically healthy, everyday player…
Interesting side note, appreciate that.
Andres Torres was the primary CF in 2010. He was a 5.3 WAR player that year, the second best on that team behind Aubrey Huff.
Angel Pagan was the CF in 2012. He posted a 4.0 WAR that year.
Gregor Blanco was the CF in 2014 after Pagan suffered a season-ending injury. He only posted 1.2 WAR as a part-timer.
So generally the Giants got good production out of CF in the years they won the WS>
Giants interested in any living outfielder not named Denard Span.
Bonus points if they can’t hit
The Indians, Giants and Marlins could line up in a three team deal. Core of deal would be:
Giants: Stanton, Salazar, some cash from Marlins starting in 2021 if no opt out
Indians: Belt, Ozuna, some cash from SF
Marlins: Prospects
No name prospects wont get Ozuna and Stanton
And you can’t make a condition to a trade that kicks in four years from now.
JBJ, Hamilton, and Cain would all be a huge step up for the Giants. It might be better for them to go with a trade for JBJ or Hamilton because then they have a shorter time they are tied to paying that player.
The Giants have $180 million on the books for 2018 already and some huge holes to fill. In 2019 they already have $187 million on the books if they pick up the options for Bumgarner, Moore, and Span.
Giants are going to have a bigger payroll than the Dodgers in 2018
Dodgers payroll is well above the Giants before any signings they make. The Giants would have to add $34 million in payroll to even get to where the Dodgers are now.
34 million is nothing. Stanton alone nearly brings it there
That’s what I’m saying. Giants are going to have to spend that amount if they want to compete next year
Just rebuild. Hoping for bounce back seasons for everyone not named Posey or Panik and adding a Billy Hamilton isn’t a strategy, it’s how you get stuck in a rut. Either that or say screw it and roll with a 300MM payroll, because that’s what it would take to buy their way back into contention. As a Giants fan, I would rather see them take the more prudent direction.
The Giants are the Phillies circa 2013-2014, bringing in more free agents in an effort to win, even though the rest of the talent wasn’t good enough. The Giants are bereft of farm system talent and most of their players are expensive and on the decline. They should get what they can for those guys and see if they can replenish their farm system.
I totally agree. They are determined to stay under the luxury tax threshold which means they simply cannot take on any more payroll than they already have. This is why Sandoval is still on the roster. Any notion of SF acquiring Stanton is pure fantasy – it could only happen if MIA took the likes of Span, Pence, and/or Melancon which they won’t do. Maybe they’ll come to their senses and rebuild after 2018 when some of these albatrosses come off the books, and if ‘18 is anything like ‘17 they won’t have much choice.
I may be mistaken but they’ve been a little over the luxury tax three years in a row. The tax goes up even higher if you’re over 4 years in a row. And if you’re $40 million over the tax you lose 10 spots on your draft pick.If the Giants make some of these moves like Stanton and Cain, they’ll probably be $40 million over.
Trading for a Bradley or Hamilton isn’t the standard move a rebuilding team does but both do have more than one year of control before free agency and it’s not like the Giants couldn’t extend them once they get some contracts off the books.
The Giants need to make moves where they don’t give up young players or players in their farm system. No, their farm system isn’t much but there are players who could help in the future.
I’d get Span and Pence off the roster, even if it means doing a Brandon Phillips and paying over 90% of the contract.
How does trading Pence and Span, all the while taking on 90% of their contracts benefit the Giants in terms of the luxury tax?
This is a great idea… on a team that hits badly, let’s go and get someone who can’t hit. Oh yeah and while we’re at it, lets trade from a bottom 5 farm system to get that player.
SF really need to suck it up and spend big for a few years and just eat the luxury tax, they can afford it. In the mean time, don’t trade anyone from the farm because they can’t afford to deplete it further… they have money, but they don’t have a farm. Only player they should deplete the farm for is Stanton and even then they should take on as much salary rather than give up players.
How about we offer you Jacoby Ellsbury 😀 jokes jokes lol
I agree. Anyone taking Ellsbury is a joke.
But I thought he’s already a Mariner?
A list of outfielders the Giants don’t want would be shorter.
What about a pillar trade? Might be time.
I don’t disagree, but I think you’ll see the Jays hold on to him for at least another year.
All this speculation will be for naught. Duggar will be the starting CF by next June. His AFL numbers are going to force the Giants hand.
Cain or Bradley would be a big upgrade in center for S.F.
I’ll believe Hamilton in a Giant’s uni when I see it. All the FO is doing is looking at every possible piece and analyzing who are the best fits, and prioritizing them.
If Duggar is that close, then you just trot Span and his contract out to CF till Duggar is ready and then either trade Span away by 7/31 or 8/31 to a team in need in the OF due to player injuries.
Giants are done. Great run, but they’re stuck with bad contracts. No farm.
They should start selling now. It will take two years to clean out the ML roster, and five years to contend. If they don’t, it will take longer.
Or they can make a faux attempt to contend in a tough division.
Bad Contracts? Nah. Bad Contracts implies they never performed and that they will be around awhile. I don’t see that with the Giants.
Pence, Span, and Moore off the books after this year. Posey, Bumgarner, Belt, Panik and Crawford all in their prime making far from “bad” money. The Shark and Cueto might be bad contracts, but I think time will tell. Cueto had a down year dealing with blisters and the Shark could have benefited greatly from a defensive center fielder. Melancon could be terrible money, but lets give him another year. Financially, I don’t think they are that bad off. The farm system is terrible, and it was regarded that way when they were winning championships every other year. They always seem to have guys come up and perform that were not on the scouting radar.
They do have to pay Moore and Span $4.75 million to not play for them in 2019. They’ll have $156 million on the books for 2019 if they do nothing. That’s a lot of bad contracts.
Seriously? Moore could easily bounce back. Span has gotten old. You can’t the whole roster is horrible.
Paying less than $5M in buyouts for two players is a bad deal?
Don’t teams do this almost every year?
Paying any money to players who aren’t on the team is a bad deal, but I mentioned it because he said they were “off the books” when they clearly aren’t.
The Giants are going to have to go way above the luxury tax to compete for the next few years. Next year will be the Giants 4th straight year above the tax threshold. That means that they’ll pay a 50% tax on every dollar above it. If they go $40 million above it, the tax goes to 90% and they lose 10 spots in the draft. Even the Giants might have a problem with that kind of penalty.
Called this: mlbtraderumors.com/2017/10/looking-for-a-match-in-…
Here’s an idea. You could feasibly make buster a player assistant manager and his payroll would go under management. He would still play full-time but you wouldn’t have his salary on the payroll. At that point you could do something like take Arroyo and possibly Peance and Sandoval for trade. And get some young talent for the future it’s just an idea. Something I thought about. I might be crazy but I’ll just throw it up see what y’all think. I
Arroyo is only 23. No reason to trade him.
Don’t know for sure, but I think any trickery to get under the CBT threshold wouldn’t fly. Otherwise, everybody would be doing it.
Yeah, not a chance any of the other 29 teams would allow a $20+MM player to not count against them for luxury tax purposes.
Not sure what happened. I only wrote it once sorry all.
The Reds did trade Deion Sanders to the Giants..
July 21, 1995: Traded by the Cincinnati Reds with Dave McCarty, Ricky Pickett, John Roper and Scott Service to the San Francisco Giants for Dave Burba, Darren Lewis and Mark Portugal.
:Logan Morrison, Lucas Duda, Yonder Alonso, Danny Valencia, or go more expensive and get Hosmer or Santana.”
None of those guys, including the soon to be very expensive Hosmer are as good as Belt. Certainly none of the one-dimensional players like Alonso, makes any sense. Duda is a nice underrated player that could be cheaper than Belt, but he throws right-handed which is less than ideal at 1B, but bats lefty which is less than ideal at AT&T. You’ll see a suppression of his numbers as a Giant just as you see it with Belt.
Santana makes the most sense hitting wise, but won’t save much money, is 3 years older, and would be a drop off defensively.,
Why give up anything for Hamilton or give up prospects for Cain, when they can just get Austin Jackson for nothing and then turn around and sign Moustakas?
Some of you people are unrealistic to think that the Giants can trade for Hamilton and JBJ. They would be lucky to convince either team of either.
The reds would only want prospects which the giants don’t have and the Red Sox aren’t trading for Pence or Belk when they can go out and sign players like Santana or Morrison to similar or lesser contracts up JBJ in the process.
If the Sox trade JBJ it’ll be for prosects to help them get Stanton which doesn’t seem like they plan to do.
Posey has been the best catcher in Baseball no doubt. But catcher is a very weak position. At 1B he barely makes top 12-15 Not top 8 as mentioned above. Belt is not the 10th Best 1B as stated above either. More like top 15. Belt is also not better than Hosmer also stated above. Remember when Mauer was the best catcher in Baseball? Then moved to 1B and became a top 20 at 1B. Posey won’t be much higher at 1B. Giants just need to trade off the old OF’s if they can and rebuild around their IF and a younger OF.
Mauer had to be moved to first base. Doctors basically told him that if he continued to play catcher he was putting his health in serious risk long-term (because of concussion issues.). His options were to move to first or retire. He’s not the greatest option at first but he is at least a somewhat useful offensive player.
The Giants need a wide ranging CF to help the pitching staff. In addition, I read that the Giants have, for all intensive purpose, given up hope for Brandon Belt.. If this is accurate and the Giants move Belt’s large and long contract, I assume that the Giants will want a 1B/UT type player so that Buster Posey’s bat remains in the lineup when he’s not catching.
Intents
“Intents and purposes” squeeze me.
Keon Broxton to San Fran…. ?
I for one don’t understand the whole “end of world” feeling for the Giants. Yes 2017 was horrible and very unforgettable with the random injuries and under performances but I see it as a more fluke year than what is the normal.
First, look at our rotation:
MadBum/Cueto/Moore/Shark/Blach
Ok so maybe you could upgrade Shark or Blach but its your 4th/5th starter..I think having MadBum back in there full swing will take pressure off rest of your rotation.
Our Lineup possibility for 2018:
LF Span – Yes I get it he is older but he can still hit and get on base.
2B Panik – Don’t really want to trade him or Crawford given their exceptional defense
SS – Crawford – Pretty obvious you don’t get rid of him
CF – FA – Here is where I would upgrade. Get a good power bat to compliment Posey
C – Posey – Pretty obvious he stays
RF – Pence – I get it he is expensive but he is the heart of the team
1B – Belt – He hit most HR’s for us this past year and it was a bad year.
3B – Sandoval – I think he can revitalize his career with Bochy (and he is cheap) Could also try to get Nunez back
I really think if we can get a power CF bat we can put a legit contender on the field again. The only other option would be somehow package together and get Stanton/Yelich and fix two OF spots but I’m not sure Giants really have the ability without creating a hole at another position.
Because they’re stuck with a bunch of overpaid guys like Span, Pence, and Belt. They also have a very weak farm, so they probably aren’t going to acquire Yelich, much less Stanton.
you don’t have the prospects to get Yellich period.
Even if you pay for the entire contract you still don’t have the prospects to get Stanton.
I really don’t think you grasp how bad the Giants were and how bad the players were. Players in their 30’s who drop off significantly (Span, Cueto, Pence) usually are through. Maybe 1 in 5 bounces back. Those players are only going to get worse. The Giants won 64 games this past year and this roster isn’t going to do much better even if you pulled off some miracle and got someone like Yelich.
Everybody on the 2017 Giants underperformed or got injured, except for Buster Posey.
Cueto has a very strong case for a bounce-back year. He was dealing with blisters all year and a minor arm strain. He relies on control and deception to get hitters out, so his skill set should age well if he stays healthy. I’m not too worried about him.
I don’t expect a whole lot out of Span and Pence in 2018. Span could be an OK leadoff hitter / LF. Pence has had too many injuries, so I think the discussed part-time role seems appropriate.
The Giants have plenty of younger internal options for the OF: Austin Slater hit well in the bigs last year before suffering a season-ending injury. Steven Duggar should get a long look in spring training. Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson are still around, if they can ever stop getting injured.
Not sure how Yellich improves the Giants, really. He’s not a good CF or anything. If the Giants want a bigger bat from the Fish, they should go after Ozuna.
This is how I hope this off season will go. Giants trade Belt to Bos for JBJ. straight up. Redsox can then put Betts or Benintendi in CF and sign JD Martinez to play left. Giants call Marlins and offer a package of Beede, Andrew Suarez and Heliot Ramos, along with taking on the entirety of Stanton’s contract. Giants sign someone like Brandon Marrow, resign Hundley, give the young guys playing time, and call it good.
Lineup could look something like:
1. CF- Jackie Bradley Jr.
2. LF- Span/Pence
3. C – Posey
4. RF- Stanton
5. SS – Crawford
6. 3B- Arroyo/ Pablo
7. 2B- Panik
8. 1B -Chris Shaw
Hitting is contagious, and having a power hitter like Giancarlo to feed off of, will not only affect the younger guys, but the vets as well. As far the pitching staff goes, all it should take is adding someone like Morrow, or more preferably Bryan Shaw, and giving Garrett Williams a legit shot.
Keon Broxton for Melancon or Smith, Broxton has power and speed, is a great defender and the brewers would get a reclamation project in smith or melancon.
There is no way they would give up Melancon or Smith. Selling low to get mediocre is not a good idea.