The Giants have placed infielder Tommy La Stella on release waivers, per a team announcement. La Stella, who was designated for assignment late last month, will become a free agent upon clearing. That’s a foregone conclusion, as any team that claimed him would also need to claim the remaining $11.5MM on his contract. Once he’s a free agent, La Stella would only cost a new team the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the Major League roster, however. The Giants would remain on the hook for the remainder of that $11.5MM salary.
La Stella’s placement on release waivers puts an end to a three-year, $18.75MM deal that didn’t pan out at all in the manner the Giants had hoped. At the time of the contract, La Stella was a 31-year-old coming off a four-year platform in which he’d posted a hearty .284/.358/.441 batting line while showing plenty of defensive versatility and elite bat-to-ball skills. For a team like the Giants, that constructs rosters with a heavy focus on positional flexibility, adding La Stella as a viable option at several different spots on the diamond was an appealing move.
Injuries and poor performance, however, torpedoed any value the Giants might’ve hoped to get from the deal. La Stella posted a respectable but diminished .250/.308/.405 batting line in 2021 (93 wRC+) but missed half the season due to a tear in his hamstring. His 2022 season was interrupted by an Achilles injury, a stint on the Covid-related injured list and neck spasms. The extent to which the health troubles impacted La Stella’s performance can’t be known, but the end result was a combined .245/.297/.80 slash in 437 plate appearances with San Francisco.
La Stella’s strikeout rate remained one of the lowest in the game at 12.8%, but that was still considerably higher than the 7.3% strikeout rate he posted in 2020-21. Meanwhile, his walk rate dropped to 6.6% — a notable dip from the 8.6% he’d posted in the two preceding seasons (and the 9.4% mark he’d tallied in the aforementioned 2017-20 stretch).
Once La Stella clears waivers, he’ll add a left-handed bat to the free-agent market — a low-cost option that could be of interest to teams in search of infield help and/or left-handed bats. Teams like the White Sox, Blue Jays, Rays, Tigers, Orioles and Red Sox are among some speculative candidates to take a league-minimum flier on a player with La Stella’s track record.
Just curious what about Conforto and his passing physical being a 1 year deal didn’t think it would be taking so long.
Andrew Baggerly reported about a week ago that Conforto passed his physical and that the hold up was administrative. (which sounds to me like maybe the Giants would try to make a trade to clear a roster spot) .
Maybe they can DFA Pederson
#FF—fancy seeing you here, how shocking.
Joc had some of the best offensive stats on the team last year
Joc was 5th in the MLB in exit velocity in 2022. Farhan’s thinking is with the banning of the shift his numbers should progress substantially in 2023. Obviousy other teams figured that out as well, thus the surprising QO.
@Wilmer GTFO . Haha Zaidi extending the 20 MILLION QA to Pederson was soooo bad. Total overpay for a Slow , No Glove platoon bat . The Market for a guy like that is 9-10 Million maximum…..JD Martinez signed for 10 MILLION!!!
Wilmer the Thrillmer, thank you. Don’t let the trolls here get you down :)))
I thought it was a big overpay too but the only 4 people on the planet who hit the ball harder were Schwarber, Stanton, Yordan and Judge. And… there’s no such thing as a bad one year contact.
And Joc is a lefty DH.
#agnes gooch – you mean which were completely cancelled out by his horrendous defense. But yeah, he was ok part of the time. When he wasn’t bunting with 2 strikes and runners in scoring position, with 2 outs, or going literally months without hitting a HR. The guy literally gets b***h slapped by an opponent on the field and says ‘Im cool with it’… Shows lack of fire in the belly necessary for a professional athlete
#27chumpy – Yeah signing a platoon DH bat, who goes literally months at a time without a HR, who bunts with 2 strikes and runners in scoring position, with 2 outs, for almost $20 million, is not a good signing. Kinda hard to argue with that
Actually Bart hits the ball harder than Joc. Go look it up
I rather DFA Donovan Walton personally.
La Stella ain’t looking so Stellar
Musta had one two many Stella Artois
My God that awful. Cringe worthy joke.
You’re right, shame on me….. no wonder
Hopefully the A’s can use him so he doesn’t have to relocate.
Best he could get is a minor league deal and hope to make a club.
The A’s had him in 2020.
2020 was a long time ago. He hasn’t played in over a year with a bad knee injury. He needs to prove he can play. No different than Lowrie who was released by the A’s last year.
Hi ARC 2—it wasn’t LaStella’s knees that did him in, it was his anchilles. And not just one achilles, it was both that he has surgery on. It’s hard enough to recover from one achilles injury but both is almost impossible.
Both? Wow that would be a tough road back to recovery. No wonder the Giants released him for a roster spot.
Oh, no. Hands off. He fits in perfectly with Sox, but I’m not worried about LaStella coming to the South Side. He’s WAY too far over their budget.
Headline if he rebounds this season: “Stella got his groove back”
HA! Very funny, fred-3.
Soon to be 2b for the WhiteSox.
That makes too much sense.
Saying that something “makes too much sense” doesn’t make any sense at all.
Not when you’re talking about the White Sox
Tommy isn’t a horrible ball player but he certainly doesn’t make sense for the White Sox. There’s still a little time to figure out a better fit.
Other than the part where he is just as useless in the field as he is at the plate.
Yap, no brainer White Sox
I think he would be perfect for the Sox but the league minimum is WAY over Hahn’s budget.
Tigers will probably claim him LOL
The Tigers don’t want any veterans this year. They will sink or swim, probably drown with their talentless and inexperienced roster this season.
Another example of Farhan’s ever obvious ineptitude… The year we’re paying him the most too.
Not a Giants fan #Fire, but I do follow the game very closely, else why would I be here, right? I get it that they disappointed last year and Farhan made some questionable decisions. But wasn’t just over a year ago that SF was coming off a 107-win season? He hired Scott Harris, and “discovered” Rodon when others weren’t so keen on him. And he signed Gausman. I mean, he must have been doing something right. Educate me.
He is too risk averse. A competent FO would have locked up both Rodon and Gausmann. Now Manea, Strippling, and Conforto will do the same thing if they are good. He talks a big game about sustainable success, but the only successful year he had presided over was a fluke that saw dudes in their mid 30’s have career years. He didn’t do anything to replace Posey’s production, just crossed his fingers Bart wouldn’t suck. Bart kind of sucks. The farm isn’t great even though he has been running the draft for half a decade and made a million little trades. Paid 10 million bucks or so for Will Wilson. That didn’t work. So basically all he has accomplished is providing platform years for Rodon and Gausmann to get paid elsewhere, and missing out on Harper, Judge, and everyone else who has enough talent to demand being paid like an actual major league baseball player. I fully expect them to finish second in the Ohtani sweepstakes next off-season, and 4th in the NL west this year. The fan base is over being jerked around. Hopefully ownership gets the point when the stadium is empty and the Sean Manea jerseys don’t sell.
tedtheodorelogan, I love how people say things like he didn’t replace Posey, like it’s just so easy to fill that roster spot with someone as good.
Maybe he is too risk-averse, but neither you nor I know what Gausman’s and Rodon’s deals will look 4-6 years from now. Giant’s fans may be thankful that FZ didn’t make those deals. As it is, the Jays got 31 fewer points of ERA+ from Gausman than the Giants got, with 4 more years to go.
FZ has not been running the draft for half a decade. That would have been a neat trick since he’s been the PBO for 4 years, and was GM for the Dodgers 5 years ago.
The Manaea signing may seem underwhelming, but now the Giants have better SP depth than most teams. Right now neither Wood, nor Junis will be depended on to start. AZ may have a lot of young talented position players, but their SPs are behind SF. I wouldn’t count on the Giants finishing in 4th.
tedtheadorelogan – spot on, with the exception of the Posey thing. I have a feeling Bart’s gonna be a stud, just wait till he’s not a rookie anymore.
#tad2b13 – Wood is certainly part of the starting rotation
No he isn’t. The rotation now is Webb, Stripling, Cobb, Manaea and DeSclafani. Wood will be a spot starter, and fill in in case of injury.
Farhan Zaidi is entering his 5th season in SF and has only posted a winning record above .500
1 time
In professional sports , that is utter Failure.
What’s really fascinating isn’t how terrible Zaidi’s been , What’s remarkable is how low information Giants fans Defend him . I’ve never seen anything like it.
If Zaidi had been running the Yankees for the last 4 years and had only posted a winning record one time , he would have been FIRED
The problem is Bay Area baseball fans live in this sort of regional bubble . They only watch Giants games and have little understanding of what is going on in the rest of the league. Clearly they are clueless about proper roster building. But more dusty is how they dismiss win/ loss records. I mean what are we supposed to do ? do we just stop keeping score ? WINNING is All the Matters in Professional sports . That’s it .
27chumpy, You of all people shouldn’t be accusing anyone of low information. Your simplistic take is something I’d expect from some adolescent fan.
The fact is the Giants winning percentage increased every year under Zaidi until 2022. He inherited a 73 win team, and in 3 years won 107 games. You’re the type that would fire Zaidi, as well as a string of others, because 4 years is not enough time to turn a baseball organization around. There are owners as impatient as you, and the result is a team without any stability.
Funny how you completely disappeared as the season wore on in 2021, after shooting your mouth off about how bad the Giants were going to be.. Talk about about low information. You’re a walking billboard for that.
@Tad2b Simplicitic take ? Win / Loss loss record is all that matters with Front office folks and players. That is all that matters. Personally, for Baseball GMs I would add player development as a 2nd measuring stick for job performance. And even with that Zaidi has been completely ineffective. You say 4 years isn’t enough time to turn an organization around ? More nonsense . Theo took over the Cubs and they were in worse shape than what Zaidi inherited in SF . In Theo’s 4th year he fielded a team that went to the NLCS in his 5th year he WON IT ALL . You sound like foolish nincompoop defending Farhan Zaidi.
No, Kood is still a starter. Manea was told he’d be a starter, Stripling wasn’t given such guarantee.
#27chumpy Not all of us Giants fans are so deluded. The majority of us are coming around. Starting this year, apparently other members of the front office are too. 2 have jumped ship, in the first few days of the year.
27chumpy, Yes, so simplistic you sound like you just started watching baseball. Just because one GM wins a WS in 5 years, every GM/PBO also should, regardless of the roster when hired, or the farm system inherited? That’s so simplistic it’s naïve. If baseball people felt like you there would be a lot of GM/PBO jobs available every year.
And how many GMs/PBOs get fired after only 4 years? Dipoto was one, but how has that worked out for the Angels? And I’m guessing the M’s are happy that he was. Baseball people know it takes more time than 4 years to win a WS.
Theo is good, no doubt, but the Cubs winning in 2016 had more to do with them promoting Rizzo, Baez, and Bryant, none 0f whom were drafted by Theo, than his work as GM. He also caught lightning in a bottle with Jake Arrieta
Theo did acquire some good pieces like Lester, and Hendricks, but he’s also responsible for the Jason Heyward deal.
But let’s compare FZ and Theo’s first 4 season’s W%
2011 Cubs:.438
Theo’s Cubs: .377, .407, .451, .599
2018 Giants: .451
FZ’s Giants: .475, .483, .660, .500
Theo inherited a 71 win team which regressed to 61 wins.. He didn’t have a winning record until his 4th season, due to the promotion of the aforementioned players.
And shouldn’t a good GM provide some long term stability? Not sure leaving a 4th place team after only 8 years on the job is what I’d want for my team.
FZ inherited a farm system ranked 24th in 2018. To say he hasn’t improved the farm is just ignorant. Just as your tired takes are.
#tad2b13 – You’re contradicting what the Giants themselves have said. Manea was signed with the promise of being a starter. Stripling didn’t have that guarantee and his whole career is as a bullpen guy and spot starter. Wood is staying in the rotation, according to the Giants
I would question how smart the Giants are if Wood is starting with Stripling in the pen. Over the last 4 seasons Wood has an ERA+ of 89. Last season his ERA+ was 79.
Over the last 4 seasons Stripling has a 105 ERA+ and is coming off a season of 129 ERA+. Unless they’ve agreed with Wood to have him start, the lack of such an agreement with Stripling is irrelevant.
Some of the reasons for last season was the retirement of Buster Posey, who was an exceptional catcher who was great at handling the pitching staff. Also, a lot of players had career years in 2021. It’s hard to do that two seasons in a row. They lost Gausman to Toronto. And, of course, there’s the injuries that a lot of teams suffered with this season, Including the Giants.
avenger65, It’s actually not true that a lot of Giant’s players had career years in 2021. That’s just lazy analysis repeated by those not willing to look deeper. Certainly Crawford did, and Belt continued his hitting from the year before, but otherwise, no other starter, other than Duggar, whose 107 OPS+ was hardly a needle-mover, had a career year.
Not everything went right. Longo missed half the season. There was little contribution from La Stella. Some guys had subpar years, like Dickerson, Solano, and even Flores. There were injuries to key guys. Besides Longo, Belt, Webb, Aaron Sanchez, and Yaz all missed time.
Admittedly a lot did go right 2021. As a platoon-heavy team, when a RHH went down, there was effective play from the back-up RHH. In 2022, the back up wasn’t effective or a RHH wasn’t available to face LHPs. That and the bullpen basically fell off a cliff. But 2021 wasn’t about career years.
When I said career years I obviously didn’t mean every guy on the team. But I do think think that Posey had a lot to do with their success in 2021 and with their swoon in 22. .As for the 2021 season, sometimes all the pieces fit together to make for a great season. Look at the Phillies. They were barely over .500 during the regular season, then everything fell together in the PO.
avenger65, I absolutely agree that a healthy Posey had a huge impact on the 2021 team, just as his absence had a huge negative impact on the 2022 team.
I didn’t mean to accuse you of saying every guy had a career year. Certainly most of their players had good to decent years. But there are some uninformed fans out there that will insist the entire team did have their best years, and I was addressing that general misperception.
#avenger65 – Losing the best hitting coach during the ’21-’22 offseason really hurt the Giants on the field last year too. Really showed with a lot of different bats. You’d think they’d have tried to replace him.
Instead our front office just has guys jumping ship.
@rememberthecoop – I hear what you’re saying. I’ve been one of Farhan’s most staunch defenders, for a long time. But I, like the majority of the fan base, have wised up. Questionable decisions? Certainly. Some are just downright dumb.
The Pirates said they’re looking for a hitter to lengthen their lineup. Also said to be looking for a MIF. Once he clears, i definitely see the Pirates making a move. He fits what they look for to a T
I think he will be part of the cast of TLC’s new show, MIF Manor.
Cubs new 3B – cover the corners for league minimum.
Yeah and he played there before too, so it would be sort of a homecoming.
I like LaStella. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Angels snatch him up again for depth on a minor league deal.
Many uneducated “fans” like to say what a terrible signing La Stella was but at the time he was in high demand. It wasn’t his fault he injured both Achilles and needed double surgery.
When he did play, he was intense and a professional. I hope he agrees to accept a minor league assignment until the end of spring training so the Giants can try to recoup some of the sunk cost of the contract. I’m not a big fan of Farhan, he’s made plenty of mistakes, but this was just bad luck. Giants won 107 games the 1st year of Tommy’s contract and he did his share to contribute.
I like LaStella. I wouldn’t mind seeing the Angels pick him up again on a minor league deal for depth.
Agreed, Back to the Angels! They can pay him the minimum, since the Giants will pay the rest. The Angels can never have enough depth with all their injuries!
kingsfan1968–LaStella was great at one time but did you watch an of him last year? He’s trying to recover from surgery on BOTH his achilles tendons. He’s a shell of his old self. Maybe he’s miraculously better now but not a good bet to put your money on.
Marlins need to be in on him. League minimum is definitely right up their alley.
He’ll have a job next year almost assuredly. He’s already getting paid, and the new team won’t have to put in much for what — presuming health — would be inexpensive production.
Was his contract massively backloaded, trying to work out how he could be still owed $11.25M? Seems weird to backload a contract that’s only $6.25M per year average for a club that had plenty of payroll room.
Like fellow lefty hitting Mike Moustakas, Tommy La Stella can now be had cheaply by any club looking for some help at 2B and/or 3B. ‘Moose’ could be an option for the Cubs at 3B. Either might help the White Sox at 2B while offering some insurance for oft-injured Yoan Moncada at 3B.
Moustakas would be an interesting add for the Cubs who already signed former Royals teammate Eric Hosmer to play 1B in 2023. The Cubs can use still use another lefty hitter in their lineup along with Hosmer, CF Cody Bellinger and switch-hitting LF Ian Happ. ‘Moose’ could potentially be a strong side power platoon option at the hot corner with right-handed slugger Patrick Wisdom with either also seeing some PA’s at DH. Each can also spell Hosmer at 1B when needed.
I like that Aaron.
For some reason, Cubs seem to like Patrick Wisdom. I get it – last year he was one of the only power sources on the club. But he strikes out too much.
david steer—-when the Giants signed LaStella a couple years ago they did not have the payroll flexibility. Many of the legacy players and some old bad contracts were still on the books then. This year yes, they have/had more flexibility.
La Stella would be a good pickup for the White Sox, as long as he’s healthy.
ChiSoxCity—-he’s recovering from both achilles being surgically repaired, a miracle could still happen because they do, but I would not call him healthy. If he was, the Giants would have kept him. Who doesn’t need depth!
ChiSoxCity – Since the Sox are using a new strategy of picking up other team’s rejects and any other scraps they stumble over, I wouldn’t be surprised to see La Stella and Moustakas in Sox uniforms this season.
When are the Giants going to waive Yazstremski and/or Slater?
I was thinking the same thing. Pretty clear Yaz has turned back into a pumpkin. Maybe they give him one more year.
The Giants could be sneaky good again in ’23, Haniger was a nice addition, JD Davis in his first full season in SF, Stripling and Manea were nice adds, Bullpen could be good. I thought they’d make a run at resigning Brandon Belt, would be nice depth option at 1B/DH, with Davis also providing depth at 3B, but for the most part the Giants have had a great off season, avoided the long term big money deals and added some nice players.
Bobby Evans would have brought Belt back months ago. Zaidi does not make decisions based on nostalgia like Evans did. Belt’s knees are shot – he admitted this a few months ago. GMs were listening, and he hasn’t been connected to any team because of this. No wheels, no deals.
Uh, never? Why would they? Granted, neither provides high power offense. But both have been above league average hitters for their careers, and both can play a passable CF. CF is scarcity in MLB, with a lot of clubs looking for one.
Maybe if Yaz has a worse season in 2023 than last year, then I guess they might move on from him. But he has an OPS+ of 114 for his career. I think they’re expecting him to progress back to the mean.
tad2b13–it’s almost not worth replying to posts like that but I commend you on doing so and always appreciate you comments. Bravo!
Giants should not wave Yaz or Slater
Dipoto has tried to get him a couple times, wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring him to Seattle.
Buyer beware.
You just don’t pay out 11M to clear a roster spot unless the player is damaged goods. Achilles injuries never good. Speed and range at his age will continue to diminish. The bat going south as well..
Yet another example of the absolute importance of drafting and developing long term MLB capable players. Panik bombed and forced the Giants to look to free agents to provide a “band-aid” solution at 2B. Likewise at 3B = Trade for Longoria. While both Crawford and Belt stabilized two infield positions for many years, that stability should have led to to the system finding and developing talent for the other two infield positions. What happened?
And their ability to draft and develop outfielders is just atrocious..
Panik was a decent 2B for a couple of years, a keystone of the ’14 championship team. He had a shorter career than he would have liked, but not every guy is going to play in the show for a decade plus. Longoria gave replacement value for the life of his contract, he was not a superstar, but quite decent when healthy.
The Giants actually did develop some promising OFs in Bryan Reynolds and Adam Duvall, but they traded them away
But I’ll grant that the farm needs to start producing. Hopefully it can take a step ahead this year,
New minor league facility. I imagine it’s got some flash technology toys in there. New GM with a strong minor league background and a penchant for strength and conditioning.
It all sounds good. Fingers crossed.
Greatest news in the history of 2023. Too bad the Concorde doesn’t still fly so he can leave town even faster.
Please tell me what Zaidi has brought to this franchise?
The best thing I can say about Zaidi is that he’s not Bobby Evans who catered to the wine & cheese crowd. Aside from that he’s clearly established a pattern of assembling a pitching staff annually. If your farm system isn’t producing he has no choice, but at some point you have to recognize your minors aren’t sufficient in that area, you need to do something about it. The Giants’ system just isn’t cutting it, and it’s Zaidi’s responsibility
Embarrassment
How many of these guys who are picked up because they can play multiple positions really work out? Similarly, Bryant was a bust. The flexibility of moving players around sounds good, but does it really ever work out better than having players who have mastered a single position?
It amazes me why the Giants, then the Rockies, would want Bryant. He spent more time on the IL for his back than he did PA for the cubs. Knowing that, the Giants wanted him anyways. Seeing how bad Bryant’s back was and how much time he missed throughout his career, the Rockies signed him anyway. But in those brief moments when he has played, he has shown that he is a very good player.
Kris Bryant is, when healthy, excellent. 130 games of a power bat who can play multiple positions? Heck yeah. For seven years? Lol Rockies. They already regret that contract. As will all these teams giving out 10 year contracts. I could definitely see him back in SF at some point though.
I would like him with the Cardinals!! I know what you all are going to say we have enough like him when we have Edman, Donovan and DeJong!! I would release DeJong and he could be our platoon utility player!!
This has Tigers written all over it.
Like most players. He was good til he got paid
Seems like a very Rays type of pickup. The White Sox are obvious and the Dodgers make sense too. Its doubtful La Stella stays a free agent for very long
La Stella makes sense for the Dodgers, but he’s way too expensive. At this point everyone is way too expensive for the Dodgers, including promoting minor leaguers.
His name means ” The Star ” he’s been anything but. I hope the paesan can bounce back on his next stop
This screams white sox sign. $8.5M for 1 year. LaStella gets hurt in May and Lenyn Sosa goes to win rookie of the year. The White Sox do this every year (except the rookie of the year part)