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Offseason In Review: San Francisco Giants

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In conjunction with this post, MLBTR will be hosting a Giants-focused chat on March 31 at noon CT. Click here to submit a question in advance. 

Unable to replicate their stunning 107-win campaign of the prior season in 2022, Giants brass went back to the drawing board this past offseason with a goal improving both the lineup and the defense by getting younger and more athletic. They might’ve accomplished that, to an extent, but despite deepening the roster, they missed out on multiple top targets and left many fans feeling underwhelmed.

Major League Signings

Total spend: $193.15MM
2023 spend: $85.65MM

Option Decisions

Trades and Waiver Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Notable Losses

The Giants’ first bit of offseason business was wrapped up by the time the free-agent market officially began. Joc Pederson parlayed his career-best .274/.353/.521 batting line into a one-year, $19.65MM qualifying offer from the Giants. Rather than turn that down and head into the open market in search of a multi-year deal, Pederson became one of just two players to accept the QO this past offseason — Martin Perez was the other — thereby officially punching his ticket to return to Oracle Park for a second season.

Though he spent the bulk of his time in the outfield in 2022, Pederson seems likely to log more reps as the Giants’ designated hitter this coming season. It’s a steep price to pay for one year, but the Giants are a deep-pocketed club that isn’t particularly close to the luxury tax threshold at the moment, so they can afford to bet on Pederson approximating his outstanding 2022 production.

Pederson’s eventual shift into more of a DH role coincides with the Giants’ goals of improving defensively. They entered the 2022-23 offseason with the stated goal of getting younger and more athletic. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi plainly indicated as much last September, and just a few weeks later he added that “everything” was on the table in the offseason, including aggressive pursuits at the top end of the free-agent market.

That indeed proved to be the case, as the first portion of the Giants’ winter was dominated by their pursuit of Aaron Judge. The Linden, Calif. native was the Giants’ clear top target, and Zaidi & Co. made a spirited run at him. For the majority of the offseason, the Giants appeared the only real threat to pry Judge away from the Bronx. San Francisco offered the reigning AL MVP a reported nine-year, $360MM deal that matched the eventual terms he agreed to in his return to the Yankees. The division-rival Padres made a late push for Judge, but once the Yankees were willing to push their offer to nine years, Judge’s mind was made up. The newly crowned American League home run king spurned the nine-year offer that would’ve sent him back to his Bay Area roots and instead returned to the Bronx.

The Giants knew entering the offseason that luring Judge away from the Yankees was going to be a long shot, and true to Zaidi’s “everything is on the table” form, they pivoted to one of the top names on the market: Carlos Correa. Again embroiled in a bidding war with the incumbent team, the Giants eventually blew the Twins’ 10-year offer out of the water, putting forth a stunning 13-year, $350MM offer that would have given Correa the second-largest free-agent deal in MLB history, trailing only the contract Judge had just signed.

With that offer topping the Twins’ reported offer by three years and roughly $60MM, Correa accepted and the Giants appeared to have the superstar acquisition they coveted all but finalized. A press conference to introduce Correa was set for Dec. 20, as was a radio appearance on KNBR. Correa was going to be the Giants’ starting shortstop — until he wasn’t.

On the morning of that scheduled press conference, the Giants announced that Correa’s introduction would be postponed. No reason was given. His subsequent media appearances in the Bay Area were also postponed. It eventually came to light that the Giants and a third-party medical expert had voiced concerns about how Correa’s right ankle/leg would hold up over the course of a more than decade-long deal. Correa has never missed time in the Majors with an ankle/leg injury but fractured his tibia as a 19-year-old in the minor leagues and had a plate implanted into his leg to stabilize the injury.

While the Giants continued gathering information and soliciting opinions, Correa remained unsigned, and the Mets swooped in just a day later with a 12-year, $315MM offer that he accepted. Similar concerns arose from the Mets — unsurprising, given that they reportedly consulted the same third party — and that deal was also scuttled. Correa eventually returned to the Twins on a much shorter but much higher-AAV contract: six years and $200MM, with a quartet of vesting options that could take the contract to $270MM and bring his potential 11-year stint with Minnesota to a total value of $305.1MM.

That a second team expressed the same concerns and that Correa wound up taking a guarantee of less than half the length of the Giants’ original offer surely validated the front office’s trepidation in the eyes of some onlookers, but the simple fact remained: the Giants entered the offseason intent on getting younger, more athletic, and ideally acquiring a superstar around which to build their franchise — and that possibility no longer presented itself.

By the time the team’s deal with Correa had fallen through, Judge and all the other star shortstops (Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Dansby Swanson) had new contracts in place. Outgoing ace Carlos Rodon was also gone, having joined Judge on a six-year deal with the Yankees. The market’s other two aces, Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom, were among the earliest marquee free agents to find new homes.

Of course, the Giants hadn’t merely been sitting on their hands prior to their failed Judge and Correa overtures. The team inked Mitch Haniger to a three-year contract in early December and just days later brokered identical two-year pacts with righty Ross Stripling and lefty Sean Manaea.

Haniger’s deal added some needed punch to the middle of the Giants’ lineup but also came with a good deal of health risk. Stripling and Manaea deepened the starting staff, giving an organization known for maximizing pitcher performance a pair of veteran arms. San Francisco has routinely avoided long-term commitments to pitchers, making a Rodon reunion look unlikely from the jump. Both Stripling and Manaea have had big league success but came with some question marks; Stripling hasn’t worked a full season as a starter, while Manaea had a poor finish to the season thanks largely to a pair of catastrophically bad outings at Dodger Stadium. The price the Giants paid for both players is sensible, and both will have a chance to return to the market next offseason if they perform well.

With both Stripling and Manaea aboard, the Giants’ rotation was at least six-deep. That pair joined Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani, with swingman Jakob Junis and top prospect Kyle Harrison both serving as depth options. Harrison, one of baseball’s premier pitching prospects, should debut at some point in 2023. It’s a deep and talented group, and given the team’s spacious home park and nearly unparalleled track record of recent success with maximizing pitcher performance, there’s a good chance the Giants can again boast one of the league’s better rotations.

Upgrades were also made in the bullpen, where the Giants looked past Taylor Rogers’ poor finish to the 2022 season and bet heavily on his still-excellent strikeout and walk rates. The former Twins closer and 2021 All-Star might well have been a candidate for a four-year contract had he enjoyed a season more in line with his 2018-21 form (2.91 ERA, 2.66 SIERA, 31.2% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate), but the Giants still paid up in the form of a $33MM guarantee over three years. It’s a big bet that Rogers’ inflated ERA was more attributable to poor luck on balls in play, a spike in home-run rate that’ll prove fluky, and a diminished strand rate.

The signing of Rogers pairs him with his twin brother Tyler, making for a fun story at the back of the ’pen, but it also gives the Giants another high-upside arm to pair with flamethrowing closer Camilo Doval. That group will eventually be joined by righty Luke Jackson, who inked a two-year pact but will miss the early portion of the season wrapping up his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Jackson was a vital member of the Braves’ 2021 World Series team, but his signing marks another relatively risky addition in the bullpen alongside the newly signed Rogers brother.

Perhaps the Giants’ highest-profile signing came in the form of former Mets All-Star Michael Conforto, who inked a two-year deal after missing the entire 2022 season due to shoulder surgery stemming from an offseason injury. As with many of their other signings, the investment in Conforto is laden with both risk and upside. Beyond the fact that he didn’t play a single inning at any level in 2022, Conforto’s 2021 season was decidedly pedestrian. After slashing a combined .265/.369/.495 (133 wRC+) from 2017-20, Conforto batted just .232/.344/.384 (106 wRC+) in 125 games during his platform season for free agency.

The bet on Conforto isn’t simply one that his shoulder is now healthy — it’s one that his 2021 season can be looked past. The Giants are paying Conforto $18MM annually, and in the event that he is indeed healthy and productive, he’ll be able to opt out of his contract next offseason. That right kicks in once Conforto reaches 350 plate appearances. In essence, the Giants are making a $36MM bet that Conforto can again be a star player; if they’re right, they’ll likley only have to pay out half that sum but could lose Conforto after one year without the option of making a qualifying offer. (Players can only receive one in their career.) If they’re wrong, it’ll go down as a costly misstep that’ll impact the books through the 2024 season.

There’s been a lot of talk about “risk” to this point, but that’s largely unavoidable given the nature of San Francisco’s offseason. The Giants loaded up on short-term risk, signing several players coming off injury-shortened or even injury-ruined seasons (Conforto, Jackson, Haniger) and others coming off poor showings that don’t align with their prior standards (Rogers, Manaea).

Given that the Giants’ pursuit of Correa was called off for perceived injury risk on a long-term deal, it’s somewhat peculiar that the rest of the team’s offseason wound up punctuated by substantial health risks. Of course, there’s a difference between taking an injury risk for two or at most three years versus a 13-year term — and the extra trepidation on the lengthier commitment is plenty justifiable. But for the short-term, the Giants are even more at the mercy of good fortune in the health department than they’d have been had they found a way to make the Correa deal work out.

The rest of the offseason generally consisted of tinkering on the edges of the 40-man roster. Newly acquired relievers Kade McClure and Erik Miller aren’t on the 40-man roster but could conceivably be brought up at some point this year. Rule 5 catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol made the Opening Day roster, and infielder Brett Wisely gives the Giants some 40-man depth in Triple-A. That group cost the Giants a pair of fringe relievers (Gregory Santos, Yunior Marte), a Class-A pitcher (Jake Wong) and an outfield prospect who only had a brief stop in the organization after being acquired from the Brewers at the ’22 deadline (Tristan Peters).

The 2023 Giants will look wildly different than the 2022 Giants, but it’s still an open question as to whether this group is actually better. If they strike gold on most of their injury gambles, that seems likely to be the case. Odds of that happening are long, to say the least. Haniger is already starting the season on the injured list, and that surely won’t be the only injury of note from their newly acquired swath of veterans.

The Giants still have major question marks behind the plate, where Joey Bart has yet to seize the role. He’ll be backed up by defensive specialist Roberto Perez and perhaps the previously mentioned Sabol. In the infield, they’ll hope David Villar can step up at the hot corner while LaMonte Wade Jr. — no stranger to the injured list himself — can stay healthy and hold down first base. J.D. Davis and Wilmer Flores provide some nice depth at both corners, but there’s an enormous amount of uncertainty at multiple spots on the diamond.

The good news is that much of that risk, again, is short-term in nature. The 2024 payroll could, in fact, be almost pristine. Each of Brandon Crawford, Wood and Pederson will be a free agent. Cobb’s contract has a $10MM club option. Conforto, Manaea and Stripling all have opt-outs. It may not be likely that all three will perform well enough to take those out clauses, but it’s probable that at least one will. The Giants have $102MM in guaranteed money on the 2024 roster, which is about $90MM shy of their current level. The trio of Conforto ($18MM), Stripling ($12.5MM) and Manaea ($12.5MM) could subtract as much as $43MM from that sum.

That leaves ample flexibility, be it for a Logan Webb extension or for aggressive pursuits in next year’s crop of free agents. That group will be headlined by Shohei Ohtani but will also feature names like Julio Urias, Aaron Nola and NPB ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Extensions for Manny Machado and Rafael Devers undeniably sapped some star power from the group, but the Giants are set up for a mulligan and will be well equipped to add salary via free agency or trade.

For now, the focus is on keeping this group healthy and hoping the 2023 season looks more like 2021 than ’22. With the ultra-aggressive Padres and ever-dangerous Dodgers looming atop the division and an up-and-coming D-backs club gaining traction, the Giants aren’t division favorites and aren’t generally considered strong playoff contenders. They should have a deep pitching staff, however, and this group is plenty familiar with defying expectations. They’ll look to do so again in ’23, and if it doesn’t pan out, they have the financial firepower to make sweeping changes again next winter.

How would you grade the Giants’ offseason?

Rangers’ Ricky Vanasco Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Rangers right-hander Ricky Vanasco recently injured his knee fielding a ground ball and had surgery to repair his meniscus, per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. He is expected to be out of action for the next four to six weeks.

It’s surely a frustrating development for the 24-year-old, as he also had the 2020 season canceled by the pandemic and then missed all of 2021 recovering from Tommy John surgery. In spite of those setbacks, he was added to the club’s 40-man roster in November of 2021 to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. Baseball America has considered him one of the top 30 prospects in the system in three straight years starting in 2020.

He was able to return to the mound last year, making 23 starts between Class-A Advanced and Double-A. His 4.68 ERA wasn’t terribly special, but he did strike out 28.9% of batters faced. It’s likely that a 12.7% walk rate helped put some of those earned runs on his ledger, but that’s fairly understandable given his long layoff. Unfortunately, he’ll now have to face another layoff, missing at least a few weeks here to start 2023. Once he returns to health, he’ll look to get back in a good groove.

Yankees, Jose Godoy Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees recently signed catcher José Godoy to a minor league contract, according to Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. The backstop had been released by the Angels earlier this month.

Godoy has appeared in each of the past two MLB seasons. He’s played for three teams, logging brief action with the Mariners, Twins and Pirates. The left-handed hitting backstop has played in 26 games, compiling a .123/.194/.140 line over 62 trips to the plate. He’s a .271/.323/.405 hitter over parts of three Triple-A campaigns. That’s obviously not huge offensive impact, though he’s shown decent bat-to-ball skills in the minors. The bigger selling point is in his solid defensive reputation.

New York was dealt a hit to its catching depth in camp with the revelation that Ben Rortvedt required shoulder surgery. Jose Trevino and Kyle Higashioka are the only healthy catchers on the 40-man roster. Godoy joins Nick Ciuffo as non-roster players with some MLB experience who can head to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre as insurance in case Trevino or Higashioka suffer an injury.

Yankees Acquire Colten Brewer From Rays

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6:36pm: Both teams have announced the trade. Tampa Bay receives cash in return.

6:15pm: Right-hander Colten Brewer, who had been in camp with the Rays on a minor league deal, will instead go to the Yankees and be added to their 40-man roster, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. He had recently been reassigned to minor league camp but Topkin reports he had an assignment bonus that allowed the Yanks to acquire him. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had previously indicated the club was working on a “potential deal” and it seems this is what he was referring to.

Brewer, 30, appeared in the big leagues from 2018 to 2021, with the Padres in the first of those years but then with the Red Sox for the next three. In 91 major league innings, he has a 5.04 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, 13.4% walk rate and 50.4% ground ball rate. He spent last year with the Royals on a minor league deal, tossing 39 2/3 innings at Triple-A with a 4.76 ERA, striking out 24.9% of opponents, walking 10.7% and getting the ball on the ground at a 51.9% clip.

As mentioned, Brewer was in camp with the Rays on a minor league deal. He tossed 9 1/3 innings over eight appearances this spring, not allowing any earned runs while striking out 15 hitters and walking three. Despite that strong performance, he didn’t crack Tampa’s roster, as he was reassigned to minor league camp yesterday.

While the Rays weren’t willing to afford him an immediate big league job, the Yankees will plug him into the bullpen. Brewer is out of minor league option years, so he’ll have to stick on the active roster or be offered to other teams once New York officially selects his contract. He has between two and three years of service and would be eligible for arbitration for the first time next winter if he holds his roster spot all year.

The Yankees have a full 40-man roster, so they’ll need to make a corresponding move once Brewer’s acquisition is final. New York has a number of players on the injured list — Ben Rortvedt, Lou Trivino and Tommy Kahnle among them — who could be moved to the 60-day injured list if the club anticipates a notable absence.

Daniel Bard To Begin Season On Injured List

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Rockies right-hander Daniel Bard is going to begin the season on the injured list due to anxiety, reports Danielle Allentuck of the Denver Gazette (Twitter links). Righty Jake Bird has been recalled to take Bard’s place on the active roster. Allentuck adds that outfielder Jurickson Profar is not yet with the team in San Diego, though he can’t be replaced on the active roster.

“It’s a hard thing to admit,” Bard tells Allentuck. “But I’ve been through this before. I have enough going on outside the game to realize what’s important … I’m extremely grateful to be in an organization that understands these things and is accepting.”

Bard, 38 in June, pitched for the Red Sox from 2009 to 2013 but a case of “the yips” caused him to struggle in the latter parts of that span. His walk rate shot up to 15.5% in 2012 and then was even worse the year after. He only made a couple of appearances at the big league level in 2013 before getting sent to the minors, eventually walking a third of opponents down on the farm the rest of the way.

He didn’t pitch in the majors for many years but resurfaced with the Rockies in 2020. He posted a 3.65 ERA in 23 appearances that season, striking out 25.5% of batters faced, walking 9.4% of them and getting grounders at a 48.5% clip. He took a bit of a step back in 2021, with his walk rate jumping to 11.8% and his ERA spiking to 5.21%. But he got back on track tremendously in 2022, with a 1.79 ERA and 10.2% walk rate. He also struck out 28.2% of batters faced, got grounders on 51.7% of balls in play and racked up 34 saves on the year. His name popped up in some trade rumors as he was set to his free agency after last year, but he and the Rockies agreed to a two-year, $19MM extension.

Though the Rockies surely don’t want to be without their closer, Bard’s comments indicate that they’re prioritizing his health now that his anxiety has reoccured. Thomas Harding of MLB.com relays that Bard is still with the team and doing his normal throwing. That means it’s possible he’ll return whenever he feels he has his anxiety managed. MLBTR wishes him the best in that process.

Quickly turning to Profar, he didn’t have much of a spring because he was playing with Team Netherlands during the World Baseball Classic while still unsigned. He eventually signed with the Rockies but was delayed in joining the club in camp due to visa issues. He eventually did report to the team’s facilities in Arizona and is apparently still there, per Harding, continuing to get at-bats in minor league games. Harding adds that the decision on when Profar joins will be done “by feel.” It seems the club will play with a shortened three-man bench until then.

Max Fried Likely Headed To IL Due To Hamstring Strain

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Braves left-hander Max Fried departed today’s Opening Day start after throwing just 43 pitches over 3 1/3 innings. The club would later announce that he was removed with left hamstring discomfort. After the game, manager Brian Snitker told reporters, including Mark Bowman of MLB.com, that Fried will likely go on the injured list. Snitker also said Fried has a hamstring strain, per Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

To this point, there’s nothing to suggest Fried’s injury is particularly significant. Snitker said that Fried would miss at least one start, per David O’Brien of The Athletic, but would likely go on the injured list. IL stints for pitchers have a minimum stay of 15 days, so it seems that the club is expecting Fried to miss an amount of time that’s roughly in that ballpark.

Though it’s possible his absence may be on the short side, it’s still not ideal for any team to lose its best pitcher on the first game of the season. Fried has been one of the better pitchers in the league over the past few years, coming into today’s action with a career ERA of 3.09,  23.8% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate and 52.8% ground ball rate. He’s coming off the best season of his career, as he made 30 starts last year with a 2.48 ERA, getting his walk rate all the way down to 4.4%. He finished second in National League Cy Young voting to Sandy Alcantara.

An injury to a player of Fried’s caliber would be problematic at any time but the rotation has some moving parts at the moment. Spring injuries to Kyle Wright and Michael Soroka, as well as underwhelming performances from Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder, mean that the club is planning to get starts from rookies Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd early in the season. Wright is expected back after a minimum stint on the injured list, but Fried’s absence will give the club an extra rotation hole to patch over for at least one turn in the rotation and perhaps a couple weeks.

Dodgers Place Ryan Pepiot On Injured List With Oblique Strain

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The Dodgers announced to reporters, including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links), some Opening Day roster moves. Outfielder Jason Heyward has had his contract selected, with infielder Gavin Lux going on the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move. Also, right-hander Ryan Pepiot will begin the season on the injured list with a left oblique strain. Fellow righty Michael Grove will take his place on the roster.

Heyward taking the roster spot of Lux is no surprise, as the latter suffered a torn ACL during the spring and is expected to miss the entirety of the upcoming season. It was also reported a week ago that Heyward would make the Opening Day roster, jumping into the outfield mix alongside Mookie Betts, David Peralta, Trayce Thompson and James Outman.

Pepiot’s injury, on the other hand, is new information. It was less than a week ago that it was reported he beat out Grove for the final rotation spot. The two hurlers each got to make brief MLB debuts last year, with Pepiot posting a 3.47 ERA in 36 1/3 innings while Grove had a 4.60 ERA in 29 1/3 innings. In this year’s Spring Training, Pepiot had a 3.29 ERA in 13 2/3 innings while Grove had a 5.40 ERA in 16 2/3 innings. Manager Dave Roberts said that Pepiot “outperformed” Grove for the job, but Grove will now take the gig with Pepiot on the shelf.

The Dodgers will still have a strong front four in their rotation in Julio Urías, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May and Noah Syndergaard, but their depth is going to be tested early. The reason the fifth spot even became up for grabs was because Tony Gonsolin suffered an ankle sprain and isn’t expected back until late April. The club hasn’t provided a timeline on Pepiot’s injury but even mild oblique strains often require weeks-long absences. That should leave the Dodgers down two starters for a while.

Grove, 26, has been considered one of the club’s top 20 prospects in recent years due to his work in the minors. He posted a 3.79 ERA in 76 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last year, striking out 28% of opponents against an 8.1% walk rate. Though he didn’t quite match those results in the big leagues last year, he’ll look to take a step forward here in 2023.

Should the Dodgers need another starter in the next few weeks, the best healthy option on the 40-man roster might be Andre Jackson, though they will also have non-roster option in top prospects Bobby Miller and Gavin Stone.

Cubs Sign Nico Hoerner To Three-Year Extension

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March 30: Jon Heyman of The New York Post provides the full breakdown. Hoerner will make $11.5MM in each of the first two seasons, then get a slight bump to $12MM in 2026.

March 29: The Cubs announced agreement with second baseman Nico Hoerner on a three-year contract extension covering the 2024-26 seasons. The deal reportedly guarantees the Apex Baseball client $35MM over that stretch. It buys out his final two seasons of arbitration eligibility and one free agent year.

Hoerner has emerged as one of the Cubs’ better players in recent years. A first-round pick out of Stanford in 2018, he made it to the majors within a year and a half of being drafted. That was a brief cameo and Hoerner struggled during the abbreviated 2020 campaign. Over the past two seasons, however, he’s taken a step forward at the dish to pair with his strong up-the-middle defensive profile.

The Oakland native lost a good chunk of the 2021 season to hamstring and oblique issues. When healthy, he posted a .302/.382/.369 line over 44 games that year. He followed up with his first full season, in which he hit .281/.327/.410 in 135 contests. Hoerner connected on 10 home runs and 22 doubles. More impressively, he kept his strikeout rate to a minuscule 11% while making contact on an above-average 86.6% of his swings. Going back to the start of the 2021 campaign, he’s a .286/.341/.400 hitter in a little under 700 trips to the dish.

It’s hardly elite offense but Hoerner has compensated for modest power with excellent contact skills. Putting the ball in play has allowed him to run a high batting average that props up the offensive profile. He’s also been a plus on the basepaths, stealing 20 bags in 22 attempts last year.

Hoerner has paired that decent hitting with strong work on the infield. He has played over 1400 major league innings at shortstop, drawing strong grades from Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average. DRS has pegged Hoerner as 10 runs better than the average defender at the infield’s most demanding position. Statcast has credited him as 16 runs above par.

The Cubs are kicking Hoerner to the other side of the second base bag in 2023. Chicago added Dansby Swanson on a seven-year free agent deal this offseason. Hoerner seemed fully on board with the position change, agreeing to move to the keystone to enable the club to add a player of Swanson’s caliber. There’s little question he’ll be an excellent second baseman, where he’s also gotten elite grades from public metrics in 468 1/3 frames between 2019-21.

Hoerner has between three and four years of major league service time. He and the organization had agreed to a $2.525MM salary for the upcoming season. The three-year pact apparently takes effect in 2024, as the deal reportedly buys out his final two arbitration years and one free agent campaign. He’s now slated to first hit the open market over the 2026-27 offseason, at which point he’ll be entering his age-30 campaign.

It’s rare for players already into arbitration to sign extensions that buy out exactly one free agent year. Players like Miguel Sanó (three years, $30MM) and J.P. Crawford (four years, $46.15MM) have signed extensions in this vicinity in recent seasons. Crawford’s deal bought out two free agent years, however. Sanó’s contract came with a club option for a second would-be free agent year. Hoerner secures a shorter-term commitment that locks in his arbitration earnings and allows him to still hit the market at age 30.

The team, meanwhile, picks up one additional season of a player they obviously value highly. It’s a bit of a surprise to see them commit $35MM to pick up control of one free agent year. Had the sides gone annually through arbitration, Hoerner would have built off this year’s $2.525MM platform salary.

Assuming he’d have made around $12-15MM for his final two arbitration seasons, the Cubs are valuing the free agent year in the $20-23MM range. It’s possible that proves to be below market value by that point, though it’d probably require Hoerner taking another step forward with the bat. The Cubs seem confident he’ll do so, with this agreement signifying they view him as a key part of a core that can get them back to playoff contention.

Ken Rosenthal and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic first reported the Cubs and Hoerner were in advanced extension talks. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the deal had been agreed upon as well as the contract terms.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Guardians, Andrés Giménez Finalizing Seven-Year, $106.5MM Extension

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March 30: Zach Meisel of The Athletic provides the full breakdown. Gimenez will make $1MM this year, in addition to the $4MM signing bonus. He’ll then make $5MM next year, $10MM in 2025, $15MM in 2026, then $23MM in each of the three seasons after that.

March 28: The Guardians and infielder Andrés Giménez are finalizing a seven-year, $106.5MM extension. It comes with a $4MM signing bonus and has a $23MM option for 2030 with a $2.5MM buyout. There are also escalators that can take the value of that option to $24MM. The Guardians previously had control over Giménez for the next four years, meaning that this deal buys out three free agent years and potentially a fourth with the option. Giménez is a client of Rep 1 Baseball.

Andres Gimenez | Ken Blaze-USA TODAY SportsGiménez,  24, began his professional career by signing with the Mets as an international amateur out of Venezuela. As he rose up the minors, he became considered by many to be the top prospect in the organization and one of the best in the entire league. Baseball America had Giménez on its top 100 list in 2018, 2019 and 2021. He made his major league debut in the shortened 2020 season, getting into 49 games and hitting .263/.333/.398 for a wRC+ of 105.

In January of 2021, Giménez came to Cleveland alongside Amed Rosario as part of the blockbuster trade that sent Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco to New York. Both Giménez and Rosario were highly touted shortstop prospects, with many at the time of that trade considering Giménez to be the stronger defender. At the start of the 2021 season, Cleveland attempted to have Giménez take over as the regular shortstop, moving Rosario to the outfield as César Hernández continued to play second base.

Unfortunately, Giménez didn’t hit the ground running with his new team. He was hitting just .179/.226/.308 in the middle of May when the club decided they needed to make a change, optioning him down to the minors. Rosario moved back to the shortstop position and has held onto that job since. Giménez, meanwhile, did well enough in Triple-A to get recalled in August, taking over the second base position that was vacated when Hernández was traded to the White Sox, and hitting a decent .245/.320/.382 down the stretch.

Many observers overlooked both the Guardians and Giménez coming into 2022. That’s fairly forgivable, considering that the club had a lackluster 80-82 record the year before and Giménez still seemed like a work in progress. But both he and the team took tremendous steps forward last year. He hit 17 home runs and stole 20 bases, while also cutting his strikeout rate to 20.1% compared to  a 25.7% rate the year prior. His final batting line of .297/.371/.466 amounted to a wRC+ of 140, indicating he was 40% better than the league average hitter.

He also got excellent grades for his defense, hardly surprising given his pedigree as an excellent shortstop prospect. He garnered +16 Defensive Runs Saved, +12 Outs Above Average and a +6.5 grade from Ultimate Zone Rating at the keystone last year, with all three of those numbers ranking him second in the majors at the position. Only Jonathan Schoop bested him in OAA while Brendan Rodgers topped the other two categories. Giménez also got positive grades when covering shortstop for Rosario on occasion. Based on his all-around contributions, he was considered to be worth 6.1 wins above replacement by FanGraphs and 7.4 by Baseball Reference, with both of those numbers placing him in the top 15 among all position players in the league.

Giménez has between two and three years of MLB service time, meaning he had yet to qualify for arbitration and the Guardians had control over his rights through the end of the 2026 season. The Guardians don’t typically run big payrolls or make big splashes in free agency, so extending younger players in order to keep them on the roster has long been their modus operandi. Over the years, they’ve given extensions to players like Corey Kluber and Jason Kipnis, while more recently giving extensions to players like José Ramírez (twice), Emmanuel Clase and Myles Straw.

There is risk in this path, as it often involves taking a chance on a player that’s not fully established. In this case, the Guards are making a firm commitment to a player that really only has one good season. However, this will allow them to keep him around through his age-30 or age-31 season, keeping him in Cleveland for what should be his prime years. Giménez, meanwhile, gives up some future free agent earning power but gets to put some serious money in his bank account one year ahead of schedule, while also locking in a life-changing nine-figure guarantee.

While it’s possible Giménez sticks at second base going forward, there’s also the possibility of him moving back over to shortstop. Rosario is in his final arbitration year and is slated for free agency a few months from now. The Guardians have also discussed an extension with Rosario but haven’t concluded anything there just yet, leaving open the possibility of Giménez moving to the other side of the bag next year. The club also has many highly-touted infield prospects in the system, including Brayan Rocchio, Tyler Freeman and others. Giménez seems perfectly capable of manning either spot, giving the club plenty of options going forward. Either way, he figures to be a fixture of the lineup in Cleveland for many years to come.

Zack Meisel of The Athletic reported earlier today that the club was in “advanced negotiations” with multiple players, including Giménez. Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that Giménez and the club were finalizing a long-term deal. Efraín Zavarce of IVC Networks first reported the seven years, $106.5MM guarantee and $4MM signing bonus. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that there was a $23MM club option for 2030 with a $2.5MM buyout and escalators that could push it to $24MM.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Guardians, Trevor Stephan Agree To Four-Year Extension

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MARCH 30, 1:15pm: Zach Meisel of The Athletic provides the full breakdown. Stephen will make $1.35MM this year, $1.6MM next year, $2.3MM in 2025 and $3.5MM in 2026. There’s a $1.25MM buyout on the 2027 option.

MARCH 30, 7:08am: Robert Murray of FanSided reports that Stephan’s extension is worth $10MM, with a $7.25MM club option in 2027 and a $7.5MM club option in 2028.

MARCH 29: Cleveland and Stephan have agreed to a four-year guarantee with a pair of club options, reports Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. Finances remain unreported.

MARCH 28: The Guardians have already agreed to one extension today, and they’re making progress on a deal with right-handed reliever Trevor Stephan as well, reports Tom Withers of the Associated Press. Cleveland currently controls the 27-year-old Stephan for another four seasons. He’s not scheduled to reach arbitration until next offseason. The Athletic’s Zack Meisel reported earlier today that Cleveland was in “advanced” extension talks with multiple players.

One of the most successful Rule 5 picks in recent memory, Stephan emerged for the Guardians as a high-caliber setup option this past season when he tossed 63 2/3 innings of 2.69 ERA ball. That mark was backed up by a 2.19 FIP and 2.55 SIERA. The former Yankees farmhand punched out a hefty 30.7% of his opponents against a tidy 6.7% walk rate and induced grounders at an above-average 48.1% clip.

Drilling down even further, there’s far more to like about Stephan. His 16.2% swinging-strike rate was the 14th-best mark among the 273 pitchers who tossed at least 60 innings in 2022 (starters and relievers alike). He was also better than average in terms of opponents’ exit velocity (87.5 mph average) and hard-hit rate (34.4%), and his 3.1% opponents’ barrel rate was among the very best in all of baseball (98th percentile).

Stephan averaged just under 97 mph with his heater, missed bats, limited walks and hard contact and kept the ball both in the park (0.42 HR/9) and on the ground last year. Along the way, he picked up 19 holds and three saves. He’s now expected to be among the top setup options for All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase, and Stephan would perhaps be first in line for ninth-inning work in the event of an injury to Clase.

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