As a procedural move, the Giants have released Pablo Sandoval, Trevor Cahill, Yolmer Sanchez, and Billy Hamilton, reports Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Not to worry, though: all four are expected to re-sign with the team on new minor league contracts and join the Giants for renewed Spring Training.
Evidently, these roster moves are simply technicalities and won’t affect the players’ standing with the club. The precise motivation for reworking the quartet’s contracts is unclear, but speculatively may be related to opt-out clauses in the minor league deals to which they were previously signed.
I wouldn’t be crushed if they’d just let all these guys go. Would like to see the youngsters get a chance this short season.
Agree – waste of time, talent, and money.
Hamilton at the very least is a fantastic trade piece for a contender at the deadline. Could be your late inning pinch runner/defensive replacement, especially with the runner on 2B in extra innings.
Most teams have those sort of players in their system.
Kind of contradicting right Scott??? Almost deceiving in a way like Farhan wants you to believe he really is trying to compete and they aren’t really in a rebuild!
It would be nice if they went one way or the other but I honestly think ownership believes the fans will abandon this team if they admit they are rebuilding. By signing guys like Pablo and Pence the fans are given a small bone to chew on and distract themselves from the dumpster fire that is this lineup.
The real shame is that it ends up costing them top 5 draft picks because they haven’t figured out how to suck bad enough to draft there. Every team that has gone through these rebuilds and come out looking good were fully committed. Many of the players they drafted to get there were top 5 picks. Hard to do it with mid round picks and then block young players with old cheap vets.
the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins are here and would like to remind you that tanking is not actually a reliable strategy but instead a manipulation of media by ownership to excuse not spending money on putting out a quality baseball product. With the exception of teams like the Astros* and the Cubs, tanking has not proven to be an effective strategy.
Royals did it with a core of top draft picks. Marlins and Orioles also don’t generate the revenue the Giants do so they can use that as an excuse
The Royals were good for a couple of years until they could no longer afford their stars. Same things is about to happen to the Astros, Springer is set to be a FA after this season, if he doesn’t take a 1 yr deal with because of the virus.
Same with the Cubs. This strategy gives you a 5 year window after 5 years of sucking. If you win one WS its worth it. Time to find out if it works for the Braves, Blue Jays, Padres, White Sox, Twins, Phillies, Brewers, and Reds who are all close or entering their windows to win.
Right behind them you have the Orioles, Pirates, Marlins, Giants, Tigers, and Royals. There are probably another 5-10 teams that will implement this strategy in the next 5 years. MLB might want to look into a way to discourage the tank or I don’t think it will stop anytime soon
What’s wrong with the players they have in the Minors?
It’s true that the they have been trying to play it both ways with the fans and have been a little disingenuous in avoiding the big R word (“rebuilding”), but I get that. No large market team is going to declare they are rebuilding because it’s poison to do so. In the same way that the Astros and Cubs didn’t outright declare “We’re going to tank for the next three to five years,” the Giants have engaged in a little sleight of hand with the rebuild they are now undergoing.
But not every team needs to tank to eventually compete. High draft picks help a lot, but so does waiver wire savvy and the ability to shed sunk costs, both of which are a credit to the current GM.
Look, the team is probably going to be pretty mediocre this season, and who knows – maybe a veteran like Pence or Sandoval could be at his best in 60 games when the grind doesn’t wear him out. Nevertheless, I can’t hep but think this is a golden opportunity to see what guys like Jaylin Davis or Mauricio Dubon are capable of. And I am definitely excited to see what the top tier prospects, guys like Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos and such can do.
Every Giants fan knows we’re rebuilding. If they don’t, they aren’t paying attention.
Look at Houston’s number one overall picks and see how successful they’ve been. It’s all about the first 6 rounds. Heck, Trout wasn’t a top-5 pick. Stupid post dude.
Bregman, Correa, Springer were all drafted pretty high. Kris Bryant, Schwarber, and Baez all top picks. Hosmer, Moustakas, Gordon all top picks. What do all those guys have that Trout doesnt?
I wouldn’t be crushed, but it’d be a bad baseball move.
The idea that the Giants have MLB quality players in their AAA that just need more playing time is laughable.
This must be rightyspecialist’s new alias. Your talent judgement is suspect at best.
pablo?
This is a year that ANY team can take it all. So, why not take a chance?
Billy Hamilton’s value for extra innings and solid glove in the outfield kinda ticks up in my opinion. Seems like he’s decent enough for a major league deal in this environment
I wouldn’t give you a bucket of ballz for Pablo. He might eat them.
Giants need to turn the page on Pablo Sandoval in the worst kind of way
Why? He was their best bat off the bench last season and provided for some clutch moments, all on a league minimum salary.
Because he’s not Nolan Arenado. Duh.
Billy “u can’t steal first base” Hamilton.
much rather see Duggar in this role obviously better bat and similar speed.
Saying someone has a better bat than Hamilton is pretty much a waste of time. Speed might be the similar, but BH is an elite basestealer
What has Duggar done to say “he’s a better bat than Hamilton?” And Duggars speed is not similiar to Billy Hamilton. Duggar has above average speed, while Hamiltons is world class. Correct me if I’m wrong, but Duggar was thrown down trying to steal more than half of his attemps. Saying Duggars speed is similiar to Billy Hamiltons is like saying Buster Posey’s power is similiar to Barry Bonds.
Yay! The panda is back, and back to the WS the Giants are…
Well, it is an even year after all!
Panda is more valuable with a DH. He’s so frustrating from an opposing fan perspective because he’s a clutch hitter and surprisingly versatile on defense, while I always think “how is someone so out of shape so athletic. That guy keeps beating us!” While on the other hand, I can’t help but respect his talent and skill to do that. Panda is a fitting name.
It’s a good point about the Giants’ solid revenue. I’m all for them making one-year arrangements like Pablo and Pence, because at the end of the year the Free Agency non-tendering is going to make available a lot of experienced MLB talent at reasonable prices. They’ll have plenty to spend and this could speed up their return to putting a good product on the field.
Of course they need good decisions by the FO and good management, which I’m not too sure about.
Problem is you end up in baseball purgatory if you don’t have a few draft picks in the top 5 over the years you are bad. Having these guys like Pence, Smiley, Gausman, Flores and Panda makes the Giants just good enough to never have a chance to draft at the top.
Then when they try to trade these players at the deadline they are given mid level prospects back in return so where does the top level talent come from? The diamonds in the rough that end up being good role players can be found this way but if this is your strategy to find your core superstars good luck!
Look at Houston’s number one overall picks and see how successful they’ve been. It’s all about the first 6 rounds. Heck, Trout wasn’t a top-5 pick. Stupid post dude. Yankees are loaded and never get a top ten pick
How many world series rings does Trout have? I gave you 9 players who were all top picks on 3 WS winning teams over the last 6 years in a response to an identical post of yours above but just in case here they are again: Correa, Bregman, Springer, Bryant, Schwarber, Baez, Gordon, Hosmer, and Moustakas. The follow up question was what do all those guys have that Trout doesn’t? Hint: read the first sentance
The Giants won 3 WS rings without a top 5 pick. Kinda blows up your theory.
Well there was that one guy named Buster Posey drafted 5th overall (should have been #1 but was expensive). He was kind of important on all those teams. MadBum and Timmy were 10th overalls as well and we all know that Bochy counts as a top 5 manager of all time so that helps. I’m sure Kapler will have similar success…
Royals win that World Series because of a shutdown relief corps. If their offense could have mustered a couple of runs during game seven the year prior, they would have two Championships. So don’t act like it was all about their offense.
Howie415, I didn’t see your post until I typed mine, but we said basically the same thing. I did forget Bum was #10 I thought he was in the teens when they picked him. Either way only one top 5 player.
I love how everyone says you “need” to have top 5 picks to win…..Posey #5 in his draft class not one other Giants draftee that helped them in 10′ 12′ or 14′ was that high, in fact Lincecum at #10 was the next highest of the players the Giants drafted during the WS wins. You pick the right person, you develop them, and you hope everything else plays out. There have been plenty of the top 5 and top 10 picks that have been busts, and many more that were just role players than there were super star WS winners.
Yes, picking high gives you your choice of the crop, but if you choose wrong or can’t develop it doesnt matter where you pick.
And just so everyone that says you need a top 5 pick is happy, they got Bart at #2.
Zaidi has proven to be a controversial figure somehow. Maybe its because the Giants have a passionate fan base.
Given the situation Zaidi inherited, I believe he has done a remarkable job. The Melacon trade, Yaz pick up and Cozart acquisition allowing him to nab the Angels 2019 1st rounder are three examples of his creativity given the Giants current lack of contractual flexibility.
Zaidi is going to need a couple of more years, but I suspect the NL West GMs have taken notice.
I’m with you and have expressed a similar sentiment in recent posts. I feel that he is doing exactly what they brought him in to do: Rebuild and phase out the over-the-hill contracts while finding enough value through waiver guys and trades to keep the team out of the cellar.
If the Giants really do compete in 2022, he will have turned the team around in about as short of a timeframe as is possible given where they were at when he came in last year.
Farhan has been paid handsomely to build a consistent winner and if he is able to get there by 2022 then it will have been worth it. He has been praised for moves like dumping 10 million for Wilson who had a below average pro debut in a hitter friendly league.
He traded players like Pomeranz, Melancon, and Dyson after they got on a hot streak which wasnt a magic trick just business as usual when you have no pressure to win now.
Truth is for most of these moves only time will tell except we now know Farhan blew it in not trading Madbum and Smith. My guess is any trade would have netted more than the comp picks Swiney and Glowenke!
“More to come”
Today, it’s all about who can get the news up first…