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Giants, Brandon Guyer Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran outfielder Brandon Guyer, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The ACES client would earn $1MM upon making the big league roster, but won’t open up in MLB camp, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (via Twitter).

The 2019 season marked the first time since 2013 that Guyer didn’t appear in the Majors. He might’ve eventually had that chance on a then-rebuilding White Sox roster, but the now-34-year-old Guyer opened the season in Triple-A Charlotte and spent most of the year on the injured list.

Guyer hasn’t had a full, productive season in the big leagues since 2016 and has long been something of a specialty player. The right-handed-hitting veteran has traditionally struggled against right-handed pitching but has tormented lefties with a .274/.375/.448 slash (130 wRC+) in 793 plate appearances. Guyer thrives at getting on base when holding the platoon advantage, in no small part due to his league-leading penchant for getting hit by pitches (as explored at great length by FanGraphs’ August Fagerstrom back in 2016).

Giants fans have been expecting some outfield additions since president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi said last week that deepening that mix was a priority. While this move probably isn’t as exciting as anything Giants fans might’ve hoped for, Guyer’s right-handed bat would seemingly pair well with a heavily left-handed outfield mix — Alex Dickerson, Steven Duggar and Mike Yastrzemski — if he makes the team.

Giants To Sign Nick Vincent

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The Giants have agreed to terms with veteran reliever Nick Vincent, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). It’s a minors deal with a spring invite.

Vincent opened the 2019 season in San Francisco but struggled before being cut loose. He ended up turning in 14 good innings down the stretch with the Phillies, though, running up a 17:4 K/BB ratio and allowing just three earned runs.

Now an eight-year MLB veteran, the 33-year-old has compiled quite an impressive track record. Through 376 2/3 career innings, the soft-tossing Vincent carries a 3.32 ERA. While teams haven’t been willing to stake much on a continuation of that performance level, he’s certainly a nice player to have on hand for this level of commitment.

Giants “Showing Interest” In Hunter Pence

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The Giants are one of several teams “showing interest” in outfielder Hunter Pence, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). Other pursuers have yet to be named.

It’s not surprising to hear the Giants connected to an outfielder, given the news yesterday that the club is looking to add there. But Pence represents quite an interesting target for the rebuilding Giants.

When last he plied his trade in San Francisco, Pence looked to be ramping down. He was highly productive for the organization after his mid-2012 acquisition, but turned in successive duds (87 wRC+ in 2017; 60 wRC+ in 2018) in his final two seasons.

Pence flipped that script with a 2019 revival. Over 316 plate appearances with the Rangers, he knocked 18 long balls and turned in a .297/.358/.552 batting line — good for a healthy 128 wRC+. Pence generated personal bests in hard contact (42.6%) and exit velocity (91.4 mph) while approximately doubling his average launch angle (10.1 degrees) over his prior output.

True, Pence was limited mostly to DH work last year and hasn’t graded terribly well in the field of late. But he’s still got quite a lot of spring in his legs. Statcast numbers show that Pence ranked in the 84.7th percentile in average sprint speed last year.

No doubt the Giants would view Pence as a part-time option who’d help bring along and supplement younger players. The presence of the beloved Pence, along with the just-re-signed Pablo Sandoval, would also go a long way towards comforting some segments of the fanbase that are less than enthused with the degree of recent roster turnover.

Giants Expect To Make Outfield Additions

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Although the Giants’ outfield ended the 2019 campaign a lowly 22nd in WAR and 28th in wRC+, the club hasn’t made any notable moves to upgrade the area since then. But president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi believes that will change before spring training opens, as he told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.

“I would still expect us to add one or two players to the outfield mix before we get to camp,” Zaidi said. “Whether by trade or free agency, whether it’s the NRI (non-roster invitee) route or the major-league roster, there are still guys out there we think will be good additions for us. That would still be our expectation.”

Zaidi was unwilling to comment on specific players who are available, but he revealed that the team’s “evaluating every guy.” While free agency is low on potentially impactful players at this stage, it’s worth noting that at least a few of the top outfielders remaining do have Giants connections. The best outfielder left, Yasiel Puig, played for the archrival Dodgers when Zaidi was their GM. Kevin Pillar was a well-respected Giant during his time there last season, but the team non-tendered him in November instead of paying him a projected $9.7MM in arbitration (however, perhaps San Francisco will circle back to him at a cheaper cost). Cameron Maybin’s also still unsigned – he was a Giant last spring, though they released him before the start of the season.

Elsewhere on the market, another ex-Giant, Hunter Pence, as well as Domingo Santana, Jarrod Dyson, Billy Hamilton, Jacoby Ellsbury and Juan Lagares represent other notable outfield-capable players looking for jobs. As you’d expect at this stage of the offseason, though, all come with their share of warts. Pence and Santana are likely better suited for DH roles; Dyson, Hamilton and Lagares bring little to the table offensively; and the injury-riddled Ellsbury hasn’t taken the field since 2017.

As things stand, the Giants are projected to enter 2020 with a fairly unproven outfield, which was also the case last year before they acquired Pillar from Toronto at the start of April. Now, Mike Yastrzemski looks like the most promising member of the group, having enjoyed a strong rookie season in 2019. Alex Dickerson also put up good overall offensive numbers, but the lefty hitter did all of his damage versus righties and saw his production plummet as the season progressed. Meanwhile, the Giants’ other projected starting outfielder, Steven Duggar, endured a rough year while dealing with injuries.

Beyond Yastrzemski, Dickerson and Duggar, the Giants have Jaylin Davis – whom FanGraphs calls “a potential low-end regular” – as well as Austin Slater, Joey Rickard and Drew Robinson, among others, as possibilities to begin the year on the roster. Judging by Zaidi’s comments, though, they and the rest of San Francisco’s in-house outfield candidates could have more company when camp opens.

Giants To Re-Sign Pablo Sandoval

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The Giants have reached a deal to bring third baseman Pablo Sandoval back to the organization, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. It’ll be a minor league arrangement with a $2MM base salary in the event that Sandoval makes the club. Sandoval, a Beverly Hills Sports Council client, can also earn an additional $750K via incentive pay.

Sandoval, 33, has spent the past two and a half seasons back with the Giants after being cut loose by the Red Sox at the halfway point of an ill-fated $95MM contract. While he hasn’t been the hitter he was at his peak during the Giants’ even-year dynasty, he turned in a quality .268/.313/.507 slash with 14 long balls in a part-time role in 2019. His season, however, came to an early end at the beginning of September with the revelation that he required Tommy John surgery. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets that Sandoval is ahead of schedule in his rehab from that procedure.

With Evan Longoria still locked in as the everyday third baseman in San Francisco, another backup role seems likely for Sandoval. He’s surely amenable to whatever role will keep him in the Bay Area, though, as the beloved Giants fan favorite recently voiced his desire to retire as a Giant. He’d presumably step into a larger role in the event of a Longoria injury and will otherwise see occasional time at first base and perhaps even at second base in emergency situation after logging seven innings there in 2019.

Free Agent Spending By Team: National League

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With the clear exception of the still-unsigned Yasiel Puig, free agency is almost devoid of high-upside contributors at this point. The majority of players capable of securing guaranteed contracts have already come off the board, making this a good time to check in on which teams have spent the most and which clubs have paid the least via the open market. We’ve already gone through the same exercise for the American League, where the Yankees have returned to the top of the heap as the biggest spenders in their league and in the sport in general. Meanwhile, over in the Senior Circuit, reigning world champion Washington clearly isn’t resting on its laurels after a storybook playoff run…

Nationals: $316.75MM on 10 players (Stephen Strasburg, Will Harris, Daniel Hudson, Starlin Castro, Yan Gomes, Howie Kendrick, Eric Thames, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ryan Zimmerman and Kyle Finnegan; financial details unclear for Finnegan; top 50 MLBTR signings: four)

Reds: $164MM on four players (Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, Shogo Akiyama and Wade Miley; top 50 signings: four)

Phillies: $132MM on two players (Zack Wheeler and Didi Gregorius; top 50 signings: two)

Braves: $116.25MM on nine players (Will Smith, Marcell Ozuna, Cole Hamels, Travis d’Arnaud, Chris Martin, Nick Markakis, Tyler Flowers, Darren O’Day, Adeiny Hechavarria; top 50 signings: five)

Diamondbacks: $109.65MM on five players (Madison Bumgarner, Kole Calhoun, Hector Rondon, Stephen Vogt and Junior Guerra; top 50 signings: two)

Brewers: $48.38MM on eight players (Avisail Garcia, Josh Lindblom, Justin Smoak, Brett Anderson, Eric Sogard, Alex Claudio, Ryon Healy and Deolis Guerra; financial details unclear for Healy and Guerra; top 50 signings: two)

Padres: $48MM on three players (Drew Pomeranz, Craig Stammen and Pierce Johnson; top 50 signings: three)

Mets: $24.35MM on four players (Dellin Betances, Rick Porcello, Michael Wacha and Brad Brach; top 50 signings: three)

Marlins: $23.855MM on five players (Corey Dickerson, Brandon Kintzler, Francisco Cervelli, Matt Joyce and Yimi Garcia; financial details unclear for Joyce; top 50 signings: one)

Giants: $17.775MM on four players (Kevin Gausman, Drew Smyly, Tony Watson and Tyler Anderson; top 50 signings: one)

Dodgers: $15.25MM on three players (Blake Treinen, Alex Wood and Jimmy Nelson; top 50 signings: one)

Cardinals: $15MM on three players (Adam Wainwright, Kwang-hyun Kim and Matt Wieters; top 50 signings: one)

Cubs: $2.5MM on three players (Steven Souza Jr., Jeremy Jeffress and Ryan Tepera; top 50 signings: zero)

Pirates: Signed OF Guillermo Heredia and C Luke Maile (financial details unclear; top 50 signings: zero)

Rockies: Signed RHP Jose Mujica (financial details unclear; top 50 signings: zero)

Giants To Sign Yolmer Sanchez

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The Giants and second baseman Yolmer Sanchez are in agreement on a minor league contract, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The MVP Sports client will be in Major League camp as a non-roster invitee and will vie for everyday at-bats at second base.

Still just 27 years old, Sanchez was cut loose by the White Sox in late November despite taking home Gold Glove honors for his work at second base in 2019. Sanchez racked up 11 Defensive Runs Saved and a 4.9 Ultimate Zone Rating, although Statcast’s Outs Above Average was a bit more tepid in giving him a +2 mark.

Defensive excellence notwithstanding, Sanchez has never shown that he can hit much at the big league level. A 2017 season in which he slashed .267/.319/.413 stands out as his best year with the bat, and in the two seasons since that time, he’s combined for a dreary .246/.311/.349 output in more than 1200 trips to the dish. In all, Sanchez is a career .244/.299/.357 hitter in 2438 plate appearances. If he’s able to make the club, he’d be controllable through the 2021 season via arbitration.

With the Giants, he’ll push up-and-coming Mauricio Dubon for the everyday nod at second base. Dubon, a rather well-regarded shortstop prospect acquired in July’s Drew Pomeranz deal, batted .274/.306/.434 in his big league debut this past season — a total of 111 plate appearances. He’s a career .299/.339/.474 hitter in parts of three Triple-A campaigns, though, and gives the Giants a longer-term option with more all-around upside at second base than does Sanchez.

Rosenthal indicates that Sanchez had Major League offers this winter but opted for a minor league pact in San Francisco to compete for a regular role. That, presumably, says more about the quality of said big league offers as it does about Sanchez’s chances of winning the job with the Giants. Sanchez was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $6.2MM in arbitration prior to being placed on waivers, and his rejection of MLB offers serves as an indicator that none were close to that range. More likely is that other clubs had eyes on using him in a utility capacity, and he’ll instead hope to parlay this nonguaranteed deal into a more prominent role.

Teams That Gained Or Lost Draft Picks Via Qualifying Offer Free Agents

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Now that Marcell Ozuna has signed, all 10 of the players who were issued a one-year, $17.8MM qualifying offer in November have settled on teams for the 2020 season.  Of that group, two (Jose Abreu of the White Sox and Jake Odorizzi of the Twins) accepted their qualifying offers and returned to their clubs — Abreu, in fact, topped off his QO by signing a contract extension that will run through the 2022 season.  Stephen Strasburg also isn’t changing uniforms, as the longtime Nationals ace rejected the club’s qualifying offer but eventually re-signed with Washington on a seven-year, $245MM deal.

That leaves us with seven QO players who will be playing on new teams in 2020, and as such, the draft compensation attached to those seven players has also now been allotted.  Under the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the same compensation was handed out to all six teams who lost those players, as the entire sextet fell under the same financial criteria.  The Mets, Cardinals, Braves, Giants, Nationals, and Astros all aren’t revenue-sharing recipients, nor did they exceed the luxury tax threshold in 2019, so all six teams will receive a compensatory draft pick between Competitive Balance Round B and the third round of the 2020 draft.

Here is how the so-called “Compensation Round” breaks down.  The order of the picks is determined by worst record-to-best record from the 2019 season.

68. Giants (for Madison Bumgarner)
69. Giants (for Will Smith)
70. Mets (for Zack Wheeler)
71. Cardinals (for Marcell Ozuna)
72. Nationals (for Anthony Rendon)
73. Braves (for Josh Donaldson)
74. Astros (for Gerrit Cole)

San Francisco now possesses five of the first 87 picks in next June’s draft.  With the Giants still in the NL wild card race last summer, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi opted to hang onto Bumgarner and Smith rather than trade either player, a decision that led to some criticism since San Francisco was widely considered to be closer to rebuilding than truly contending.  The critics’ judgement grew even harsher after the Giants went 22-32 record in August and September and fell well short of the postseason.  Still, given that teams were reluctant to part with top-flight young talent for even controllable players (let alone rentals like Bumgarner and Smith) at the trade deadline, Zaidi clearly felt that the two picks he could recoup from the qualifying offer process were more valuable than anything offered for the two Giants pitchers last July.

It’s worth noting that the 74th overall pick will be Houston’s first selection of the 2020 draft, after the Astros lost both their first- and second-highest selections in both 2020 and 2021 as part of their punishment for the sign-stealing scandal.  Since the Red Sox are also under league investigation for their own alleged use of electronics to steal opponents’ signs in 2018, Boston could also potentially lose at least one pick in this year’s draft, so we can’t yet say that the 2020 draft order is finalized.  Of course, the order could be further muddled if more trades occur involving picks from the two Competitive Balance Draft rounds, which are the only types of draft picks that can be traded.  We’ve already seen the Rays and Cardinals swap their picks in Rounds A and B as part of the multi-player trade that sent Jose Martinez and Randy Arozarena to Tampa Bay earlier this month.

Let’s now look at the six teams who signed the seven QO-rejecting free agents, and see what those clubs had to give up in order to make the signings.

Yankees, for signing Gerrit Cole: Since New York exceeded the luxury tax threshold in 2019, they gave up their second- and fifth-round picks in the 2020 draft (a.k.a. their second- and fifth-highest selections).  The Yankees also gave up $1MM in funds from their international signing bonus pool.

Diamondbacks, for signing Madison Bumgarner: As a team that didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold and was a revenue-sharing recipient, the D’Backs had to give up their third-highest draft choice to sign Bumgarner.  This ended up being Arizona’s second-round selection — the team’s first two picks are their first-rounder (18th overall) and their pick in Competitive Balance Round A (33rd overall).

Twins, for signing Josh Donaldson: Minnesota also received revenue-sharing and didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold, so signing Donaldson put the Twins in position to give up their third-highest draft selection.  However, the Twins are actually giving up their fourth-highest pick in the 2020 draft, which is their third-round selection.  The Twins’ actual third selection is their pick in Competitive Balance Round B, but those picks aren’t eligible to be forfeited as compensation for QO free agent signings.

Angels, for signing Anthony Rendon: Since the Halos didn’t receive revenue-sharing funds and also didn’t pay any luxury tax money, they had to give up their second-highest draft pick (their second-rounder) and $500K in international bonus funds to sign Rendon.

Phillies, for signing Zack Wheeler: The Phillies surrendered their second-highest selection (their second-round pick) and $500K of their international bonus pool, since they were another team that didn’t exceed the luxury tax line and didn’t receive revenue-sharing money.

Braves, for signing Will Smith and Marcell Ozuna: The dual signings put Atlanta in line for a dual penalty.  The Braves didn’t exceed the luxury tax threshold and also didn’t receive revenue-sharing money, so they gave up their second-highest draft pick (their second-rounder) and $500K of international bonus money for Smith.  In landing Ozuna, the Braves then had to also forfeit their third-round pick (their third-highest selection) and another $500K from their international bonus pool.

Losing two draft picks and $1MM in international pool money isn’t nothing, though these particular sanctions had less impact on the Braves than on other teams, which undoubtedly influenced their decisions.  First of all, the compensatory pick Atlanta received for Donaldson is higher in the draft order than their third-round pick, so the net loss is only a second-round pick.  Secondly, the Braves’ movement in the international market is still limited by the punishment handed out by Major League Baseball in November 2017 for Atlanta’s past international signing violations.  Part of that punishment included the Braves’ pool for the 2020-21 international market being reduced by 50 percent — being so handcuffed in the international market anyway, the Braves probably felt $1MM in pool money was no great loss.

Giants Outright Jake Jewell, Trevor Oaks

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The Giants continued their roster-churning efforts by outrighting pitchers Jake Jewell and Trevor Oaks. Among those to tweet the news was Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter).

Both of these 26-year-old right-handers were acquired earlier in the offseason through waiver claims, then dropped to allow the club to acquire two additional hurlers. Jewell and Oaks are now lodged in the San Francisco system without occupying 40-man roster space, which was perhaps the plan all along.

The voluminous waiver activity of the Giants has brought in a host of new players. Whether any will provide much value remains to be seen.

Jewell is coming off of a tough 2019 effort in which he was bombed at both the MLB and Triple-A levels. But he features a mid-to-upper-nineties fastball and has shown some swing and miss potential. Perhaps the Giants can re-think his approach and help improve the results.

For Oaks, the standout skill is groundball induction. The soft-tossing sinkerballer has worked almost exclusively as a starter and was successful in that role last year at Triple-A. Though he recorded just 4.9 K/9, he drew grounders on 50.2% of the balls put in play against him and allowed just five home runs in 128 1/3 innings — no small achievement given the offensive explosion in the highest level of the minors.

Giants Sign Darin Ruf

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The Giants have inked first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf to a minor league contract, Jayson Stark of The Athletic reports. The deal includes an invitation to major league spring training.

The 33-year-old Ruf is returning stateside after spending three seasons with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Samsung Lions, who purchased his contract from the Dodgers in February 2017. It proved to be a great move for the Lions, as Ruf slashed an excellent .313/.404/.564 line with 86 home runs over 1,756 plate appearances as a member of the team.

Long before heading to Korea, Ruf entered pro ball as a 20th-round pick of the Phillies in 2009. He picked up at-bats with the major league club in each season from 2012-16, hitting a decent .240/.314/.433 (105 wRC+) with 35 homers in 833 PA, but he logged dismal production in his most recent MLB campaign. Ruf spent the majority of that season at the Triple-A level, where he owns a lifetime .280/.345/.457 mark and 28 HRs in 859 trips to the plate.

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