It’ll come as little consolation to Giants fans, but the team did have an offer on the table for top remaining free agent outfielder Brandon Nimmo before he wound up re-signing with the Mets for eight years and $162MM, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post. As Puma notes, it appears that once owner Steve Cohen got personally involved, Nimmo’s return to the Mets materialized quickly. It’s not known what terms the Giants were offering Nimmo.
It’s the second-straight outfielder the Giants have missed out on, having aggressively pursued Aaron Judge before he ultimately return to New York on a nine-year, $360MM deal. They have added Mitch Haniger on a three-year, $43.5MM deal but from the outset of the off-season they’ve been strongly linked with the top free agents. They could still sign one, and they’re one of the teams (along with the Twins and Cubs, per the New York Post’s Jon Heyman) that are heavily rumored to be in on Carlos Correa.
The outfield has been an area of focus for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi this winter. Haniger’s addition bolsters their group, but Zaidi’s wanted two outfield signings. Now that they’ve missed out on the clear top two options available, it’ll be interesting to see whether they look for another outfielder, or go with a mix of Haniger, Austin Slater and Mike Yastrzemski and divert their resources to other options like Correa, or a starting pitcher.
If they do continue with their plans to add another outfielder, Andrew Benintendi is probably the top free agent available now. MLBTR predicted a four-year, $54MM deal for him, and given the Giants’ payroll space they could conceivably go after someone like that while still having space to pursue a long-term deal with Correa. They could also look to the trade market, and approach the Pirates about a deal to bring Bryan Reynolds back to the team that drafted him in 2016. While Reynolds is only due to make $6.75MM in 2023, he’s under club control for three more seasons and Pittsburgh looks to have a sky high asking price for him.
The Giants have a projected payroll of about $139MM as things stand, but they also have in the region of $60MM+ coming off the books at the end of next season. Given their payroll has stretched north of $200MM in recent seasons, they do have plenty of room to make a number of additions over the next season or two.
Ohtani Ohtani Ohtani
Giants are the new Padres.
The new White Sox
The old Giants to be honest. Sabean had similar issues signing free agents.
Mets way over paid for a light hitting OF that will be 30 when the season starts. 8 years? After 5 years this is a very bad contract.
Vagiants ain’t getting Ohtani, bank it!! That’s laughable!
Ohtani will be like Judge, he will choose where he wants to go, He will get 50 million so t the big dogs will be in on him. The team that signs him will have to meet his criteria. Angels would be smart to trade hem this winter to the Dodgers and get some good players for him. They don;t want to make the same mistake the Sox did with Betts and Boegarts. The got nothing for either.!
Unless it’s a joke about the return for him, Boston definitely traded Betts and received players from LA.
Time to drain the farm
What was the Giants offer to Judge? They seem like they have been cheap the past few years
Somewhere in between $300M and $360M and they bowed out once it got upnto the Yankees’ offer of $360M.. Zaidi didn’t try to counter.
No, Giants offered $360 million and the Yankees matched that offer-
Reports are saying 9 years and 360 million
I would rather play in SF. Playing in the AL East is a lot easier to hit home runs though
Judge used the Giants to get the Yankees to put their best offer on the table. Judge wanted to be a Yankee all along and the Giants were his Plan B if the Yankees tried to go cheap. Some of the anecdotes coming out of the Judge meeting in SF make that pretty clear.
Zaidi is smart, he knows you can’t build a team through free agency, they need to have some of their prospects and trade for players that perform first. He and Bloom are stuck between a rock and a hard place!
VegasSDfan — The Giants were the FIRST to offer Judge what he eventually signed for with the Yankees. Judge used the Giants offer to raise the Yankee’s offer. The Giants aren’t cheap, but they’re damn unlucky.
Well guess Cohen was going to get what he wanted no matter the money. Makes me wonder with Benintendi, Reynolds where they could end up. Houston is looking at outfield and catching. Where will Rodon end up. I know not outfield. Just names keep seeing mentioned.
The Giants probably need to show they are real contenders before people start signing there. Even with a big signing, they still seem like #3 in the NL West.
The Giants need to sign Carlos Correa IMMEDIATELY!
Bingo!
No Benintendi needs.
Too many lefty outfielders already.
Although would be nice to take away someone from a NY team…
I’m starting to wonder if players are avoiding San Francisco on account of the city’s well-documented trouble with homelessness and crime. Not to mention high taxes in California. And with the stadium there being a pitcher’s park, hitters have to think twice.
Plus they are looking way up at the padres and dodgers in the division.
They could get Correa but I’m not sure Correa attracts other free agents. A lot of players have issues with his sign stealing comments.
LA is far worse, the area around the stadium is horrible, & yet they seem to have no problem signing anyone.
Thanks for playing.
(Braves fan)
What big city isn’t dealing with homelessness?
The real problem is San Francisco actually isn’t dealing with its homelessness.
Do tell how you think a city should be “dealing with its homelessness”.
Agreed. However, sounds like Judge – or Nimmo for that matter – were using some other teams as leverage for their huge salary demands so they could stay in the Big Apple. After all, it is a game…
Players rarely live in the heart of the cities they play for. They mostly live in ridiculously expensive and beautiful suburbs. So this has nothing to do with players signing elsewhere.
According to baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/statcast-park-f… Oracle has been neutral with a score of 100.
rodcannon — First, let’s get clear about Oracle: it’s no longer a “pitcher’s park.” It’s neutral. Plenty of HRs hit there. Giants were 7th in MLB in offense last year.
Two: every major city where it doesn’t drop below freezing for too long is experiencing dramatic homelessness. Crime is no greater in SF than other major cities. Thank Ronald Regan (for the homelessness) and the obscenely unbalance distribution of money in our society.
Three: With the amount of money these players are making, taxes is not an issue. Just look at the many superstars who have signed with the Dodgers, the Angels and the Padres.
Giants should definitely be focusing on Correa or Swanson. If they are intent on competing in the NL West, Brandon Crawford should not be their primary shortstop moving forward. Crawford was a helluva player and had a career year in 2021. He will end up in the Giants HOF one day, but he is not young anymore. It’s time to turn the corner or start a complete rebuild in a few years.
I don’t know that Zaidi is capable of landing top FAs with his current MO. I think this tends to hurt many of the Rays FO personnel when operating big market teams, ie, Chaim Bloom.
I think Buster Olney said it best in a Giants podcast, which was essentially: until he realizes the top FAs in this market are getting incredibly rich contracts, ie, Xander paid nearly 3x what Boston offered him to sign with SD, he’s not going to draw the FAs to the Giants.
One of the Giants podcast guys postulated that the top market guys didn’t want to go to Oracle Park because of the potential decline in offense, but I don’t buy that at all. I believe he needs to get comfortable doling out uncomfortable contracts.
Same goes for Chaim, honestly. And if Chaim loses Devers, he may want to leave the country.
Bloom spends what ownership wants him to spend, these $300m+ contracts aren’t at the sole dicretion of the GM/VP OPs. Sox had the highest payroll in MLB in 2018 and a depleted farm system. Should have blown the team up then, but its tough to do coming off a championship. Bloom was brought in to fix the system and reset the payroll. Its a multiyear process. And yet the Sox are only 1 year removed from an ALCS appearance and a playoff knockout of the Yanks and for some reason the local media and a bunch of fans want to run him out of town. Betts wasn’t resigning with Sox, Xander got a ridiculous deal, and as pure a hitter as Devers is he is terrible defensively and bound to be a 1B/DH type, someone else can pay him $300+M.
So you think Bloom was limited to offering Xander $90MM in ST? They paid more for an unproven, defensively inferior corner OF, Yoshida! And in this market, with the contracts being handed out and the RSox history of spending, it’s solely John Henry (or whomever)?
I don’t buy this. I think the problem is mutual. They bring in Bloom to cut costs and win. They think this Rays version of moneyball is great for some reason and it will work. Bloom continues to try to do it instead of saying “we need to offer “$x” for this guy because we need him. But perhaps it’s just a coincidence that it’s Rays FO personnel in large markets that typically spend a ton of money………
I think Bloom was shocked Boegarts signed with the Padres, he was hoping for a Pedroia deal! They weren’t even in the ballpark. Padres way over paid becuase this is their window, before the Big Boys Dodgers/Mets squash them like a bug.
I agree with you regarding the uncomfortable contracts, but I don’t blame him for not matching the Nimmo contract. He did offer 9/360MM to Judge according to reports and NY matched. I wonder if the ownership structure of SF is part of the bottleneck.
That’s entirely possible and may come along with the expectations of higher if these Rays FO guys, expecting them to work some kind of voodoo.
I think they’re going to have to look to Freidman’s adaptation in LA to be successful. Operating a large market like a smaller market club and never worked. The Mets tried doing it for years and it failed. Cohen finally had them operating like a big market club, albeit he swung the pendulum all the way…..
The only thing the Giants are doing is playing the fool, being used as negotiation leverage by free agents, nobody it seems wants to come play in SF. Is it the ballpark? the manager? the high taxes? the cesspool city? no chance in a strong division? I say all of the above……we are like Colorado trying to get FA pitchers to go there, no way unless a stupid huge overpay….
If you’re calling SF a “cesspool” you have no idea what you’re talking about. Watching too much FoxNews.
No, he’s right. I live here. It is.
It’s really not. There are struggles of every big city. If you can’t handle it, there’s always the suburbs.
If it’s such a cesspool why do you live there? And why would Jon Miller and Dave Fleming both live in the city?
1958giants;
First of all – I remember that team coming over from NY.
About 3 days ago I was on here saying that no name FA would sign with the Giants. Was told I was nuts and having a stroke. 2 or 3 dozen people liked the idiots comment.
Now….
One or two players does not make a baseball team. A FA coming to a team and signing a 5-plus year contract is not only looking at the money – which 95% of posters here think – they’re looking at the situation they’ll be walking into.
The Giants currently are fielding a team of primarily 2nd rate position players and utility guys, so the line-up changes every day. The pitching staff has maybe 4-5 good to very good pitchers…out of the 13 on the roster. The defense is awful. The manger brings politics to the park – unfortunately he doesn’t bring the ability to work with his coaching staff to make the players better. The Giants farm system is average at best, and in 2022 many of their better prospects regressed.
What that says is that any player going in there on a 5-plus year contract is going to pretty much get stuck in a bad situation, and will be asking for a trade within 2 years. Which is what I wrote 3 days ago. So their agents do the smart thing – use the Giants to run up the salary they can get elsewhere from a team that is at least competitive and has an decent future the next 5 years.
Giants need a new owner, Baseball Ops head and manager. Then they need to give them 3-4 years to begin to straighten out that situation.
To set the record straight, this is what happened with Samuel 3 days ago.
“Hello….anybody there….no one’s listening to me….please….I keep repeating my opinion on the Giants and no one will comment anymore and allow me to show off my knowledge. Hello……. I’m here…. please…….cmon. Oh well, let me try another thread”
Some of the “idiots” got a bit sick of it and called him out for the narcissistic desire to keep repeating himself. Since then he has been crying about name calling over his opinion. It wasn’t about the opinion.
Get over yourself, Samuel.
Eh, it’s maybe even simpler than that. If the money is equal(i.e. Judge with SF and NYY), do elite players really want to be the sole star in a otherwise mediocre lineup? When Heyman reported Judge to SF, the projected Giants lineup with Judge in it was utterly laughable and he stuck out like a sore thumb. Barring a colossal overpay which isn’t within Farhan’s DNA, its going to take some second tier pieces falling in place before the Giants land an elite free agent bat.
It’s silly to apply one reason for a player signing where he does, especially when none of us know what the reasons are. It’s reasonable to assume that Judge likes playing and living in NY.
A lot of players wouldn’t change from a team where they’ve spent their entire 7 year career, if that home team matched a big offer from another team. Especially in a big market with endorsement opportunities and everything else a market like NY provides.
To say definitively that it’s all about Judge not wanting to be the sole star is complete conjecture on your part. Why would Seager have signed with the Rangers if players generally felt that way.
Your post is a weak criticism poorly disguised as a attempted dig against FZ.
Giants should bring back Rodon at the very least.
He opted out for a reason.
Probably not coming back realistically. Bring up Kyle Harrison and move on. Rodon asking for too many years.
Yes he opted out to receive a bigger contract. The contract was structured as a prove it deal with a bit of security for Rodón if the first year did not go as anticipated.
Yeah he opted out because he can make an additional $140 million – I assume you love your job so much you wouldn’t leave for a measly $140m – geez
Just saying without Judge Rodon is not coming back.
Especially with the seven years he wants that Zaidi has never paid and Harrison this close to ready.
gfan — You’ve taken a VERY simplistic opinion of the situation.
I think if there are new owners in talks to buy the Angels, they are probably asking Perry to try and negotiate with Ohtani and his agent already.
Trade for Reynolds.
Hjelle, Ramos & Gonzales?
It’s not happening for those three. Pirates will want Luciano and Harrison plus.
gfan — Again, you are not being realistic.
Lotta dunking on Nimmo, Turner deals cuz of the back end. Everyone paying for decline years to get peak years. If PHI or NYM win next year, it’s all just noise. SFG will land one or 2 of these big fish
Nobody wants to go to SF if they don’t have to. High taxes, dysfunctional government, rampant homelessness and drug use.
Sounds like you’ve never been to Milwaukee.
No one wants to sign with the bucks, packers or brewers either.
It is funny seeing everyone turn down the giants and their fans act like they’ll sign Ohtani next year. Milwaukee is just as big of a cesspool though
Actually, I was born in Milwaukee and lived there until I was 18. It’s a nice city – very midwestern and blue collar. Crime is high right now but last trip there in October was quite pleasant. SF used to be the crowning jewel of American cities. No longer. It’s become a cesspool of high taxes, increasing crime, laughable government policies, rampant homelessness and drug use. There’s no way I would move my young family there.
Oh and last I recall, one of the reasons why Giannis resigned with the Bucks is because he truly loves Milwaukee. Don Sutton used to say that every MLB player should experience playing in Milwaukee. Really good sports town and decent place to raise a family.
Spare me the right wing talking points about Cali and San Fran specifically. You’ve never lived there but you repeat back what right wing media has told you over and over again. Funny, I don’t see you whining about all the high crime, high murder rate, high poverty, low education red states though.
It’s not a talking point. It’s a fact. Amongst major US cities, SF led the nation in burglary rates in 2020. My guess is those numbers have increased as homeless and drug activity has spun out of control. Add to that very high taxes and you have a city in huge decline. If I were a young player, it would be hard to seriously consider SF as a place to raise my family.
A basic internet search just revealed you are wrong. San Fran was not even in the top 10 for most burglaries in 2020. Number 1 was Houston followed by Seattle and Vegas. California as a state was 16th in the country for overall burglary rate in 2020. The top 7 states for burglary rate were all red states. I’m sure right wing media never told you that though.
By the way, Top 10 most dangerous cities in America in 2022 does not feature San Fran. Seems like the Warriors and 49ers are doing just fine recruiting athletes. Got some more made up “facts.”? LOL
Not a fact. Seattle led the nation in burglary rate in 2020 followed by Albuquerque, then Memphis. Yes, SF was in top ten, but how many MLB cities are there too.
Two homegrown players get crazy money thrown at them to stay and SF’s supposed crime rate is the reason? Quick note for ya, players who live in posh East Bay or Peninsula digs don’t have to drive through the Tenderloin to get to the ballpark.
Wrong. According to sfgate.com, San Francisco had the highest rate of burglaries in 2020 for any major city when compared to a baseline of the previous three years’ worth of data. That is a fact. Its 47.02% increase was higher than Seattle, New York, Portland, Philly and Minneapolis. I didn’t say they had the most burglaries, but their rate of increase was the highest. That is a fact.
You sure love to move the goalposts when you’re proven wrong. San Fran was not #1 so now it’s “rate of increase” that was highest. Why aren’t you concerned about the 7 states that are red that lead the top 10 rates of burglaries in the nation? Why are you less concerned that Texas has 4 cities in the top 10? But I’m sure you don’t have a political agenda or anything. The governmental policies in Texas are even more laughable than the ones you complain about in San Fran.
I said most burglaries, not rate. Maybe try reading more closely before tripping over yourself to correct someone.
Sorry, Mr. Pelosi. I’ll try to slow things down for you. In my initial post, I discussed burglary RATES. The post I reviewed came directly from sfgate.com. sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Francisco-crime-Chesa…
That loving account of Milwaukeevdoesn’t make your comments on SF true.
Sorry Ron Johnson, first you said SF had the highest burglary rate in 2020 (untrue). So now you’re claiming highest increase in burglary rate. (for 2020 is true) Do you even understand the distinction?
If I were a homeless junkie, I’d head to SF.
BucksPackersBrewersWow — So wrong.
Exactly who cares what didn’t happen for the Giants….is this a “feel good” article so that their fans feel as if they are trying to improve?
Way too many articles, just like the Padres pursuing anyone who can walk, chew gum, and breath at the same time…..
Turner wanted to go East as indicated by him knocking back a huge offer from the Padres.
Judge obviously wanted to stay a Yankee and used them as leverage. Played it well. Giants were aware but had a dig. You can criticise them for that if you like but what options are there other than do your best and see what happens. You only imagine the firestorm if they didn’t.
Nimmo got a massive deal to stay at his existing club.
Unfortunate and disappointing for sure but there is no reason to blame anyone for anything in those situations.
Now do Stanton, Harper, and Soto!
They wanted a team that was closer to winning at those points in time ? The FO had a deal in place for Stanton from what I understand.
At the end of the day, easy targets are just that for weak people. If that is how they deal with disappointment, go for your life. My personal preference is to try and understand rather than fire bullets. When the intelligent, highly successful people that run the Giants decide there are better people to put in the FO, I’ll give them the same respect.
Nobody in their right mind would sign with the Giants.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Let’s see, that’s Stanton, Harper, Soto, Judge, and Nimmo that the management was “all in on”. maybe start examining the reasons why free agents DON’T come to SF? Fans don’t want to hear “but we made an offer too!”
Giants will have to overwhelm any top free agent with stupid money. All things equal, guys have better options.
In the end, it has to be the right player to give stupid money to. Nimmo at eight years and Rodón at seven aren’t it. Only one left this year, I feel, is Correa.
Agreed, unless that player puts you over the top. Rodon can do that for a few teams. Many pitchers have been over paid in free agency and their team has won a world series, but only A-Rod has won a world series after signing a free agent big contract. Betts’s contract kicked in a year later. They won in a short season.
The giants will have to overpay as the Padres did. The padres will suck after 2023 -2025 and be a below-500 team again, Padres will have way too many overpaid and over years old players.
Hard to believe this is the same organization that was in the midst of a dynasty ten years ago
Yes, a dynasty with no high-priced free agents.
I now hope the Giants stay out of this madness and develop their own. I’m guessing time will prove Nimmo was the most I’ll-conceived signing in the history of the game.
You’re definitely not wrong. I hope Harrison and Luciano can be the next Bum and Posey but I’m skeptical
I know this guy is good and had an OPS+ of 130, but looks like he got paid for an .275 15HR 65RBI season.. Seems good average on the outside
Sounds like the Giants and Padres are really salty about missing out on top players.
Nobody wants to play for those teams.
Why do you think they keep turning down more money. If the Dodgers offered the same money, they would have been willing to sign a contract.
Not much of a better chance winning a ring with the Dodgers
I definitely agree. The Dodgers have made no attempt to sign any top players this offseason. I guess they are going to take a season off to save money to sign a big contract next year.
Wtf are you talking about? Have you seen the Padres lineup? They’re stacked.
If the Padres are so stacked, how did they finish 22 games behind the Dodgers, and only 8 games ahead of the Giants?
I don’t think the Padres are well stacked as one would think. On paper they look pretty darn good. Their pitching is still below average. And the bullpen is not any better.
These baseball analyst like to boost the fan base to give them hope. So people like yourself believe that next season is the year for a WS championship. Gives the fans something to look forward to.
Remember this. Padres team looks good on paper. Anything can happen. Injuries is a big issue especially in baseball. That’s what happened to the Dodgers. They started the season with a roster full of MVP
Players. And one by one they were dealing with injuries. Anything can happen. Remember that.
Why strap yourself with overly long contracts……good business sense looks at the potential upside of the investment….the player wants long term security…..the team wants a long term positive return on their investment…..5 or 6 years should be the max
Because sports is about winning and competition. The WS winner is the team that wins the games in the field, usually with great players / team. I’ve never seen an award handed out in sports for excellence in long-term contract investments. Additionally, show me a franchise that goes all in to win and I’ll show you a rabid fanbase that spends money. Show me an ownership that says, “Hey fans, we aren’t going to win anything, but rest assured, we are going to spend my money wisely” and I’ll show you a failing team.
Wait till they create the “Mike Trout” award for execellence in non post-season games. Awarded once every 15 years Clip!
Yes I agree with you but many many times the team that spends the most doesn’t win the most.
Look at Dodgers and Padres with HUGE payrolls and then look at the Braves that had relatively low payroll and they ended up winning the WS.
The Padres this next season will have a $900 million infield and the Dodgers after free spending didn’t get them the trophy have been really quiet this free agent season.
It’s telling when a player turns down San Fran for NYC. The civil unrest, robotic cops, poverty, and abandoned, rouge shopping carts is too much even by NY standards. San Francisco did this to herself.
Yes because clearly a homegrown Met player who was given 8 years for $162M only choose the Mets because Cali has a homeless problem that right wing media has told you about over and over again. Don’t you have an election to whine about losing….again.
I really don’t think the cities themselves had anything to do with Judge’s decision. He has a decade of legacy in pinstripes. Why would he jump ship to SF if NY was willing to match their offer? He got the money he deserved and got to stay where he built his legacy. That’s having your cake an eating it, too.
What kind of a return would Logan Webb bring?
I almost feel that they should trade everyone of value.
Central Valley;
You’re a very good poster and a great Giants fan.
I’m sorry it’s come down to that.
Give it a month before you throw in the towel. Haninger signing is an improvement. Correa is still out there and we have some young guns coming up. Villar may be a stud. JD Davis might pan out, and Harrison could be the next Bumgarner.
The Giants play in probably the second most beautiful ballpark in Baseball and can’t get anyone to sign it seems. What is going on in San Francisco is crazy
Judge stayed with the Yankees and Nimmo stayed with the Mets. Both homegrown guys. I don’t think Giants fans should’ve expected either one. I don’t think this is an indictment on the Giants organization or the city.
I think there were a variety of factors but I did hear something that makes me curious as to whether it made a difference for SF specifically. Judge was reportedly going to seek information / guarantees / plans in how his prospective agency of the future was going to build toward championship contention in the immediate future. I know this is somewhat common now amongst upper-tier FAs, especially if they wish to play for contending teams.
I don’t know Zaidi, so this isn’t an indictment on him, rather a question, but is it possible his plan or presentation is just…poor?
Possibly it’s Zaidi’s pitch or Judge feels like they have unfinished business in NY and genuinely enjoys playing there with that team as it is now.
Gravel: Yeah, I agree, I think there were several reasons why Judge (and others) made his decision, including the reasons you stated. In fact, I believe it has much more to do with the players’ personal desires than SF or Zaidi.
I was providing another suggestion as perhaps one that may be a common thread….
I think after last season they are skeptical of them being contenders/making the post-season.
Who cares what the Giants offer when they lose?
Maybe if San Francisco would clean up their dumpster of a city player would actually want to sign there.
I don’t care how much money is San Francisco, no one wants to play “dodge the junkie” on their way home after games.