Giants second baseman Tommy La Stella recently underwent surgery on his left Achilles, the team informed reporters (including Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic). Full recovery is expected to take four months, so La Stella should be on track for Spring Training if all goes as planned.
La Stella was bothered by Achilles pain for the final few weeks of the season, but he played through the issue during the Giants’ playoff run. It was the latest in a series of health woes for La Stella, who also missed time due to a hamstring problem and a hand fracture. That combined to limit the left-handed hitter to 242 plate appearances, in which time he put up an uncharacteristic .250/.308/.405 slash line. That’s a fair bit shy of the .289/.356/.471 mark La Stella posted from 2019-20.
The Giants no doubt hope that the recent procedure will provide the 32-year-old with a clean slate as he enters 2022. La Stella will be entering the second season of a three-year, $18.75MM free agent contract. With Donovan Solano hitting free agency, he could pair with the right-handed hitting Wilmer Flores (controllable via club option) to platoon at the keystone next season.
I know it’s coming , so I’ll get it started: “LA STELLA!!!!!”
Hopefully the giants can make better multi-year commitments this offseason. La Stella is a good bat but made of glass and not great defensively. Surprised he got 3 years straight up
The Farhan’s regime first big FA signing has a injury riddled year. And they wanted him to play a big leadoff role…It seems it is a right of passage for the Giants FO. Injured 2nd baseman. The Ghost of Rennie Stennet.
I had to look that guy up lol who the heck decides to steal 28 bases and get caught 19 in one season, smack in the middle of their career after barely running at all.
You didn’t look close enough. He was recovering from two broken ankles when the Giants signed him. Ahhh…the 70’s…Such a fun time to be Giants fan
Giants are in a tough spot with their resurgent veterans and some big free agents from their 107 win season like Bryant and Gausman. Their payroll flexibility isn’t as big as it seems if they bring their own guys back.
There payroll can be as big as it wants to be really. They are rich and have just as much cash on hand as the Dodgers if they want to get stupid.
They real quickly could become the mid 2010 Phillies…. Again
Like they were from 17-20 or so. Fascinating offseason to come for them
In no way would that happen since 1. No one they bring back will get a long term contract 2. There are a LOT of prospects in the pipeline as the giants have a top 5 farm right now 3. Posey is currently deciding whether he is going to take the option year or retire so he won’t even be a consideration for a long term contract. 4. It is farhan making the decisions.
@BeforeMcCourt You guys have been calling the Giants the 2010 Phillies for 11 years now. I think you should actually look at the Giants roster and come up with a new point of reference. Your ignorance is showing.
Not really. Bryant probably won’t be coming back.
I thought the LaStella signing was a good move. Still think so. His stats were off but he had some key ABs. Achilles stuff is not good. If he is not able to start the season, Giants need left handed backups for 2B and Longo. Vosler was good at Sacramento.
Yeah the infield behind the guys that are there right now have vosler, Estrada, dubon just waiting to get play time and behind them are even more promising guys on the way up
Hopefully he didnt use Mike Sorokas surgeon
He’s a platoon/ pinch hitter. Bad signing. Has always struggled as an every day player. Never played an entire season as a starter. When inserted as an every day player always ends up injured or falters at the plate.
Great pinch hitter and spot starter.
Any chance the Giants trade for Stanton? Yankees desperately need to reduce payroll to add payroll if the Yankees plan to stay below the tax
There are not a lot of teams out there that would trade for Stanton’s contract when they can just simply sign a free agent of their choosing for that kind of money
Hell no. Why would the Giants want Stanton?
Have you looked at the giants? The reason they got to 107 wins is by platooning guys. If you got one guy that hits 300 and 20 homers off of lefties and one that hits 300 and 20 homers off of righties – those two guys platooning the position gives you a de facto 300 hitting 40 homer hitting player
@mister guy Stanton is a DH only. Where are the Giants going to play him? Why do they need a guy that will hit, at the most, 5 home runs for them? The Kris Bryant experience was rather underwhelming. Thankfully, they didn’t give up much for him. There is no reason to believe the Giants would be interested in Stanton.
La Stella getting a 3 year deal was a great hustle. Good for you Tommy.
This is never mentioned, but I think the Giants should sign Marcus Semien at any cost. Play him at 2b or SS when Crawford needs a rest. Semien can also play 3B in a pinch.. Great leadoff with pop. Back him up with Estrada and maybe even Dubon. Love Solano, but I think he’s the odd man out.. Trade LaStella if possible. I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to have a left-handed hitting second baseman.
MAAAAAN, people think the Giants are cheap rn, when they can spend as much of not MORE than the dOdGeRs
I think, after a franchise record season, why not GO FOR IT?!?
Sign Seager, Starling Marte, Robbie Ray, AND Chris Taylor!(IN ADDITON to keeping nearly every arbitration/tender candidate not named Alex Dickerson, and bringing back Belt and Posey.)
Seager has a bat not all too different than that of an early-mid 2010’s Posey(pre decline), usually something between .295-.305 with 15-24 HR’s. At 27, AND AS A lefty bat, he’s a great candidate to essentially get the 8yr deal Posey just had, albeit adjusted for inflation. With the DH this year, Longo can platoon at DH with Ruf while Seager starts at 3B.
Robbie Ray has similar pitches to Gausman but he’s 2yrs younger and he’s a lefty, perfect to be the No.1/No2 with Webb.
Marte is the kind of guy that they can go sign BECAUSE they won’t face the penalty for the next three years(IF they go over it this year) so give Marte anything for 3 years(hopefully under $60 million, but it DOES NOT MATTER as if it’s under 4 seasons, they will NEVER be taxed on it.)
Then Chris Taylor to essentially make La Stella and Wilmer Flores bench guys. Platoon Chris Taylor and Thairo Estrada at 2B(though both are righty’s, Estrada is young so they can give him days off as he gets acclimated, while giving Taylor starts in the OF if they want both right handed bats in the lineup, while a Taylor/Marte can play CF vs lefty’s and Yaz or Duggar vs RHP’s. Estrada can also play SS when Crawford needs a day off, and Ruf can play LF with Marte in CF and Taylor in RF if they want an all RHB outfield. It almost seems like overkill as they’d have several guys that can play multiple positions so I doubt Kapler would have any trouble getting the desired bats in the lineup.
Hopefully they’d have something close to:
C: Posey/Caselli
1B: Belt(Flores)
2B: Taylor/Estrada(La Stella)
3B: Seager(Longo)
SS: Crawford
LF: Marte
CF: Yaz/Chris Taylor(Duggar/Dubon)
RF: Wade
DH: Ruf/Flores
For SP’s, I’d hope this is the time they trade Bart. Hopefully Miami likes him, because they have a stash of starting pitchers. Of course Trevor Rogers would be…perfect for SF as a big 23yo lefty with 5 years of club control, but Sandy Alcantra would be a great pickup too.
Hopefully they can bring back Alex Wood to a 3yr deal as well(remember, they have 3 years over being over the luxury tax threshold before they’re taxed on it!) and then give the 1yr-prove-you’re-healthy deal to a Verlander/Syndergaard/Alex Cobb/James Paxton type worth anywhere from $12m-$20m.
It’s a fact that agents are aware that the Giants have been able to turn pitchers coming off injury or decline that sign 1yr-deals into guys that can get multi-year deals the following offseason. Smyly got some money, Gausman, Wood and DeScalfani just did it too.
This will help them sign those types. Heck even a Drew Smyly reunion could be in the cards as he had a rough 2021, and I’m sure he’d be happy to come back to the team he had a great 2020 with.
A rotation of Ray/Webb/Wood/Alcantra/THOR would have the extra boost that the Gausman/Webb/Wood/DeScalfani/Cueto rotation lacked. Plus it gives them a lefty/righty/lefty/righty/righty rotation where there’s only be two back to back handedness for teams to get comfortable with.
And who knows, perhaps the organization is comfortable with Webb earning the No.1 job. Doesn’t REALLY matter over a 162 game season. But a Webb/Ray/Alcantra/Wood/Thor puts them in the same position, except Ray and Thor are so different than Logan Webb, having him in the middle of those two could really offset the timing of opposing teams.
I didn’t mention the bullpen because we had the best bullpen in baseball last year with several guys habing sub-2.50 ERA’s. The only free agent from the bullpen is Tony Watson.
The following 8 guys: Leone/Rogers/Garcia/McGee/Littell/Alvarez/Baragar/Menez, are all solid if not top notch, and Doval(number 9)showed he’s primed for the closer spot, making their bullpen even stronger with Jake McGee as their setup man.
They can bring back Watson if they like as he pitched well for SF and was still throwing 95+. Having a vet like Watson is always a nice spot, and I’m sure he’s learned he can be an All Star level reliever with SF, or be a 5.00+ ERA guy elsewhere lmao. He shouldn’t be much more expensive than a minor league deal, as he is at least 35-36yo now. And their bullpen is loaded with guys under club control/facing the big scary arbitration(the Giants have allowed ONE player to ever go into arbitration hearings since the start of the Sabean Era. The Giants have made deals in the waiting area of the courtroom instead of going into court to prove to a judge a player isn’t worth the money that player wants. It’s not good for a team to say “well he wants money that (Player A) makes, but (Player A) is WAY better than our guy! Look at these stats here! Our guy sucks!” usually isn’t great for a player+agent/organization relationship.
These Giants started need only to get to 6 innings and allow 3-4 runs or fewer(3 runs in 6IP is a 4.50 ERA, which I’m sure Webb/Alcantra/Ray/Wood/etc would have no problem getting ERA’s under 4.50) and then hand it over to the bullpen.
That’s a long post. I didn’t read any if it but good job.