FEB. 22: It’s a two-year, $5MM guarantee for McGee, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. McGee will earn a $2MM salary this year and $2.5MM in 2022, when he could also make $2MM in performance bonuses. There’s a $4.5MM club option or a $500K buyout for 2023.
FEB. 9: The Giants are signing free-agent reliever Jake McGee, Robert Murray of Fansided reports. It’s a two-year deal worth $7MM for the Wasserman client, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
San Francisco will be the third National League West stop for the left-handed McGee, a 34-year-old who divided the previous five seasons between the Rockies and Dodgers. McGee was not particularly successful in Colorado, which acquired the ex-Ray before 2016 and then re-signed him to a three-year, $27MM guarantee in the ensuing offseason. As a result of his struggles as a Rockie, McGee had to settle for a low-paying deal with the Dodgers last summer.
The McGee signing worked out brilliantly for the Dodgers, who ran roughshod over the competition during the regular season and then earned a World Series title. While McGee was hardly the most instrumental part of the team’s run, he did give Los Angeles an excellent 2.66 ERA/1.81 SIERA over 20 1/3 innings.
The Dodgers’ version of McGee went to an almost all-fastball approach and averaged 95 mph on his heater – his best since 2014 – while posting eye-popping strikeout and walk percentages of 41.8 and 3.8, respectively. His K-BB percentage (38.0) ranked second among relievers behind Brewers Rookie of the Year winner Devin Williams. McGee also finished toward the top of the majors in such Statcast categories as expected batting average against, expected weighted on-base average against and expected ERA. On the other hand, he was near the bottom in exit velocity and hard-hit rate.
Now that he’s heading to the division-rival Giants, McGee will be the most established southpaw in their bullpen. The team does have other options, however, including Jarlin Garcia (who, like McGee, kept runs off the board at a great clip in 2020) and Sam Selman.
Not sure how much of an upgrade he is over Tony Watson, but I’ll take it I guess.
hes not an upgrade lol
Way too nonchalant. McGee might be an upgrade if we can forget his stint in Colorado ever happened.
What a player did 2 or 3 years ago is irrelevant
No it isn’t.
Yes it is
Solid pick up. Another miss by angels
It’s an okay signing. If you’re the Angels, Tony Watson is probably better on a 1 year deal.
Someone call the police. A theft just occurred.
“You know feeling good was good enough, good enough for me, good enough for me and my Jake McGee”
Don’t poke sleeping Giants
They’ll fart and say “You’re welcome.”
Giants aren’t sleeping – they’re in hibernation. And when they wake up they’re not going to scare anyone. Year 3 for Zaidi and hasn’t made a major transition.
Zaidi is apparently sitting back snd waiting to see which ex-Dodgers are available. This is #3 this off season. Letting Friedman do his work for him.
fox471:
Merely a coincidence. It happens to all teams sooner or later. And with Travis D’arnaud, Adam Duvall, Pablo Sandoval, Charlie Culberson, Mark Melancon, and Will Smith you could say the same thing about the Braves loving ex-Giants.
Aren’t the giants just about as much ex-red as ex-dodger anyway?
yeah they got DeSclafani and Casali this offseason
Travis D’arnaud never played for the Giants, but his brother Chase did. But we get your point.
And Alex Wood was also a Red.
Obviously there’s a trend for acquiring players from the team you previously worked for, it happens all the time in MLB. There is already a familiarity with their skillset, though in this case Zaidi was gone well before McGee was on the Dodgers.
Still, Zaidi knows Friedman, worked under him in the same talent evaluation system, so it shouldn’t be a surprise when he signs a few ex-Dodgers, even ones he didn’t personally work with in LA.
Solid move. Left hander that was actually been quite good outside of Coors during his contract with the Rockies and proved it wasn’t a fluke last year. That drop in hr/9 maybe go up a little bit in a full season, but seeing if his velocity returning last year was real will be the the deciding factor in if this will be a good deal or not, IMO.
Eyyo, @Wohlers –
Pretty interesting guy on Baseball Savant. He throws a 95+ mph fb that ranks in the 95th percentile for spin rate, ~ 95% of the time. Seems like a rightly Chad Greene to me.
I’ve been paying pretty close attention to the reliever market (LH in particular) as I’d love to see the Yanks make (another) add there – great class for it.
Anyway.
AAV = 3.5 mil.
Seems like he was kind of the pick of the litter for LHRP’s (spin rate honey). So Watson, Wilson, Perez, Alvarez will all probably garner less. Boy, if Cashman can grab one of those guys & maybe Brad Miller it’d have been a decent off-season, uh.
Hey Bucky,
The lefty reliever market is definitely looking a little bare right now. Besides those three and maybe Oliver Perez I don’t see much that inspires any confidence that if I saw the enter a game.
Although, I do like the idea of Watson for your Yankees.
I’m kind of amazed that both the IF & the bullpen markets are becoming picked over.
That seemed almost impossible at the beginning of the off-season.
I’m still trying to help Hal & Cash spend another $5-6 mil. They’ll thank me. Honest.
Hey Ducky:
Do the Yankees have room to spend that $5-6M and stay below the threshold? Even if they do, it could be that Cashman wants that cushion for the flexibility to add payroll at the deadline.
Good evening @tad2b13 –
One of the things I loathe the most in life are the quarterly meetings my partner & I have with our accountant.
Blech.
That’s not building.
Anyway, being a modern baseball fan ensures that we all need to be a bit of a shekel hound.
Yanks are ~ 9 MM below the first CBT threshold. So, spending 5 mil would leave a decent little sum for an inseason addition of some type. That’s how they payed it in ’17 when they ducked under the last time.
Good evening to you too Ducky,
I know how you feel. I liked being an architect, but hated a lot of the stuff that went with it; codes, building depts., any kind of paper work, even clients. I just liked the work, but so happy to be retired.
The problem is even that $9M doesn’t leave a lot of room. Suppose Torres got injured, and they had a chance to obtain Trevor Story. He’s making $18M or so, and It seems like having $9M would make it easier to juggle payroll to stay under than that $4M would.
Architect?
That’s what I went to college for.
Never really used it. But, my hunting shack promises to be sweet.
So there’s that.
Yeah, I hear what you are getting at.
But, in your example, Story would count for “only” 6 MM against payroll if he were to be acquired at the deadline.
Plus, prospects can be included in order to pay down salary. Yanks threaded the needle last time. I believe they were less than a half mil from going over. A cushion of 3-4 mil should be enough.
Was in ’17.
Ducky
If you’re helping them spend $5 million on a lefty, the ole Montana speed limit is still available
Ain’t he a two way player?
Ducky:
Actually, I had the career of an architect after changing careers at the age of 31, but technically I couldn’t use the title. I went to school at night, and worked in an architectural office during the day, but never graduated. I learned the way Frank Lloyd Wright did; I apprenticed.
Good point about the Story salary hit to the payroll. I forgot that it would be prorated. Still, I have no problem with the Yankees standing pat. They’re the favorites now as it is. And unless they can find someone that upgrades the team, I don’t see the point in spending just because the have the funds. Plus, aren’t they going to re-sign Gardner?
Three way if they can afford it.
That’s awesome.
I remember that you’re a bit older than I. When I was going to school (late 80’s/early 90’s) there were still a couple states that you could become an architect in via apprenticeship.
I recall Washington was one of them.
Anyway, what I found out was a BA in Architecture was fairly worthless. I was already making significantly more money with a nail gun or trowel in my hand than I was being offered for jobs in an Architecture office.
So I did the only sensible thing; got drunk on tequila & enlisted in the Marines.
Results were mixed.
Yeah, the prorated salary is a big deal with all this. Again, I got a huge lesson in actual payroll, AAV, CBT thresholds, etc in ’17. Lousiest part of being a modern baseball fan, man.
My honest assessment is that this particular iteration of the current Yankee core is the weakest it’s been. Yet, there are *still* numerous viable (& inexpensive) upgrades available.
Middle relief is still kinda weak. Betances was not replaced last off-season nor Kahnle this one. Yanks could really use a good LH bat.
Which brings us to…Gardy.
Whom I love.
Favorite Yankee. But 5 mil could get a bullpen arm & probably a bench bat. That’d probably be more helpful.
Should’ve just had a payroll around 220 mil & none of that stuff would be a problem. Seems penny wise but pound foolish to me.
Ducky, despite the mixed results, I think that was the right thing to do. You probably have some great memories. I never served, and it’s my biggest regret. But when I was young the Vietnam War was happening, and I was morally opposed, despite being pro-military. My father was a career Army sergeant, and I felt like I’d been in the Army for 18 years when I left home at 18 years of age. For example, I was attending my 8th different school when I started the 8th grade. But, in retrospect, I wish I had followed my favorite brother into the. Navy.
The thing about relief pitching though is it’s so transitory. Sometimes guys that look great one season look terrible the next. It’s not a bad approach for teams that have some decent prospects, bringing them up, and using them out of the pen, rather than gambling on a FA arm that just might stink this season after looking good last season.
But whatever, I still think the Yanks will be there in October, and you make it hard for me to continue hating them.
Everybody hates their accountant, until they wake up one morning with no money in the back. That’s when they say ‘Excuse me Mr. Brady?’.
Of course, that when the guy says ‘I’m just the bartender. Brady is in the back, but I think he’s already done his one hour of work today’.
@tad
I made some lifelong friends.
I saw places I probably otherwise would not have.
But, if I could excise the couple years I spent in Bosnia from my life – all things being equal – I surely would.
Seems like your choice may have created a ripple in your family. I can see how it would have, anyway.
To baseball.
Relievers can certainly be a more tenuous investment than other players. Has a lot to do with how they’re used, uh?
Good example: Adam Ottavino. He gave up half (a total of 6 (!) (without recording an out in the inning – ouch)) of his runs for the season in one appearance.
But Fangraphs did a good write up on this a couple years ago. Their findings; investing in relievers is sketchy. Investing in elite or proven relief pitchers is much less so. (It sounds pretty simple when I type it; “just sign better one’s.” lol)
I’ve been fixated on a LHRP because Cashman always has one or two crummy ones on the roster. It’s currently Tyler Lyons. Right now is a time to grab one. 2-3 mil, man.
D’accod.
Unless something really wild happens the Yanks’ll be playing ball this Autumn. I always want to see my squad improve over the winter though.
That has not been the case.
Yanks have gone a little backwards. Still some time left.
Feel free to continue hating the Yanks. I get it. I’d rather if you just don’t hate me.
Man, if I ever wake up with no money in the bank you can bet my accountant is on the short list of folks who won’t make it through the day, serious.
But.
I’m very interested in pursuing a line of work that only requires an hour/day that I can do in the pub.
Please advise, @Brady.
I might’ve exaggerated, but I knew someone that did the books for a lot of bars in the neighborhood, and in my neighborhood, there are a ton of bars. Growing up, I thought that was an ideal gig.
Imagine hitting the bar at 8:00 once or twice a month. Work to 1:00, close up shop, order a steak and a couple of cold ones, and watch BB the rest of the day.
Not quite what one can do while raising a family, but it could be really fun. Heck, I might do that when I retire. Wake up at 10:00, work out for two hours, work from 1-7, and hit the pub on the way home (at least occasionally).
Man, I’m always looking for an easier gig.
The way my partner & I have divvied up responsibilities, from sometime in May until sometime in September I rarely have a day off & 80+ hour work weeks are the norm.
But I get to seriously coast the rest of the year. Look. I had to go into the office for a couple hours last week & you’d be amazed how much I was able to grumble about just that.
I could trade my current schedule for a couple mornings a month, though.
You two should get on the phone and pound off together, none one else cares to read this grandma-style exchange.
Says the guy with the get-off-my-lawn comment. Low-brow guys like you, so full of themselves they feel entitled to speak for everyone else, should just shut their pie hole. You must be a real fun guy to be around.
@martymcfeminne-
Are you…are you trying to flirt with me? You’re going to need to be a lot more nuanced & subtle than that, bro.
You’re coming off as straight creepy, bro.
Dial it down a notch. Ya know?
All that desperation is a mad turn off, serious.
Dodgers losing McGee is no big deal. Probably would have struggled to get relief time. Not sure how much McGee helps Giants. Time will tell.
Yeah, the Giants need guys that go more than an inning; they’ll struggle to get 5 per nine from their starters this year.
All 5 starters would be number 4 or 5 starters for other teams. And none of them would make the Dodgers or Padres rotations.
Am I wrong to think Giants could win division….
Yes, but “could” leaves stuff open. I “could” win the division next year if a lot of things go my way.
I think so. But they have a shot at the second wild card spot. No guarantees there either, though.
NL East is too deep imo for one of them to not land a WC spot. Giants will be 6th or 7th best team in the NL
Yes.
theoretically it is possible but not at all probable. if it was just the loaded dodgers or just the loaded padres there would very well be the possibility but odds are that one team will be the division winner and the other the wildcard winner
We would need a MVP caliber season from Posey. Belt would have to return a repeat of last year, Longo needs MVP caliber year, Dubon, Yaz, and Dickerson have to rake and Cueto and the rest of the pitching staff need to return to form. Then maybe a wildcard spot. That’s not asking a lot right?
Yes….
they will finish 3rd at best. the two best teams in baseball are also in their division.
They obviously have a non-zero chance at winning the division; though I’m guessing most projections will have it lower than 5% by the time the season starts.
Maybe, but “that’s why they play the games”, right?
You never know what will or could happen…
So basically it’s very unlikely, but not impossible
I think it’s pretty easy to project the giants taking third in the division, and theoretically that could mean wild card, but the Dodgers and Padres are in a different league.
Yes. Not even close.
Like this move a lot. 7 mil over 2 seasons for a guy who will be the left handed set up man. Phillies stand by while names come off the board, was really hoping they’d secure either Hand or McGee’s services for a bullpen that was epic bad.
As anyone seen the Pecota projections for this year? Braves in 4th place? Cardinals breaking even? I’m not buying
Pecota has predicted the Braves to finish there for like 4 years straight and they’ve won 3 straight division titles.
I agree, also don’t feel the cardinals finish .500
pecota isnt a good projection system – saying something given most are meh at best.
What’s wrong with Pecota when compared to others? I don’t put weight into predictions, but pecota seems pretty fine to me. It gives a pretty decent range. I always assumed the discrepancies can be attributed to being more detailed and originally being used for player predictions rather than teams. But again, I know
little about other projections and their accuracy.
What projections system do you think is best?
I generally don’t have a problem with Pecota, I really never even pay attention to them actually, some years I come across predictions and read them, same goes for the shredder. I find them kinda cool to look at after the season to see how right or wrong they are. But this year Atlanta and cardinals blew me away with those projections
Completely agree Balk. Predictions hold little weight in my mind, so I’ll be first to admit I don’t know much about which ones are better. Atlanta I understand because of the number of relievers leaving and players like Ozuna and Swanson most likely being projected as performing below their 20 output. Cardinals is surprising, but there are only so many wins to assign.
Maybe a good preseason MLBTR article would be a breakdown of predictors, what they use, and their accuracy
Yeah, that’ll be some good reading if we could get MLBTR to dish something like that out.
IIRC, Pecota has the A’s finishing under .500. The A’s have played .599 or better three straight seasons. IMHO, most of this is fairly meaningless until Las Vegas sets up the under/overs.
As I like to tell people, having money on the line sharpens up the senses.
Mets should of gotten him over Aaron Loup
He’s from Nevada and his past 2 teams have been in Denver and LA. I’m guessing he’s looking to stay on the West Coast.
Not bad in terms of dollars/years, but I don’t really get the point as there’s no way they’ll be competitive this year and, unless the new CBA has expanded playoffs (hopefully not), I don’t see them getting the 2nd WC next year, either.
2 for only $7m with his recent success…. Mets, Angels, White Sox and Twins could have used him.
McGee is an upgrade. Watson is cooked.
agree. very similar careers but McGee was impressive last year in big games…
He has to end his career in Arizona.
The Giants seem like a team that should be good each year but they always end up underperforming. Hopefully, this is the year they can do something.
Seriously? In the last couple years I feel like they have completely overperformed. In a rebuilding season they almost made the playoffs. That’s with the Padres and Dodgers in their division.
Yeah I mean last year the totally overperformed, at least as it pertains to projections, they performed to expectations for those that were paying attention but 2020 pecota had them at 17 wins, last in the division and they ended up with 29 wins, and had offensive rankings 5/6 in most categories over mlb right up there with the Yankees/Padres
If Pecota had them at 17 wins, it would probably be best to ignore that.
In 2018 & 2019, they played .451 & .475, and Pecota predicted a .283 season? .283 is probably about replacement level players. In fact, everyone had > 17 wins, and 29 teams had 22 or more wins.
Sam Selman out? Who’s sent packing off the 40-man?
man they added a lot of prospects to the 40 man in looking at it.
No way do they drop Selman, he was one of the few bright spots in the Giants pen last year.
Presumably Beede will go back onto the 60-day on Feb. 17. I suppose they can wait to make this official until then.
Brebbia will go on the 60 day. He had Tommy John last June. They’ll wait to assess Beede who had Tommy John last March.
Belt should be on the dl too, he is having heel surgery.
Highly doubtful they’d put Belt on the 60-day. He has a shot to be ready by opening day and even if he isn’t, pending some major setback; I think they’d use the 10-day for him instead.
FullMontilla:
I’m guessing Bart. He’s still protected from the rule 5 draft. He was only on the 40-man because he was called up last season. And with Posey, Casali, and Tromp, my guess is we won’t see Bart called up again until September at the earliest. So, if I’m not mistaken, there’s really no reason to keep him on the 40-man.
@tad2b13;
Good call, with the Casali signing it seems most likely that Bart will get a full year at AAA.
Mediocre team or not, Zaidi continues to put together an interesting roster. And considering his willingness to dive into the dumpster, there’s bound to be a starting pitcher coming around the corner too.
Duggar is my guess.
Still need lefty starting pitching. Alex Wood alone isn’t going to cut it.
Who says you need to have multiple lefties on a starting staff? I do agree they could use another starter in general though.
The Oregonian:
I agree. I think it’s more important to have a good balance between lefties and righties in the bullpen, than in the starting rotation.
Wood isn’t the most reliable guy in the world when it comes to health. He has never thrown more than 171 innings in a season, and has worked out of the pen a bunch. It isn’t like the Giants have a good starting rotation and a bunch of depth. They have Gausman who would probably be a 3 or 4 on a good team and then a bunch of question marks, one of which is their only left handed starting pitcher. It’s probably worth it to take a flier on Hamels if he isn’t too expensive.
There is actually a lot of depth, just not frontline guys, but with Webb,Menez, beede back at some point and a few others there are guys but most of the guys are young and/or inexperienced
Should have gone after Carlos Rodon. Zaidi went after (and signed) pitchers with or returning from arm surgery.
Redwolves3:
How do you know Zaidi didn’t go after Rodon? After all, we just saw Bauer turning down more money from the Mets to go to LA. Just because a guy signs with one team doesn’t mean another team didn’t try hard to sign him.
Good signing, but they should be focused on the starting rotation which—even with the few signings—is awful. Still can’t figure out why they didn’t offer Quintana a two- or three-year package.
Pete:
Well, Odorizzi is still out there, and I think he’d be a good signing for the Giants. I’ll be disappointed if the Giants aren’t willing to go the length of contract that he wants, because there’s not much left available that’s any good.
I think I would rather see Paxton than odirizzi but I wouldn’t be mad if they signed him
Fastball fastball fastball fastball fastball fastball
If you are waiting on Tony Watson, good luck. He barely lasted 20 innings last year. All off speed.
Quality LRP who has close history, good splits RHB/LHB and is a good fit for the current SF bullpen. I suspected Alex Wood might get an opener but now I am suspecting that with the volume of LRP in the bullpen I think Logan may get one too and against teams that are heavily LH like the LAD. I think this year in non Gausman and Cueto starts you’ll see them be very Tampa Bay light.
Obviously on paper LAD and SD are on a different talent level than the rest of the division. That said you need to play the games.
At least my Rockies can look forward to his visits to Coors where he became unplayable. Although he wasn’t as big a disappointment at home as Wade Davis.
You have to wonder where the Phillies are in all this, unless they are waiting on Rosenthal.
Why are the comments closed on the previous article about Kevin Mather. Are we not allowed to discuss his situation?
Quietly one of the best free agent reliever acquisitions of the winter, in my opinion. Controlled for 2 years at no more than 7mil. At the very least he’ll be a quality specialist but I think he’s good for a sub 3.00 era, 30 holds and a dozen saves or more over the next 2 years.
The lowly Giants signing up all the Dodger scraps. Sort of how my dog works the dinner table.
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