The Giants have signed reliever Mauricio Llovera to a minor league contract, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. The right-hander elected minor league free agency at the end of the season after being outrighted off the Phillies’ 40-man roster in August, making him eligible to sign a minor league deal during the lockout.
Llovera’s stint in San Francisco will be his first outside the Philadelphia organization. The 25-year-old has appeared briefly at the big league level for the Phils in each of the last two years, tallying 7 2/3 combined innings of relief. Llovera didn’t find much success during his six MLB appearances this past season, but he averaged a solid 94.5 MPH on his four-seam fastball.
The Venezuela native hasn’t amassed much of a track record in the majors, but Llovera’s coming off a 2021 campaign in which he logged 52 Triple-A frames across 32 appearances. His 3.46 ERA with the Phillies’ top affiliate in Lehigh Valley was solid, but his 21.4% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk percentage at the level were both a bit worse than average. Nevertheless, the Giants will take a no-risk flier to see if Llovera can pitch his way into the bullpen mix over the coming months. He has one minor league option year remaining, so San Francisco can shuttle him between the majors and Triple-A Sacramento next season even if he earns a spot on the 40-man roster.
Another reliever with a mid-90s fastball and poor control. If I had a dollar for every one of those types, I’d be a rich man!
Giants missed out on Rios.
Signed their 2nd choice.
They literally led baseball in bullpen era.
Check out their farm, they have at least 25 guys that are high K/9-low BB/9 between the minors and the MLB team.
It’d be nice if some had longer leashes as starters(as we don’t have much organizational depth when it comes to starting pitching) but at the very least the Giants look to have a pipeline of relief pitchers for the foreseeable future, and seem to have more quality relievers developing in their system than any other position, BY FAR.
Also, there’s zero harm in bringing in guys they like.
Chances are, they’ve seen something you haven’t(Kapler was literally the Phillies manager…) and for whatever reason, feel this guy might workout better with them.
They never sign a guy because they think that player has no chance to help the club. They just got a ton of bullpen help from guys that were brought in on similar deals.
And after seeing the 2015-2018 bullpens, I’m actually glad to see our bullpen feature guys that throw higher than 92mph thank you very much…
Were you expecting the Giants to win 110 games last year, or what? Because they were pretty much the best team in the regular season and didn’t lose any bullpen guys, however at least now they’re all healthy…
That is spot on, well put highroller
Zaidi dropping another fishing hook in the ocean hoping for a big catch. At least the risk is worthwhile with minimal cost.
Hopefully Zaidi is using his time during the MLB lockout to identify potential trades and free agents to upgrade the 2022 Giants.
No Red, he’s taken the rest of the offseason off and what he has now is what he’s rolling with in 2022 /s.
He literally said he has a more left to do once the lockout is over.
Zaidi’s for sure is. Teams can’t speak to the players, but there’s nothing stopping the teams from talking to one another.
Not that a union member would do this, but could you technically sign correa to a minors deal with a 30MM roster bonus “if” he makes the big club?
…
3 periods tstats, are we playing hockey now?
I don’t think they’re allowed to include major league incentives like that in minor league deals right now. Though if it is, it would be funny to see one of the major free agents left sign a one-year minor league deal with like $20+ million in performance incentives that are easy to reach (1 game played, make the OD roster, etc).
…or, he just waits till the lockout is over and signs his deal then.
formegn hardgin:
Even if it was technically legal, no way would Correa do that. He wouldn’t even if the bonus was $40M. Minor league deals aren’t guaranteed, so if Correa got injured in ST, the team could simply cut him with no financial liability. Correa would be out the money, and as a flawed FA, with his future significantly dimmed, his security evaporated.
Never know what a HOUSTON ASTRO “CHEATER” may or may not do.
You really think the players Union would allow that. Dumb comment
Points for creativity
I have a couple of thoughts about when the Giants were pursuing Bryce Harper. Was that pursuit solely ownership telling Farhan Zaidi to sign Harper, to sell tickets, etc?
Or was Farhan Zaidi legitimately interested in such a lengthy contract for Harper? Is there any player in the game today, Zaidi would give such a contract to without ownership making such a strong push?
Makes me wonder what really happens behind the scenes.
Harper was an exception because he was a generational talent and would have served as a good bridge from the Posey/Crawford era to the Bart/Luciano era while competing the current group of guys competitive.
If Crawford didn’t have the season he just had, given a 2-year contract extension, you’d be seeing the Giants likely going after some of the shortstops, but probably not has high as they went after Harper because they have Luciano waiting in the wings. The Giants at the time literally had no one that Harper would have blocked. Also Harper’s market didn’t develop as well as they thought it would, so the Giants came in knocking late and made a push. Harper never seriously considered them, as he admitted on a podcast, and essentially used them as leverage to get more $ from Philly.
Giants probably would have gone hard after Mookie had he hit free agency, per their beat reporters. He’s a guy they had circled.
Either way, outside of maybe Correa, there really is no generational talent on the free agent market that is worth handing out a lofty contract for. Seager can’t stay healthy. Baez is overrated. Castellanos is not a generational talent by any means. Semien has had 2 above average seasons his entire career. So, i don’t fault Zaidi for not throwing big $$ at some of these guys and instead playing the waiting game.
I know you didn’t ask for all that, but its there.
kc, love ur username or should I say your emanresu. And very much agree with ur post. Those guys are all getting too many years. And ignoring what G4L (aka elttil nekcihc) posted, FZ will add plenty more players. Who do you want FZ to get?
you solved the code! bravo.
honestly at this point we definitely need a bat and a #2 starter to pair with Webb. I have no idea on which names FZ is realistically targeting. Seiya Suzuki would be a great add, create some excitement for the fan base after the face of our franchise (Posey) has retired. He also won’t cost much. FZ has a strong track record of signing international players, hopefully he can pull this one off. But I’m not holding my breath.
Other guys who could be good adds would be Conforto (high obp, FZ type guy), Schwarber, or resign Bryant (just keep him to LF and 3b only, no where near CF or RF).
Pitching side Sean Manea, John Means, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray are all guys i can see us targeting. But going off FZ’s comments, they don’t seem to be looking at it as a 5-man rotation but covering 162 games – whatever that means. Assuming that means signing like 6-7 guys, maybe have a 6 man rotation? Openers? All i know is we need a proper #2. It hurt us in the postseason to not have someone to pair with Webb. The other 3 spots, they can figure out between Disco, Wood, Cobb (Cobb and Wood are bound to spend a lot of time on the IL with their injury history).
I have no idea with Zaidi, for all we know, he’ll pick up a random Joe Schmo and turn him into another Yaz/Wade/Gausman.
Zaidi has proven he can take guys stuck in the minor leagues and turn them into quality major leaguers. Now, he needs to take quality major leaguers and turn them into superstars and make us a juggernaut. Right now, the 2022 product looks pathetic, but we’ll see.
I truly believe he’ll pick up a good pitcher. Probably via a trade. I hope it’s not a 1 yr rental (sonny gray is I think). And I’m hoping Seiya…later.
And regarding Bryant, I don’t feel it’s wise to only judge him on time with Giants so I hope they sign him
And a versatile 2nd baseman. M Duffy is a free agent
I’m certain that ownership was behind the pursuit of Harper but very uncertain that they made a genuine effort. Offering the same that Philly offered would count as not making a genuine effort as they would be ignoring the impact of California taxes and basically assuming that Bryce and his team were too stupid to realize they would be making much less.
People talk about them “almost” signing but thats like me saying I almost made it to the major leagues. Giants owners would like fans to think they are making these efforts but at the end of the day they have lowered the payroll by $100 million and there are no signs they will ever get close to spending what they did before 3 years ago.
This is the origin of my frustrations with Farhan. The guy was brought in to build a team on the cheap with a top 5 revenue ball club and none of the prices that fans pay when going to the park have gone down. If you shop at Whole Foods but suddenly one day they start stalking the shelves with Walmart brands but keep charging whole foods prices you would stop buying from them that same day. Same concept here that so few have been able to comprehend.
If I’m not mistaken, Giants offered Harper more money. He just used us as leverage. He had no intentions of coming to SF, as he admitted on the Barstool podcast, that he felt the Giants core were done and wouldn’t be competitive (betch was wrong!).
I understand the frustration on being cheap, especially this offseason. We clearly needed a proper top of the rotation guy, and Zaidi didn’t get him – yet. If he does, it’ll be via trade(meaning losing good prospects, which I’m not in favor of. Id rather give up a compensation pick and have signed Ray than trade prospects). . Maybe he picks up a random Joe Schmo and that dude turns into a stud. But teams are smarter now. Not easy to pick up that random Joe Schmo.
CV, I like posts like yours. I can BS with the best of em. I wished more were like you. My 2 cents say FZ offers something he knows the player and/or agent will reject. It’s a faux show of “going for it”. Regarding pitchers, I doubt he wants to go beyond 3 (or 3 plus 4th year option) years. Sounds like Gausman, for example, was rigid on 5 years. And FZ probably offer 3, maybe 4 years, but I really don’t get the feeling FZ sees his loss as not a big one. Heck , I thought Paxton would be the perfect FZ type, but he got like$10 mill AAV for 3 years. No way would that fly with FZ. As far as position players go, CV, they’re farm is way more stocked with position players than pitchers. That would lead me to believe that he’s even MORE hesitant to go long contracts on position players. 3 yrs for Lastella was alot. To finish, I told you I was a BSer, my guess regarding the relationship with the $heads is after last year they’ll probably give him carte Blanche.
CV, sorry for long post. Please comment.
5 HRs in 6 IP……but 7k Seems every batter he faced was swinging for the fences. IF Giants could lower that type of output..
he might be something. Low risk why not seems like a decent signing from that viewpoint.
The obsession with spending the owners money is weird. Judging Zaidi on money spent as opposed to results on the field is weird and ridiculous.
As for your whole food analogy, I’d taste it first. Then judge the value of the Walmart brand based on that. You know, give it a chance.
It’s basic economics. Good players cost more money and unless Farhan is winning the WS every year with dumpster dives then he could have done more to win.
Two years ago this team missed the playoffs by 1 game after blowing 17 saves in 62 games. Farhan made zero effort to upgrade the closer position at the deadline or before the season. He actually traded Melancon away for peanuts the year before but never replaced him so that is one example of how a real MLB closer would have very likely made the difference between playoffs and no playoffs and all it would have taken was to spend more money.
Last season was amazing with the production they got out of lesser players but once they were in the playoffs it was clear that none of the dumpster dives were going to contribute. The bats went quiet under the pressure and replacement level players proved not good enough with the pressure of the playoffs.
If you can get the walmart brand at walmart for half the price they are charging at Whole Foods then you are an idiot if you buy from whole foods no matter how good it tastes! If I can wstch the A’s and spend half as much as I do to watch the Giants while getting similar product then why would I spend more to go to SF and watch a game? Why should the owners be able to pocket $100 million dollars while charging the same prices as before? We are in a lockout because of stuff like this and nobody gets to see baseball until it ends so having sympathy for the owners is hard to understand. They clearly are making more money off of us the fans so why don’t I have a right to be upset about it?
This is the worst part of the offseason: people reading into every minor transaction as some sort of mandate on the organization. He’s a minor league arm that will get a look in spring training and likely end up filling out the Sacramento bullpen. Zaidi isn’t penning him in as the closer or anything.
Because they invested the funds required to own the business. It’s their money, their business, they can do what they want. Get over it, and support or criticise the results.
You don’t have the right to be upset because you have options. If you don’t like what the Giants are doing, support a team that is. No one at the Giants is forcing you to invest time, emotion or funds.
I’m my humble opinion, you have a bloated sense of fan entitlement.
Most people who comment here are probably more like you than they are like me foppert. Uneducated and with the attention span of a squirrel on meth. If you actually read what I wrote and were able to comprehend the points I’m making, you might get a clue.
Arguing that the owners should be able to do whatever they want because they bought the team is careless and ignorant at best. Owners almost killed this sport back in 94 when baseball went on strike and they are once again the biggest threats to the health of the MLB.
I have tried to use examples that make sense but probably need to understand my audience here better so let’s try one more for fun. How would your clients react if when they came in your store to buy a carmel machiato you tried to sell them a cup of black coffee for the same price? Its hot like a machiato and has caffeine and basically does the same thing for you that the machiato does right? By your logic, your clients wouldnt blink an eye and would be cool with the switch because basically Starbucks owns the coffee shop so they can do what they want. Get it now?
I used to own a cafe until recently. So yeah, I get it. The only plausible reason for me, the owner, for doing that , would be confidence that the black coffee is going to satisfy the customer more than the macchiato. I must have stumbled upon some sort of new, absolutely killer black coffee process.
Anyhow buddy. Let’s respectfully disagree.
Go Giants.
So by your self-indulgent overly excessive verbiage, you believe that large payrolls lead to successes in the Post-Season? I would remind that Bryce Harper does not have a World Series ring. The Nationals found success after he left the team. And what has the Phillies record been since he joined them?
G4L, stfu if you believe you have the right to get personal when the others are simply disagreeing with you. Your posts boast as if you are pounding 10 shots of espresso. And I’ll continue ur your moronic coffee analogy by telling you that Starbucks is only serving you decaf. You are a rude, belligerent, self-indulgent and whiny slightly human…being.
Shocker that you didn’t actually read what I wrote either. Your comment proves my point. I never said they should have signed Harper yet somehow your simple mind focused on that point that nobody made. I never said large payrolls lead to success in postseason either but since you are on a roll keep goin big boy!
Weird that they let the french comment on here Claude le mooo. Shouldnt you be retreating about now with a white flag in one hand ready to wave?
Then what is your point? You keep going back to the theme of the Giants not spending enough on payroll, and thusly not being successful. If you are trying to make some other point, you need to say what it is. The rest of it all comes off as gibberish and self-indulgence.
@giant4life you clearly know far less in regard to economics as you think. For instance, if you can get 80% of say Harper’s production for 25% of the cost, that would be the intelligent economic decision. Is it just some magical coincidence that the Braves, Red Sox, Giants, and other teams with forward thinking front offices decided to let other teams overpay for players at the start of free agency? Let’s check in with the Rangers in 4 years and see how that turns out. You know far less than you think and you come off looking like a pile.
Braves just won the WS so they don’t have to do anything really but they are going to resign Freddy so that right there will be more than double what the giants will spend all offseason. Boston has much less needs than the giants and a higher payroll so makes sense for them not to go crazy spending. Giants have payroll flexibility as all of you Farhan lovers have claimed for 3 years and this was going to be the offseason that he starts spending! Don’t all of you remember when this was your argument instead of the garbage you are spewing now?
Huh? You are being confusing. So, you are upset that the Giants aren’t spending enough in Free Agency? And what do the people posting here have to do with that? Who do you believe the Giants should have signed?
please do tell me what spending on free agency has done for teams in recent history? Didn’t work for the Padres/Mets last year did it? Phillies a few years before that? White Sox? Marlins (yes, they had a wild offseason a handful of years ago, didn’t work.) Padres tried earlier in 2015 too, didn’t work. The Reds tried in 2019, didn’t work. The Jays tried a few times, hasn’t worked. Won’t work for the Mets next year, I can guarantee you that.
Clueless again G4L. They traded melancon for $18 million worth of peanuts
Going from Philly to San Fran,he’ll probably end up the ace of the world series winner
Maybe not an ace, but this guy can surrender walks and home runs with the best of them. He’s exciting to watch if you’re rooting for the other team.
I like how a minor-league signing got this much thread going
Kinda weird isn’t it. The guy was actually signed a week ago.
It shows how desperate we are for any kind of baseball news. Wait to see the commentary generated by Gabe Kapler’s holiday shopping excursion to restock his coconut juice inventory.
Coconut juice. Is that like milking an almond?
Melancon was horrible for the Giants
Why not take a flier on a 25yo who was a starter until recently. Lotta starters have trouble transitioning into the bullpen at first, but usually you see a velocity bump.
Giants *might* see his 94.5 avg, but might GET a guy that throws 95-96 for 2-3 innings. Or perhaps he is just a 25yo that needs a fresh start/change of scenery. Maybe he picks up a mid-90’s sinker? Who knows.
#inFarhanWeTrust