Orioles, Nick Anderson Agree To Deal
Aug. 28: It’s a minor league pact, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports. However, Kubatko adds that the Orioles plan to get Anderson up to the big leagues in short order, so a 40-man roster move to select his contract could be on the horizon in the next few days.
Aug. 27: Reliever Nick Anderson is joining the Orioles after opting out of a minor league deal with the Dodgers, reports Darren Wolfson of SKOR North (X link). It is not clear whether the righty will jump right onto Baltimore’s MLB roster or is signing a minor league pact to report to Triple-A Norfolk.
Anderson, a client of Gaeta Sports Management, spent around five weeks in the Dodger system. He signed with L.A. after being released by the Royals coming out of the All-Star Break. He spent the first couple weeks of his stint with the Dodgers in the team’s Arizona complex. Los Angeles didn’t assign him to Triple-A Oklahoma City until August 10. Anderson pitched three times there, allowing three runs (one of which was earned) through 4 1/3 innings. He struck out five while issuing a trio of walks.
Prior to that abbreviated stint with the Dodgers, Anderson occupied a middle relief role in Kansas City. The 34-year-old worked to a 4.04 ERA across 35 2/3 frames. That tolerable run prevention mark belied less impressive peripherals. Anderson’s strikeout rate fell to a career-low 19% clip while he walked nearly 10% of opponents. He surrendered six home runs, more than 1.5 longballs per nine innings.
Anderson is only one season removed from a strong year with Atlanta. He provided the Braves 35 1/3 innings of 3.04 ERA ball while striking out a quarter of his opponents last season. That solid showing was cut short by a July shoulder strain, but Anderson’s velocity has returned in 2024.
While the O’s are in a good spot overall, their bullpen has been shaky for the better part of two months. The Baltimore relief corps has a 4.85 earned run average since the All-Star Break. Craig Kimbrel has fallen into a significant rut. Deadline pickups Seranthony Domínguez and Gregory Soto have had some home run issues, while setup man Jacob Webb has been out for the last three weeks due to elbow inflammation. Baltimore has Burch Smith and Matt Bowman, each of whom joined the club on midseason minor league deals, in the middle relief group.
Giants Outright Jakson Reetz
The Giants announced that catcher Jakson Reetz went unclaimed on waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Sacramento. San Francisco took him off the 40-man roster last week as the corresponding move to sign Andrew Knapp. Reetz has cleared waivers a few times in his career and has the right to elect free agency. He stuck with San Francisco after being outrighted in May and could do so again.
Reetz, 28, has spent the season with the Giants, playing mostly in Triple-A. The Giants have selected his contract twice but only gotten him into six big league games. His other major league experience consisted of two contests with the Nationals three years ago. Reetz has three hits (two doubles and a home run) in 17 MLB plate appearances.
A former third-round pick by Washington, Reetz has also played in the Kansas City organization. The righty-hitting catcher owns a .241/.338/.467 line in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He has taken 235 plate appearances with Sacramento, running a .254/.368/.431 slash behind a strong 12.3% walk rate.
Reds Acquire David Buchanan From Phillies
The Phillies traded minor league right-hander David Buchanan to the Reds for cash, tweets Matt Gelb of the Athletic. Cincinnati assigned the 35-year-old to Triple-A Louisville.
Buchanan is eligible to be traded after the deadline because he has not been on a 40-man roster all season. He signed a minor league contract with Philadelphia in February. Outside of a one-off start in High-A, he has pitched the entire season with Philadelphia’s top farm team in Lehigh Valley. He started 16 of 22 appearances with the IronPigs, working to a 4.82 ERA across 102 2/3 innings. His 17.5% strikeout percentage is subpar, but he has kept his walk rate to a solid 7.4% clip.
A former 7th-round pick, Buchanan pitched with Philadelphia at the major league level between 2014-15. He had a solid 3.75 ERA as a rookie before allowing nearly seven earned runs per nine in year two. After spending the ’16 campaign in Triple-A, Buchanan spent seven seasons in Asia. He played three seasons in Japan before a four-year run with the Samsung Lions in Korea.
Cincinnati’s rotation has been pummeled by injury. They’ve lost each of Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo to the injured list in the past few weeks, while Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson have been out of action for months. Buchanan provides a strike-throwing depth arm who has eaten a solid number of innings in Triple-A this season. The Reds’ series of injuries gives him a better chance to pitch his way to the majors for the first time in nearly a decade than he would have had in Philadelphia.
Latest On Roki Sasaki’s Potential Posting
Roki Sasaki would be one of the most talented players in the upcoming free agent class if he were available. The 6’2″ right-hander has been a star in Japan for the past four seasons. He is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, pitchers currently in NPB. Sasaki won’t turn 23 until November and would be a top target for any number of major league clubs.
His availability is by no means guaranteed. While MLB teams have kept a close eye on Sasaki’s status for years, he doesn’t have the ability to force his way to the majors anytime soon. As with all NPB players, he’d need nine years of service time in Japan before he qualifies for international free agency. The only way for Sasaki to make the jump to the majors earlier than that is with the cooperation of the Chiba Lotte Marines, his NPB club.
The Marines could agree to make Sasaki available to MLB teams via the posting system. The star pitcher asked them to do just that last offseason; the team declined the request, leaving Sasaki without much of a choice but to return for his fourth full season there. It seems the way that process unfolded left the pitcher displeased.
Jeff Passan of ESPN writes that Sasaki’s relationship with the Marines is damaged by the team’s denial of his posting request. According to Passan, Sasaki is likely to renew his request for the Marines to post him during the upcoming offseason. Yet it’s entirely possible — perhaps likely — that the team will decline to make him available yet again.
There isn’t much of an incentive for the Marines to let Sasaki walk this winter. Their only potential benefit would be a reputational boost of accommodating the wish of their star player to test himself against MLB hitters. The details of the posting system and MLB’s international bonus pool rules make it far more advantageous for the Marines to hold Sasaki past his 25th birthday.
International players who are under the age of 25 are considered amateurs and are subject to bonus pool restrictions. They are technically only allowed to sign minor league contracts (although an MLB team would surely select Sasaki onto the major league roster by the start of the season).
The far bigger drawback is that teams have a hard cap on spending on international amateurs. While the precise amount varies by team, Baseball America’s Ben Badler reported in April that next year’s bonus pool allotments top out at roughly $7.56MM. Teams can tack on another few million dollars via trade, but it’s a marginal difference. Even if a team maxed out its bonus pool and offered the highest amount to Sasaki (punting the chance to sign any other amateurs of significance for the year), his signing bonus would land somewhere in the $11MM range.
That’s obviously nowhere near the open market value for arguably the best pitcher in Japan. The cases of Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are illustrative. Ohtani made the jump to MLB at age 23 and was subject to the bonus pool limitations. He signed with the Angels in 2017 for $2.3MM. Yamamoto, who waited until he was 25 to come over, signed a $325MM contract last offseason that represented the largest deal ever for a free agent pitcher. The bonus pool restrictions very likely made a difference of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Sasaki seems willing to live with those constraints to get to the majors as quickly as possible. That doesn’t mean the Marines are willing to do the same. The posting agreement between MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball ties the NPB team’s compensation to the value of the free agent contract. An MLB team signing a posted player pays a fee to the Japanese team on top of what goes to the player. The fee is a fixed amount calculated as 20% of a deal’s first $25MM, 17.5% of the next $25MM, and 15% of further spending.
Yamamoto’s $325MM deal came with a windfall for his former team, the Orix Buffaloes. The Dodgers paid the Buffaloes $50.625MM to release him from his contract. If the Marines were to let Sasaki walk this winter, they’d get a small fraction of that amount because of the bonus restrictions. A $10MM bonus for Sasaki would come with a $2MM posting fee for the Marines. That’s meager compensation for parting ways with their 23-year-old ace.
That could all point to the Marines holding Sasaki for two more years. If the team waits to make him available until the 2026-27 offseason, there’d be no limit on his signing bonus — and therefore no indirect cap on the posting fee that the team could receive. That’d presumably only further irritate Sasaki, but it doesn’t seem the pitcher has any leverage to force the team’s hand.
Ohtani making the jump to the majors in 2017-18 shows that it isn’t impossible for a top Japanese free agent to leave early in his posting window. Yet there are a few distinctions between Ohtani’s case and the situation in which Sasaki finds himself.
Jorge Castillo and Jack Harris wrote in the Los Angeles Times last winter that Ohtani had a stipulation in his contract with his NPB team, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, that allowed him to enter the posting system at any time. While Castillo and Harris wrote at the time that “Sasaki is thought to also have that clause in his deal” with the Marines, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Passan stated this morning that “Lotte controls the entire process and can keep Sasaki through the 2026 season if it so desires.” That the Marines were able to prevent Sasaki from being posted last winter — ostensibly against his wishes and in a manner that strained his relationship with the team — points to the club indeed having the final say.
The posting system was also different at the time in which Ohtani came over. While the posting fee is now strictly tied to the signing bonus amount, that was not the case in 2017. The previous posting system allowed an NPB team to name a price up to $20MM, independent of the bonus amount, which they’d require to grant the player permission to move to MLB. The Fighters established the maximum $20MM price, which the Angels happily paid to get Ohtani for a modest bonus. The Marines don’t have that option, so the Fighters collected a posting fee that is 10 times (or more) what Chiba Lotte would receive for Sasaki next winter.
That presents a significant impediment to Sasaki joining a major league team before 2027. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale wrote a couple weeks ago that some MLB executives felt the pitcher might prefer to stay in Japan for another season, though it seems the Marines are the far bigger obstacle.
Lotte does not appear to be under any contractual pressure to let him leave within the next two years. Sasaki is nowhere close to the nine-year threshold for international free agency, nor the eight-year threshold that would permit him to sign with another NPB club. The NPB Players Association has begun an effort to reduce the free agency cutoffs, but that’s an ambitious collective bargaining effort that isn’t likely to be achieved in the next few months.
Sasaki has a 2.01 earned run average in 380 2/3 career innings at Japan’s top level. This hasn’t been his best season, as he carries a personal-worst 2.45 ERA through 77 frames and missed some time with arm discomfort. He nevertheless remains an incredible talent. He has struck out nearly a third of opponents in his career and has fanned 28.7% of batters faced this season. Scouts credit him with a triple-digit fastball and a potential 70-grade (plus-plus) splitter.
He’s perhaps most famous for his stretch of dominance in April 2022, when he followed up a 19-strikeout perfect game with another eight perfect innings before finally giving up a single to start the ninth. He struck out 11 over 7 2/3 innings of four-run ball for Japan’s championship team in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Don Wert Passes Away
Former All-Star third baseman Don Wert passed away at age 86, the Tigers announced this afternoon. Wert played all but 20 games of his MLB career with Detroit.
Wert signed with the Tigers at age 19 out of Pennsylvania’s Franklin & Marshall College. The right-handed hitting infielder spent five years in the minors, including two full seasons at Triple-A. He earned his first big league call in 1963 and established himself as Detroit’s starting third baseman the next year.
After playing in 148 games during his first full MLB season, Wert started all 162 contests in 1965. He hit .261 with 12 homers and more walks than strikeouts in nearly 700 plate appearances. Wert was charged with only 12 errors despite logging more than 1400 innings at the hot corner. Award voters rewarded his durability and solid all-around game with a 10th-place finish in AL MVP balloting.
Wert was a reliable and consistent presence in the Detroit infield for the remainder of the decade. He made an All-Star team in 1968, although his .200/.258/.299 slash line that year was one of his least productive showings. A June hit-by-pitch that broke his helmet and required a stint in the hospital surely contributed to his offensive downturn. Wert remained a valuable defensive player and appeared in 150 games on a Tigers team that won 103 games to claim the AL pennant.
Detroit knocked off the Cardinals in a seven-game World Series. Wert played in six of those contests. He went 2-17 but drew six walks and drove in a pair of runs. The latter RBI came with two outs in the top of the ninth in the deciding game. He singled off Bob Gibson to push Detroit’s lead to 4-0; they held on to win by a 4-1 margin.
After the 1970 season, the Tigers traded Wert to the Washington Senators as part of an eight-player deal that also shipped out two-time Cy Young winner Denny McLain. Wert spent a couple months with Washington before being released in June, ending his playing career. He retired with a .242/.314/.343 line in more than 1100 games over parts of nine seasons. Wert played nearly 9000 innings at third base, where he had a .968 fielding percentage. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.
Dodgers Release Jason Heyward
The Dodgers released Jason Heyward, per the MLB.com transaction log. It was very likely that Heyward would become a free agent after L.A. designated him for assignment on Thursday.
Heyward’s DFA came as a surprise even for a team that had already jettisoned deadline pickup Amed Rosario. While Heyward hasn’t had a great season, he was an above-average contributor in a platoon capacity a year ago. The veteran outfielder hit .269/.340/.473 with 15 homers in 377 plate appearances in 2023. His numbers are down this year, as he carries a .208/.289/.393 mark across 197 trips to the plate.
Most of that downturn is attributable to a career-low .224 average on balls in play. Heyward’s strikeout and walk profile is essentially the same as it was a year ago. His hard contact percentage is up more than six points relative to last season. The higher exit velocities have come with a spike in ground-balls, though, which isn’t an ideal trend for a pull hitter in his mid-30s.
Heyward is no longer a Gold Glove caliber outfielder, but he remains a solid defender in right field. Statcast has graded him at league average in 434 innings. Defensive Runs Saved has him three runs above par. Another team could view Heyward as a complementary platoon bat who can step directly onto their big league roster.
The Dodgers are on the hook for what remains of Heyward’s $9MM salary for this season. A signing team would only be responsible for the prorated portion of the $740K league minimum. It stands to reason that Heyward’s camp will look for a deal quickly now that he’s on the open market. He’d need to sign elsewhere by the end of the month (on either an MLB or minor league contract) to be eligible for the postseason with a new team.
Orioles Place Ryan Mountcastle On IL, Release Nick Avila
The Orioles placed first baseman Ryan Mountcastle on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 23, this evening. Baltimore brought up utility infielder Livan Soto from Triple-A Norfolk in a corresponding move. The O’s also released right-hander Nick Avila, whom they’d designated for assignment last week.
Mountcastle departed last Thursday’s game with soreness in his left wrist. He sat out the final three games of Baltimore’s weekend series with the Astros. The O’s announced the injury as a sprain. Baltimore had a scheduled off day tonight. While it’s rare for a team to make an IL placement on an off day, there’s a three-day maximum for a retroactive IL stint. If the O’s had waited until tomorrow to put Mountcastle on the shelf, that would’ve delayed the retroactive start date to August 24.
That seems like an indication that it’s a minor issue. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he’s back when first eligible a week from now. Baltimore will likely turn to Ryan O’Hearn at first base with Eloy Jiménez at designated hitter in the interim. O’Hearn is having a strong season as the primary DH. Baltimore nevertheless brought in Jiménez in a surprising deadline swap. He has hit .304 in 18 games since the trade, yet it’s a fairly empty average. The former White Sox slugger has yet to hit a home run and drawn only a single walk in 57 plate appearances in an O’s uniform.
Mountcastle has been a good but not elite presence in the Baltimore lineup for the last four-plus years. He hit 33 homers in his first full season back in 2021. Since then, he has settled in as a 20-homer type bat. Mountcastle hits for good averages without taking many walks, generally resulting in slightly lower than average on-base marks. It has been more of the same in 2024. He’s hitting .265/.305/.425 with 13 longballs in 485 trips to the plate. Despite the decent overall production, he has been in a major slump of late. Mountcastle hit .225 with a .257 OBP and no homers this month.
Avila, 27, lost his spot on the 40-man roster when the Orioles called Cole Irvin back to the majors. Baltimore had claimed the 6’4″ reliever off release waivers from the Giants in June. Avila debuted with San Francisco earlier in the season, allowing 12 runs across 11 2/3 innings. He didn’t reach the big leagues with the Orioles. Avila was battling a shoulder injury at the time he was released by San Francisco. He didn’t return from the minor league injured list until the middle of August. He has not yet found his pre-injury form, giving up a staggering 10 runs while recording just four outs over three appearances with Triple-A Norfolk. Avila allowed just three earned runs per nine in 72 Triple-A frames last season.
Cubs Reportedly Place Drew Smyly On Waivers
The Cubs have placed veteran reliever Drew Smyly on waivers, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (X link). Smyly has not been designated for assignment and can continue to play for Chicago pending resolution of the waiver process. The placement is irrevocable, however, so Smyly would land with another team in the next two days if anyone places a claim.
In situations like this, the team is hoping that the player will be claimed to offload the salary. That’d be a big ask in this case. Smyly is playing on a $10.5MM salary. There’s around $1.9MM remaining. The deal also includes a $2.5MM buyout on a $10MM mutual option for next season. A claiming team would need to assume the entirety of that sum. It amounts to nearly $4.5MM for one month plus potential playoff work of Smyly’s services.
The 35-year-old southpaw has turned in solid results in his first full season as a reliever. Smyly carries a 2.84 ERA over 50 2/3 frames. His 20.4% strikeout rate and 10.8% swinging strike percentage are pedestrian, but he has kept left-handed hitters to a .226/.293/.310 slash in 92 plate appearances.
There’s not much downside for the Cubs in gauging if a contender is willing to take on Smyly’s money to strengthen their lefty relief group. Chicago is 5.5 games out of a Wild Card spot with four teams to surpass. They’re a postseason long shot. President of baseball operations Jed Hoyer confirmed last week that the team is on pace to exceed the $237MM luxury tax threshold (link via Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic). It’s not clear how far over the threshold they are, but RosterResource’s unofficial estimate of the team’s payroll has them less than $500K above the line. If they could shed what remains of Smyly’s salary, it’s possible that would suffice to get underneath the CBT mark.
If Smyly goes unclaimed, the Cubs can keep him in the bullpen for the remainder of the season. They do not need to release him or attempt to outright him to the minor leagues.
Padres, Elias Diaz Agree To Minor League Deal
The Padres are signing catcher Elias Díaz to a minor league contract, tweets Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Venezuelan reporter Rafael Petit was first to report (on X) that Díaz and the Padres had come to an agreement.
Díaz has been a free agent since he was released by the Rockies on August 16. He reportedly declined to pursue an opportunity with the Giants because San Francisco wasn’t willing to guarantee he’d remain on the MLB roster after starter Patrick Bailey returned from injury. Díaz won’t immediately jump onto the big league club with San Diego, though a minor league deal now is arguably preferable to a brief major league stint in San Francisco with the possibility of being released in September.
The timing of the signing makes no financial difference for the veteran catcher. Díaz is still guaranteed the entirety of his $6MM salary from Colorado. If San Diego calls him up at any point, they’d pay him the prorated $740K league minimum (which would drop off the Rockies’ books). Díaz has more than six years of MLB service and will return to free agency at the end of the season regardless. His primary goal with this deal is finding a potential path to a playoff roster.
San Diego is eight games ahead of the Giants in the standings, so they’re obviously much more likely to make the postseason. A player only needs to be in an organization — not on the 40-man roster — by the start of September to be eligible for the playoffs. MLB can and frequently does grant permission for players on minor league deals to participate in the postseason as substitutes for injured players. Díaz would be eligible for postseason play with the Friars even if they don’t add him to the MLB roster within the next five days. Had he signed with San Francisco and been released in early September as the corresponding move for Bailey’s return, that would’ve officially precluded him from participating in the postseason.
The Padres have three catchers on the 40-man roster: Luis Campusano, Kyle Higashioka and Brett Sullivan. Aside from Campusano’s two-week injured list stint shortly before the All-Star Break, he and Higashioka have handled the catching work. Higashioka came over from the Yankees as an ancillary piece in the Juan Soto return. The Padres expected him to back up Campusano, but he has actually been the far more productive player. Higashioka has drilled a career-high 15 home runs in 204 plate appearances. While he’s not getting on base consistently, the power and steady defensive work have made him one of the more productive backup catchers in the league.
Campusano, by contrast, has a subpar .231/.274/.373 batting line and well below-average marks for his glovework. He still has an option remaining, so the Padres could send him down without putting him on waivers. It’s also possible they carry three catchers once active rosters expand to 28 in September.
Díaz was hitting .270/.315/.378 through 327 plate appearances before Colorado released him to get their first look at prospect Drew Romo. Much of that production was driven by an elevated batting average on balls in play at Coors Field. Díaz has solid contact skills and hit 14 homers as recently as last season (not including the All-Star Game homer that earned him the game’s MVP honors). He does a strong job controlling the running game and has improved his pitch framing grades this year.
Giants, Matt Chapman Have “Had Conversations” About Potential Extension
For the second consecutive year, Matt Chapman stands as one of the top impending free agent hitters. Unless he suffers a significant injury in the next few weeks, he is all but assured to opt-out of the final two years and $36MM on his deal with the Giants.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported a couple weeks ago that San Francisco was hopeful of retaining the star third baseman on a new multi-year deal. Agent Scott Boras confirmed as much to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, telling her that the sides have had some discussions. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi framed things similarly, telling Slusser the parties have “had conversations” and “active dialogue” on a long-term arrangement.
That’s rather vague terminology that certainly doesn’t suggest anything is imminent. It’s nevertheless confirmation there’s some amount of mutual interest in keeping Chapman in San Francisco. He’s a California native who has a longstanding relationship with skipper Bob Melvin dating back to their time in Oakland.
Chapman hasn’t had any problem acclimating to Oracle Park. He takes a .245/.335/.442 batting line and his customarily strong defensive grades into tonight’s game in Seattle. He’s at 20+ homers for the fifth time in his career with a strong 11% walk percentage. Chapman’s 24.3% strikeout rate is a bit higher than the league mark but would be his lowest rate since 2019. It’s very good all-around production despite a slow start. Chapman limped to a .266 on-base percentage through the end of April. He has been one of the most productive infielders in the majors since then, posting a .253/.355/.461 line with 16 homers dating back to May 1.
It’s the inverse pattern to Chapman’s 2023 campaign. He was arguably the best player in the majors through the season’s first month last year. His offensive numbers plummeted after that and he hit the market with something of a down-arrow trajectory. Chapman had an easy call to decline a qualifying offer from the Blue Jays, but he and his camp at the Boras Corporation did not find the money they were seeking. It wasn’t until the beginning of March that he inked a $54MM guarantee with multiple opt-outs.
Between a signing bonus, his salary, and a buyout (assuming he opts out), Chapman is making $20MM this year. That’s about what he’d have made if he’d taken the QO from Toronto — although the extra two years present more long-term security than the qualifying offer would have provided.
Chapman will presumably try again to land a deal that pushes into nine figures. He’ll play almost all of next season at age 32. It’s difficult but not impossible to pull a $100MM+ deal at that age. As shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker, there have been four nine-figure deals within the last decade for hitters who were 32 or older. Freddie Freeman’s six-year, $162MM pact led the way among free agent contracts. Jose Altuve, Paul Goldschmidt and Manny Machado signed extensions ranging between $125MM and $170MM in new money on five-year terms.
Those players were all better hitters than Chapman has been. As a plus defender at third base, he provides more value on that side of the ball than all of them, aside from maybe Machado. Teams could be wary about paying for defense into a player’s mid-30s.
A five-year term for Chapman would run through his age-36 season. That’s the point through which Kris Bryant and Anthony Rendon were paid on seven-year contracts (both of which have been disasters for the team). Chapman certainly isn’t going to approach Rendon’s $35MM annual salary. Bryant’s $26MM AAV is a more realistic target, albeit on a what’d likely be a four- or five-year term instead of seven.
Josh Donaldson and DJ LeMahieu each signed through age-37 as free agent third basemen. Both guarantees checked in just south of $100MM. Those contracts are a few years old and were both signed after the player declined a qualifying offer, thereby attaching draft compensation. The Giants cannot make Chapman a QO — the CBA prevents a player from receiving more than one in his career — so he’d hit the market entirely unencumbered. Barring some kind of hometown discount, Chapman presumably wouldn’t be interested in forgoing a free agent trip for less than the Donaldson and LeMahieu guarantees.
Alex Bregman leads the impending free agent class at third base. Chapman is the clear #2 option and the class drops off dramatically from there. Last winter’s group was even shallower. Assuming one considers Cody Bellinger primarily an outfielder rather than a first baseman, Chapman’s $54MM guarantee led all infielders.
As Slusser observes, a Chapman extension may need to be San Francisco’s biggest investment under this front office. The Giants have only signed one nine-figure deal since they hired Farhan Zaidi as president of baseball operations during the 2018-19 offseason: last winter’s six-year, $113MM pact for 25-year-old center fielder Jung Hoo Lee. They’ve taken plenty of bigger swings and were a failed physical away from signing Carlos Correa for $350MM, but they’ve yet to actually land a domestic free agent on a long-term deal. They’ve been much more amenable to shorter-term pickups with opt-outs for players whose markets didn’t develop as they’d hoped (e.g. Carlos Rodón, Michael Conforto, Blake Snell, Chapman).
The Giants have around $132MM in guaranteed money for next season. Expected opt-outs for Snell and Chapman would knock that down to roughly $85MM. Lee, Logan Webb, Robbie Ray (assuming he doesn’t opt out this year) and Jordan Hicks are the only players signed beyond next year. That doesn’t include arbitration projections for Mike Yastrzemski, Thairo Estrada, Tyler Rogers, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Camilo Doval. Estrada and Yastrzemski are potential trade or non-tender candidates. The Giants should have a good amount of payroll flexibility even if they retain everyone from their arbitration group.