Giants Rumors

Giants Outright Austin Dean

By Darragh McDonald | March 27, 2022 at 2:33pm CDT

TODAY: Dean cleared waivers and has been outrighted to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate.

MARCH 20: The Giants have designated outfielder Austin Dean for assignment, per Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com. His roster spot was needed for the signing of Matthew Boyd, whose deal is now official.

Dean, 28, was originally drafted by the Marlins in 2012 and eventually made his MLB debut with them in 2018. After 98 games with the Fish in 2018 and 2019, he was traded to the Cardinals, playing 25 games for them in the past couple seasons. He’s yet to impress in his limited MLB action thus far, having hit .225/.282/.391, for a wRC+ of 80. However, his Triple-A performance is much more impressive, as Dean has hit .322/.394/.535 in parts of three seasons.

The Giants just claimed Dean off waivers in November, meaning he could potentially depart the organization without ever suiting up for the team. Given his Triple-A track record, youth and remaining option year, he could potentially be claimed in the coming days by a team looking to add some cheap outfield depth.

NL Injury Notes: Giants, Floro, Ahmed, Simmons

By Mark Polishuk | March 27, 2022 at 9:37am CDT

The Giants provided updates on some veteran names who have yet to appear in Spring Training games, though Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria are both expected to be ready for Opening Day, manager Gabe Kapler told MLB.com’s Maria Guardado and other reporters. Longoria has been dealing with right index finger tendinitis, while Belt has inflammation in his right knee. The latter issue might be the bigger problem on paper, given Belt’s history of knee injuries, but Kapler said “We don’t really have concerns. It’s just going to be a later start for Brandon.”

Tommy La Stella has also yet to take the field this spring, but is running the bases and taking part in other baseball activities. After undergoing Achilles surgery in October, La Stella is now “getting very close to being ready,” Kapler said, and “Tommy has shared strongly that he wants the opportunity to be ahead of schedule and be ready for Opening Day.” The final call will be up to La Stella and the team’s training staff, but even if La Stella isn’t quite ready to go when San Francisco begins play, Kapler intimated that the infielder wouldn’t miss too much time.

Some other injury notes from around the National League…

Dylan Floro has yet to pitch during Spring Training, as the right-hander is dealing with some arm soreness. Marlins manager Don Mattingly was non-committal about Floro’s readiness for the Opening Day roster, telling MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola and other reporters that “We’ll just have to see how that goes,” though Mattingly did note that Floro worked through some similar issues last year with no ill effects during the season. One of baseball’s more underrated relievers of the last four seasons, Floro posted a 2.81 ERA over 64 innings in 2021, his first year in Miami. This performance had put Floro in line for perhaps the majority of ninth-inning work for the Marlins this season, though Mattingly said “I think we’re going to be more of a mix-and-match club” for save situations. Some new faces could also be joining the bullpen, as GM Kim Ng has stated the Marlins are exploring the relief market.
Nick Ahmed’s bothersome right shoulder is “good enough” for the Diamondbacks shortstop “to be out there right now,” but Ahmed told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro that his shoulder still isn’t 100 percent after almost two years of intermittent soreness. Even after receiving two injections in his shoulder this past offseason, Ahmed said the treatment “didn’t go great, how I wanted them to go. I just ended up rehabbing it most of the offseason.” Surgery doesn’t appear to be an option at this point, as Ahmed said he has been working out a training regiment to help keep his shoulder strong and capable of holding up over 162 games. Between his nagging shoulder injury and a knee problem, Ahmed admitted that injuries played a big part in his steep dropoff at the plate, as the shortstop batted only .221/.280/.339 in 473 plate appearances in 2021. On the plus side, Ahmed’s health didn’t hamper his fielding, as he was still one of the game’s better defensive shortstops.
Speaking of Gold Glove shortstops, Andrelton Simmons is also dealing with some right shoulder soreness, Cubs manager told reporters (including The Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro). Simmons hasn’t played the last two days and was in Thursday’s lineup only as the DH. Simmons joined the Cubs on a one-year, $4MM deal soon after the lockout ended.

Giants, Darin Ruf Agree To Two-Year Deal

By Steve Adams | March 22, 2022 at 12:08pm CDT

The Giants have agreed to a two-year, $6.25MM deal with first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The contract contains a club option for a third season, which would be Ruf’s first potential free-agent year.

Ruf, represented by Vanguard Sports, was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $2.6MM via arbitration. He’d have been due another raise via arbitration in 2023 before reaching free agency in the 2023-24 offseason. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that Ruf will earn $3MM this season and next, adding that the 2024 option is valued at $3.5MM and comes with a $250K buyout.

Originally signed by the Giants on the heels of a strong run in the Korea Baseball Organization, Ruf has emerged as a key weapon against left-handed pitching. The former Phillies slugger has decimated southpaws, hitting at a .275/.390/.579 clip with 13 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple in 205 plate appearances. The resulting 157 wRC+, which indicates that Ruf has been 57% better than a league-average hitter against southpaws, ranks 12th among 168 qualified hitters.

That’s not to say Ruf has had a difficult time with right-handers or needs to be deployed strictly as a platoon player, to be clear. He’s no slouch against same-handed opponents either, as evidenced by a robust .270/.372/.461 slash in 207 plate appearances against them. It’s not the same level of dominance he’s had over southpaws, but Ruf’s production has been strong enough that manager Gabe Kapler ought to feel good plugging him into the lineup on just about any given day. And, with the advent of the National League designated hitter, Ruf figures to get more opportunities than in the past.

It’s a highly affordable deal for the Giants — one reflective of Ruf’s atypical career arc. Ruf didn’t see his first prolonged MLB action until his age-26 season, back in 2013, and he didn’t even reach arbitration eligibility until last year — his age-34 campaign. Ruf is already 35 and will turn 36 by late July, meaning he wouldn’t have accrued the necessary six years of service time to reach free agency until after he’d already turned 37. He earned a few million overseas while slashing .313/.404/.564 across three seasons with the Samsung Lions, but given the late-blooming nature of his breakout, it’s not a surprise to see him giving up a free-agent year at a relatively modest rate. This new two-year deal effectively doubles Ruf’s career earnings, which surely makes it a particularly satisfying deal to sign at 35 years of age.

Nationals Claim Hunter Harvey, Place Carter Kieboom On 60-Day Injured List

By Steve Adams | March 21, 2022 at 2:42pm CDT

The Nationals have claimed right-hander Hunter Harvey off waivers from the Giants, per a club announcement. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, third baseman Carter Kieboom has been placed on the 60-day injured list with what the team has termed a right UCL sprain/flexor mass strain.

Harvey is a former first-round pick and top prospect who once looked as if he’d be an important part of the Orioles’ long-term plans. His professional career has been thrown off track by injuries, though, as he landed on the minor league injured list in every season between 2014-18. That included a July 2016 Tommy John procedure that kept him to 31 1/3 cumulative innings between 2016-17.

Baltimore eventually moved Harvey to the bullpen in an attempt to keep him healthy, although that hasn’t yet manifested in better results in that regard. He missed the majority of last season recovering from oblique and lat strains. Between the injuries, Harvey has only managed to log 23 2/3 innings at the big league level.

Despite the questionable health record, the North Carolina native has continued to catch teams’ attention. San Francisco nabbed him off waivers from the Orioles in November, but they’ll lose him before he ever logs an inning in their uniform. It’s easy to see why Harvey hasn’t yet passed through the wire unclaimed, as he owns a 3.42 ERA while averaging north of 97 MPH on his heater in his limited big league time. If he can stay healthy — which is clearly no small caveat — it’s still easy to envision Harvey as a productive arm in the middle or late innings. He also has a minor league option year remaining, so the Nats can shuttle him between Washington and Triple-A Rochester for the rest of the year if they carry him on the 40-man roster.

Kieboom is a former first-rounder and top prospect himself. He has struggled to a .197/.304/.285 line over his first 414 MLB plate appearances, but the 24-year-old still seemed to have a path to regular playing time on a retooling Nationals club this year. Unfortunately, he recently sustained a forearm/elbow injury when throwing, and MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets that he’ll need to rest for at least six weeks before he can resume baseball activities.

It’s a tough setback for both Kieboom and the Nationals, as 2022 is shaping up as something of a make-or-break year for the young infielder. The Nats don’t look like a strong playoff contender this season, but they’re not about to embark on a rebuild with Juan Soto only under club control for three more seasons. Evaluating whether Kieboom could be part of the long-term core seemed like a key objective for the Washington front office, but that’ll be on hold for at least a couple months. With Kieboom out, Luis Garcia, veteran utilityman Ehire Adrianza and non-roster invitee Maikel Franco all seem to have an easier path to playing time at the hot corner early in the year.

Diamondbacks Claim Caleb Baragar

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | March 21, 2022 at 2:37pm CDT

The D-backs have claimed left-hander Caleb Baragar off waivers from the Giants, per a club announcement. Arizona also confirmed its previously reported signing of Oliver Perez to a minor league contract.

Baragar remains in the NL West, as he’d spent his entire career to date with San Francisco. That includes stints in the big leagues in each of the past two seasons, over which time he’s combined for 45 1/3 innings in 49 games. The former ninth-round pick has an impressive 2.78 ERA in that time, but his underlying numbers haven’t supported that kind of run prevention. Baragar’s 18.8% strikeout rate is about five points below that of the league average reliever. He excelled at avoiding walks during his rookie campaign (5.7%), but last year’s 12.2% walk rate was much more problematic.

Walks and home runs proved a major problem for Baragar in Triple-A as well. He handed out free passes at an untenable 17.6% clip with the Giants’ top affiliate in Sacramento, allowing seven homers in 22 1/3 innings. That led to an 8.46 ERA at the minors’ top level, and San Francisco designated him for assignment last week.

The D-Backs will take a shot on the 27-year-old (28 next month) returning to form. Until last season, Baragar generally had a decent track record in the minors. He still has a pair of option years remaining, so Arizona can keep him with their top affiliate in Reno as needed. He joins Joe Mantiply, Kyle Nelson and swingman Caleb Smith as lefty relief options on the Arizona 40-man roster.

Free Agent Notes: Correa, Braves, Story, Tigers, Cueto

By Mark Polishuk | March 20, 2022 at 5:57pm CDT

The Braves were somewhat surprisingly connected to Carlos Correa prior to the lockout, and the two sides did re-engage to some extent before Correa signed with the Twins, though The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports that Atlanta didn’t make Correa an offer. It was actually agent Scott Boras who reached out to the Braves as he was gauging the market for his client, and Rosenthal writes that Boras “floated” the same three-year, $105.3MM deal with two opt-outs that Correa eventually signed with Minnesota.

While nothing came of these negotiations, Rosenthal does wonder if Correa (assuming he opts out) might be a target for the Braves next winter, as incumbent shortstop Dansby Swanson will be a free agent. Signing Correa to a long-term deal would surely require Atlanta GM Alex Anthopoulos to make his biggest expenditure yet, though the Braves will have quite a bit of money coming off the books in the form of Swanson, Kenley Jansen, and depending on club options, Charlie Morton and Will Smith.

Giants To Sign Matthew Boyd

By Steve Adams | March 20, 2022 at 11:30am CDT

March 20: John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle provides the details on the incentives. Boyd will earn an extra $400K for reaching 12, 14 and 16 starts, $500K for 18 starts and $600K for 20 starts.

March 17: The Giants have agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent lefty Matthew Boyd, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The longtime Tigers hurler will be guaranteed $5.2MM on the contract and can earn an additional $2.3MM via incentives. Boyd is represented by the Boras Corporation.

Boyd, who turned 31 last month, underwent season-ending surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon last September and said in February that he’s targeting an early-June return to a big league mound. He’ll be sidelined for at least the first two months of the season, then, but will give San Francisco a potential midseason boost in the rotation.

At various points in his career, Boyd has shown flashes of brilliance and looked to be on the cusp of breaking out as an upper-echelon starter. He carried a 3.44 ERA through early June last season before an injury knocked him out of a June 14 start. He was sidelined two months, returned to throw eight ineffective innings, and underwent surgery shortly thereafter. The Tigers, knowing he’d miss a significant portion of the 2022 season, opted to non-tender him back in November rather than pay him a final raise in arbitration. The combined $5.2MM base and $2.3MM of incentives on this new contract give Boyd the opportunity to earn roughly the same amount as the $7.3MM at which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected his 2022 arbitration salary ($7.3MM).

Last year wasn’t the only intriguing and promising stretch of his career, though. In 2019, Boyd had a 3.08 ERA and 2.98 FIP with elite strikeout and walk rates through mid-June, prompting him to be regarded as one of the most sought-after trade candidates on the market that season. He was sitting on a 3.94 ERA, a 3.26 SIERA, a 32.5% strikeout rate and 5.3% walk rate by the time the trade deadline rolled around, but he ultimately remained in Detroit.

Boyd’s ability to miss bats and limit walks has continually intrigued teams, but there tend to be other red flags that offset those promising trends. In 2019, when he ranked ninth in the Majors in strikeout percentage and eighth in K-BB%, he also served up an untenable 1.89 HR/9. This past season, when he tamped down that grisly home run rate all the way to 1.03 HR/9, it came with a huge dip in his strikeout rate.

If the Giants are able to get Boyd’s strikeout, walk and home-run prevention rates all working in sync for the first time in his career, there’s obvious potential for him to finally take that next step. San Francisco has developed a reputation as a club that thrives on coaxing breakouts from talented pitchers in need of a scenery change, and it certainly can’t hurt Boyd to be moving to the spacious Oracle Park (although Detroit’s Comerica Park is hardly a bandbox itself).

The Giants are heading into the season with a starting rotation of Logan Webb, Carlos Rodon, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Alex Cobb — a talented and experienced mix that has potential to be one of the game’s more effective quintets. However, Rodon, Wood, Cobb and (to a lesser extent) DeSclafani all have checkered track records of health, so stockpiling depth to support that group is imperative. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, GM Scott Harris and the rest of the front office have begun to do just that in recent days, signing not only Boyd but also former Royals righty Jakob Junis (one year, $1.75MM) and former Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez (minor league deal, $2.5MM base in the Majors).

Giants Sign Taylor Williams To Minors Deal

By Darragh McDonald | March 20, 2022 at 11:07am CDT

The Giants have signed right-handed pitcher Taylor Williams to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, per Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com.

Williams was drafted by the Brewers and spent the first three years of his big league career there, before bouncing to the Mariners, Padres and Marlins over the past two years. Over his five seasons, he’s gotten into 97 games and thrown 98 2/3 innings. His career ERA is 5.29, along with a 23.3% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate.

Now 30 years old, Williams is out of options. If he’s able to crack the Giants’ roster, he’ll have to stay there, or else be designated for assignment. However, with just over three years of MLB service time, if he can earn and hang onto a roster spot, he can be retained by the club via arbitration.

Trevor Story Reportedly Choosing Among Four Teams

By Steve Adams | March 19, 2022 at 8:05am CDT

TODAY: Story has “multiple new suitors” as of this morning, per Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). The Twins’ signing of Carlos Correa last night could certainly prompt some new conversations now that Story is the last of the big names on the market. Along with the Giants and Red Sox, Heyman names the Rangers, Astros, and Yankees as teams who have potentially opened up conversations with Story.

Heyman adds a few other notes, saying that Story still prefers to play shortstop, though he’s said to be open to a position change. He is also open to a short-term deal in the vein of the one signed by Correa, tweets Heyman.

5:37pm: Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic tweets that the Red Sox are indeed “firmly” involved in the running for Story.

1:05pm: Free-agent shortstop Trevor Story is mulling opportunities with four teams and expects to make a decision relatively soon, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. Both the Giants and Red Sox are in the mix for Story, per Heyman, who notes that the longtime Rockies shortstop is now open to a “short-term” position change, if necessary. That’s a departure from earlier in the winter, when his strong preference was to remain at shortstop. Heyman adds that Story is prioritizing signing with a win-now team.

It’s not clear which other clubs remain in the market, though the Twins and Mariners are among the clubs that have expressed interest throughout the offseason. Minnesota’s interest came to light earlier in the week, after the Twins succeeded in unloading the remainder of Josh Donaldson’s contract in a trade with the Yankees (another rumored Story suitor earlier this winter). The Twins could offer a clear everyday role at shortstop, but if Story is prioritizing a winning club, it’s a bit of a tougher sell for a 73-win Twins club — even if they’ve acquired Sonny Gray and made some other moves signaling a desire to contend in 2022.

The Mariners, meanwhile, hoped to sign Story to play second base earlier in the winter. With Story then apparently set on sticking at shortstop, the M’s acquired Eugenio Suarez alongside Jesse Winker in a deal with the Reds. Suarez and fellow offseason trade acquisition Adam Frazier appear set to man third base and second base, respectively, though ever-active Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto could always look for some further dealings to create more opportunity if he indeed covets Story.

It should be noted that while the words “short-term” don’t necessarily mean that Story is open to a short-term deal just yet. For instance, the general expectation is that Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts will opt out of the final three years of his contract following the 2022 season. Story could technically sign a long-term deal in Boston, play second base for one season, and then slide over as the everyday shortstop if an when Bogaerts departs. That’s an entirely speculative scenario, to be clear, but one that is fairly easy to envision.

As for the Giants, they’ve generally shown an aversion to long-term, nine-figure contracts. Any deal with Story, then, would either require him to take a short-term pact of require an exception to the Farhan Zaidi-led front office’s philosophy on long-term commitments. Were Story willing to change positions, he could slide in at second base in San Francisco and push Tommy La Stella into a versatile utility role. Depending on Evan Longoria’s health, Story could also conceivably spend some time at the hot corner, teaming with Brandon Crawford to form a dynamic left-side defense.

Twins Claim Jose Godoy From Giants

By Mark Polishuk | March 17, 2022 at 1:49pm CDT

The Twins have claimed catcher Jose Godoy off waivers from the Giants, as announced by both teams. The claim opens up a roster spot for Joc Pederson, whose new one-year contract with San Francisco is now official.

Godoy is changing teams for the second time in five days, as the Giants only just claimed the backstop off waivers from the Mariners earlier this week. Godoy will head from one team experiencing a sea change behind the plate (due to Buster Posey’s retirement) to another, as the Twins just acquired Gary Sanchez from the Yankees and dealt Mitch Garver to the Rangers in a pair of trades.

Beyond Sanchez and Ryan Jeffers, Minnesota doesn’t have any other catchers in the organization with big league experience, so Godoy will provide some Triple-A depth. Godoy’s 16 career MLB games (all with Seattle last year) don’t make for a lengthy Major League resume, but he does have eight years of minor league experience playing in the Cardinals farm system from 2012-19. While Godoy isn’t particularly known for his bat, he does have a .292/.338/.424 slash line over 412 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

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