The Giants have brought back Cole Waites on a minor league contract, according to the team’s official transactions page. Waites was non-tendered last week, and the new minor league pact means that the Giants won’t need to use a 40-man roster spot on the 25-year-old righty.
Waites had Tommy John surgery in mid-September, making it all but certain he’ll miss the 2024 season unless he can complete rehab in time for an inning or two right at the end of the regular-season schedule. The transactions page didn’t indicate that Waites’ deal is anything more than a standard one-year minors contract, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it was a two-year deal or if the Giants signed him to another type of extension at some point in 2024 once they get a better read on how his rehab is progressing.
An 18th-round pick for the Giants in the 2019 draft, Waites has appeared in the big leagues in each of the last two seasons, totaling eight innings over 10 games and a 6.75 ERA with six walks and strikeouts apiece. Waites fits the clasic profile of the hard-throwing but wild reliever, with a 15.32% walk rate over his 103 career minor league innings but also a fastball that routinely hits the upper-90s (and can reach 100mph). When Waites has been able to find the plate, he has been deadly — he has a 37.61% strikeout rate against minor league hitters.
The potential is obvious if Waites can pair that heater with even average control, though his injury history now adds another obstacle to his future. Waites also missed a big chunk of the 2021 season due to knee surgery, and between his injuries and the canceled 2020 minor league season, he has played in only 102 games (and thrown 103 innings) as a professional.
Evidently Cole Waites for a contract.
World Series Bound!!
Hot take on a minor league deal.
Weeeeeeeeee!
Solid move, at least for 2025 potentially. He was nasty in the minors in 2022.
Zaidi building for 2025 season.
This class may not be the class the Giants should go all in for in the free agent market. Ohtani yes, perhaps Yamamoto, but outside of that I hope they are very couscous on handing out big contracts to B grade free agents like Bellinger or Chapman. They won’t age well. Get ready Giants for another mediocre off season
Couscous ?
Yamamoto, Lee, & Hoskins.
Make it happen.
Caution!! Haha but I would love to see that happen instead of handing out lengthy contracts to Belli or Chapman
Bellinger and Chapman aren’t even on the same tier. Chapman is a B- player that’s essentially a 29/30yo Evan Longoria(which, we had) whereas Bellinger seems to showcase a higher ceiling, in addition to elite athleticism & OF defense, with the option to move him to 1B when his athleticism declines. If Bellinger is available for anything like the Kris Bryant deal(6/$144m), even if it’s up to 8yrs, I’m all for it.
With the even worse FA class next year, it’d be better to have a $240m payroll & sign 4 of Imanaga, Yamamoto, Bellinger, Lee, and/or Chapman this offseason, because $50m just came off the books and another $50m comes off after 2024 season. If they can add $100m worth of salary per season now, they’d be back at their original 2023 payroll by November 2024 just with Conforto, DeScalfani, & Cobb coming off the books.
They’d be $40m-$45m over for 2024, but it’d bounce right back to $190m-$210m as soon as 2024/25 FA starts, however they’d have Birdsong and several other prospects a year older at that point, with a Webb/Yamamoto/Harrison.
Chapman & JD Davis had extremely similar seasons, but Chapman is a 4.5WAR guy and JD was 0.9, due to a 1.8 bat & a -0.9 glove. Chapman had a 1.9 glove and a 2.4 bat, despite the only thing being different on their slash lines are JD Davis’s high likelihood to ground into double plays, & Chapman’s slightly increased power.
This gives SF guys they can be comfortable enough with to trade a JD Davis for a 23yo somewhere, or move a Luis Matos for someone we need now, as opposed to having him fight for time with a Lee and/or Bellinger(Or Trout…).
If you think this off-season is bad, don’t even look past Juan Soto for next year’s, because if you did, you’d understand why the best case scenario is for SF to go hard at the top 4 Non-Ohtani Free Agents and do whatever it takes to get as many as possible, because you don’t often have the option to sign 28yo’s like Bellinger or 25yo’s like Yamamoto & Lee.
I’m sold. Nice post.
FA is worse next year ! That changes my thinking.
I remain unconvinced that Chapman is an upgrade and worth the money. JD is fine, doesn’t strikeout as much as Chapman and looked Gold Glove for two thirds of the season. Plus Giants have Schmitt whose glove is potentially GG. Giants need to spend wisely. Chapman is not that.
Whole lot of mediocrity on this roster. I’m not convinced that any one or two marquee FAs move the needle meaningfully. Best thing might be to just let the youth show what they can do.
I don’t think the Giants are as far away as some predict. If they sign Yamamoto they have one of the best rotations in the league (+ Webb, Harrison, Cobb, Winn, Whisenhunt, Beck, assuming Yamamoto is half of what is expected).
Jung Hoo Lee in CF gives SF a true leadoff hitter for the first time in years (taking nothing away from Wade). Haniger bounces back. Conforto (at DH against RH pitching/Flores against LH pitching) And Hoskins at 1b (with Wade). Bailey only improves.. Estrada & Davis solid. Trade for Edman (ss).
What can Schmitt and Fitzgerald and Matos provide?
I know that’s a lot of ifs but it can all be accomplished with money and young pitching trade bait.
Pete that’s spot on!
Fingers crossed.
Pete, I’m higher on Fitzgerald than the others. He has steadily progressed upwardly and can play many positions. I don’t like to trade pitchers (wheeler?) so I’m okay trading any position player not named fitzgerald and bailey. It very much depends on pitchers signed as to whether pitching prospects should be traded. SF has tradable pitcphing so there’s the dilemma for me anyway. Let’s say they can get Burnes and Adames. Or Edman. And they had to trade Luciano and Whisenhunt. I’m good as long as they can sign Yamamoto. Montgomery I think would be an excellent add. So one or both, and they could trade pitching projects and I’d be okay. Anyway, I’m rambling a little.
Claude — The problem with the Wheeler/Beltran trade was that the Giants never followed up with Beltran to re-sign him. I’ve never understood that b/c it was a terrible trade given SF’s failure to follow up. Beltran, as you know, went on to many productive seasons and is a very good baseball mind.
Having said that, I believe that at least one of our young arms will have to be dealt to strengthen the roster BEYOND Yamamoto and Lee.
Tommy Edman for the pitcher-starved Cardinals (even with today’s Sonny Gray signing) makes too much sense.
This off season MUST be when Farhan goes all out for a FA and trades. Next year’s FA list is very thin.
And, of course, I like both Burnes and Adames, except both are one-year rentals. I don’t like rentals.
I liked the Beltran add but getting hurt killed the benefit. And yes, they should have held on to him. But position players dont play out like pitchers i guess is my issue. Luciano isnt ready and if adames, even at one year, could be a big add. Especially since the payroll will decline in 25. You said they’re not far away from contending, and I agree, so mythinking is go for it. Anyway, I’m not counting on Ohtani. I just want to get this going. Lee, Hoskins, and Montgomery and Hicks for my liking. And why not Tim anderson?Anderson? and edman
I like Montgomery but not over Yamamoto. Hicks? You’re talking Jordan Hicks? I wouldn’t touch Tim Anderson for a myriad of reasons. And I agree Luciano isn’t ready (maybe never at SS) which is why I’d like Edman. Like you I’m not counting on Ohtani and I think spending that money on Yamamoto, Lee and Hoskins is money better spent.
PS—I think Montgomery is going to re-sign with the Rangers.
Hoskins seems like an obvious Farhan style acquisition. Local ties, coming off injury year, power bat, bargain buy. With all the waiting on the international guys and the big names, he should really try to get him signed sooner than later.
Perhaps AFTER Ohtani makes a choice but not before. (I like Hoskins too.)
World Series Bound!!!
Hot take on a minor league deal.
Waites was right there. Got to be the worst time for the big injury. Hope he gets back there.
Whatever you do Giants, don’t sign ohtani and get stuck with that franchise killing contract. Get two quality starting pitchers for the same price tag as ohtani per season then go after Soto either in a trade now or as a free agent next season. Soto is the real deal, has almost the exact same numbers as ohtani, is 5 years younger and isn’t trying to do the whole two way player bs.
Whatever you do Giants, don’t sign ohtani and get stuck with that franchise killing contract. Get two quality starting pitchers for the same price per season as ohtani then go after Soto either in a trade now or as a free agent next season. Soto is the real deal, has much better career numbers than ohtani, is 5 years younger and isn’t trying to do the whole two way player bs.