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Free Agent Rumors: JDM, Darvish, Morrison, Giants, Twins, Orioles

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J.D. Martinez’s name has been connected more with the D-backs in recent days, though Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic posits that it’s difficult to envision the Diamondbacks finding a way to fit Martinez, Zack Greinke and Paul Goldschmidt all on the same payroll, should the team ultimately extend Goldschmidt beyond his current contract (which runs through 2019). That said, Piecoro notes that Martinez loved his time in Arizona, bonded with teammates and likes the upward trajectory of the team. Piecoro also points out that the D-backs hired one of Martinez’s personal hitting coaches, Robert Van Scoyoc, and appointed him to the newly created position of “hitting strategist” within the organization.

A reunion with the D-backs could be a stretch financially, but FanRag’s Jon Heyman writes that agent Scott Boras has met with D-backs managing partner Ken Kendrick on multiple occasions this offseason. How aggressive Boras can push Kendrick to be remains to be seen; Heyman notes that Arizona has “signaled a willingness” to go to five years and more than $100MM, though John Gambadoro of 98.7 FM Arizona Sports tweets that, to the contrary, the D-backs aren’t willing to go to that length to retain the slugger.

More notes on the woefully slow free-agent market…

  • The Brewers’ offer to Yu Darvish was nine figures in total value, Heyman reports in his latest notes column. That’s perhaps not all that surprising, as he’s been expected to sign for more than $100MM all offseason, and any serious proposal to him would figure to top that sum. Heyman further notes that there’s “reason to believe” that neither the Brewers or the Twins are a top choice for Darvish, though, so either team could perhaps need to be more aggressive in order to land him. 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson reported yesterday that Minnesota, too, recently made a formal contract offer to Darvish (which presumably was also worth more than $100MM in total).
  • Logan Morrison is on the Red Sox’ radar as a potential backup option should they not sign Martinez, per Heyman. The 30-year-old would be a considerably more affordable source of power to slot into the DH spot in the lineup (presumably with some occasional time at first base to give Mitch Moreland a break, or in the event of a Moreland injury). It’s been fairly quiet on Morrison for much of the offseason despite the fact that he’s run up a 130 wRC+ over his past 900 big league plate appearances. MLBTR’s Connor Byrne recently took a lengthier look at Morrison’s merits.
  • FanRag’s Robert Murray reports that the Giants are still looking for bullpen help and made an offer to Seung-hwan Oh before the righty ultimately signed with the Rangers. San Francisco is only about $2.1MM from the $197MM luxury tax threshold, so they don’t have much to spend while remaining under the tax line. Murray suggests a match with Huston Street as a possibility, though his characterization of Street as one of the top remaining options on the relief market seems rather overstated. Now 34 years old, Street was one of the game’s top relievers for the better part of a decade, but he’s pitched just 26 1/3 innings with a 5.47 ERA and a 17-to-13 K/BB ratio in the past two seasons as he’s dealt with oblique, knee, lat and groin injuries in that brief two-year span. That said, he certainly seems like someone that could fit into a limited budget, perhaps even on a minor league deal.
  • The Twins have been most prominently linked to rotation help, but they’re also looking to bolster their offensive output against left-handed pitching, writes Dan Hayes of The Athletic. “…[I]f there’s a right fit for our roster from the right side, that’s probably a fair place to say, if we’re going to add on the position player side, that’s the right slot,” chief baseball officer Derek Falvey tells Hayes. Minnesota has been linked to Mike Napoli throughout the offseason, and Hayes runs through some other speculative fits that could bolster the club’s bench and overall output against lefties.
  • Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com looks at the Orioles’ pursuit of rotation help and notes that he hasn’t heard any talk of interest in a reunion with Jeremy Hellickson. The O’s tried to gauge Wade Miley’s interest in a one-year deal earlier this winter, and they perhaps unsurprisingly have not shown a “shred” of interest in bringing Ubaldo Jimenez back to Baltimore. The Jimenez deal, Kubatko notes, has led to a refusal on the Orioles’ part to consider offers beyond three years in length this offseason. (ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported a similar sentiment from owner Peter Angelos yesterday.)

NL Notes: Dodgers, Kemp, Giants, Bumgarner, Braves, Marlins

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The Dodgers’ best chance of moving Matt Kemp may be to package the veteran outfielder (and the $43MM remaining on his contract) along with some good minor league talent to a team with payroll space that is willing to “buy a prospect,” Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes.  Such moves are becoming increasingly common around baseball, such as the Padres’ acquisition of Chase Headley and Bryan Mitchell from the Yankees earlier this offseason.  The Dodgers have a deep enough farm system that they might not necessarily have to offer one of their top-tier prospects to unload Kemp; Sullivan cites righty Wilmer Font as the type of MLB-ready minor leaguer that could step right into the rotation of a rebuilding team.  Some creativity may be required to work out a Kemp trade, though the five-player, luxury tax-bending deal with the Braves that brought Kemp back to L.A. was itself pretty unique.  If it costs the Dodgers a star prospect to get Kemp off the books, it might be worth it in the long run if the trade frees up enough money for the Dodgers to re-sign Yu Darvish.

Some more from around the National League…

  • Should the Giants sign Madison Bumgarner to an extension?  The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly (subscription required) looks at the factors that the team will face in making that decision, such as other future salary commitments, whether the Giants will remain competitive in the coming years, and whether they’ll be wary about another long-term deal for a pitcher going into his 30s when other such recent contracts (i.e. Barry Zito, Matt Cain) didn’t work out.  San Francisco isn’t in any immediate rush to decide on the matter, however, as Bumgarner is controlled through 2019 via a $12MM club option.  This gives the Giants time to determine if they can extend their window of contention or perhaps if Bumgarner himself is still in his old form after his injury-marred 2017 campaign.
  • The Braves’ lineup has lost a lot of pop with the departures of Kemp, Matt Adams, and Brandon Phillips, and the team’s primary hope is that its young players emerge as power threats, Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.  Continued development from Ozzie Albies, Rio Ruiz, and Johan Camargo would be a boon for the team, and big things are expected from star prospect Ronald Acuna.  There’s also still the potential for another addition, GM Alex Anthopoulos said: “We’ve talked about the loss of power and how to make up for it.  I don’t have an answer today. Normally you’d say ’Wow, it’s late January, how do you not have an answer?’ But there’s a lot of free agents still out there and there’s a lot of bodies.”
  • The Marlins’ fire sale is the largest ever, The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh writes, as only one team in baseball history has traded more WAR in a single offseason than Miami has this winter.  That team (the 1899 Louisville Colonels) technically shouldn’t count given the unusual circumstances — Colonels owner Barney Dreyfuss bought a share of the Pirates and then sold much of Louisville’s top talent to Pittsburgh.  Lindbergh’s piece chronicles the top 20 biggest talent purges from one season to the next, with some other recent teams (the 2014 Braves, 2014 A’s, and 2012 Marlins) also appearing on the list.

Heyman’s Latest: Darvish, Utley, Hosmer, Moustakas, Stanton, Marlins, Melky, Dyson, Garcia, ChiSox

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Here’s the latest hot stove buzz from FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman in his weekly look at all 30 teams…

  • Yu Darvish is still on the radar for both the Cubs and Dodgers, though with some caveats.  Chicago “seem to be hoping that Darvish will choose them for reasons that are not economic,” which implies that Darvish would drop his asking price to play for a World Series contender.  In the Dodgers’ case, there is “some ambivalence by at least some” at the ownership level about bringing Darvish back in the wake of his well-publicized struggles during the World Series.
  • “The overwhelming belief is that Chase Utley will be back” with the Dodgers for another season.  Utley, who turned 39 last month, hit .236/.324/.405 in 353 PA in 2017, with most of those plate appearances coming against right-handed pitching.  Beyond his lefty bat and backup capability at first and second base, Utley is also regarded as a strong leader within the Los Angeles clubhouse.
  • “Royals ownership was more than willing to move on” from Eric Hosmer, though GM Dayton Moore is trying to do what he can to retain the core members of their 2014-15 pennant winners.  Moore is still hoping that Hosmer can be re-signed, though some cuts may need to be made to the K.C. payroll to facilitate the first baseman’s return.
  • The Yankees continue to monitor the infield market for second base or third base help, and discussed Mike Moustakas earlier this week.  Moustakas would cost significantly more than some of New York’s other targets, however, which doesn’t fit the Yankees’ plan of getting under the luxury tax threshold unless they can move other salaries.
  • Earlier reports indicated that the Giants were willing to pay up to $230MM of the $295MM owed on Giancarlo Stanton’s contract, though Heyman writes that San Francisco was actually willing to absorb all $295MM.  Some “not upper-tier” prospects also would’ve gone to the Marlins.  Since Stanton wasn’t willing to waive his no-trade clause to join the Giants, of course, it ended up being a moot point.  The Cardinals were willing to take on roughly $265MM of Stanton’s deal and offered the best trade package in terms of prospects, according to a source who had seen the proposals Miami received from the Cards, Giants, and Yankees.
  • The Marlins have received just “limited interest” in Starlin Castro in trade talks, and may have to eat some of the $22MM remaining on his contract in order to complete a deal.  Castro has already switched uniforms once this winter, going from the Yankees to the Marlins as part of the Stanton trade, and he has already asked Miami’s front office to be dealt.
  • Melky Cabrera has drawn some interest from the Marlins, Royals, and Pirates.  There hasn’t been much news on the veteran outfielder this winter, with only the Orioles (also mentioned here by Heyman) previously reported to have discussed Cabrera’s services.
  • Jarrod Dyson’s asking price was in the area of a two-year, $14MM deal, though the speedy outfielder has been receiving one-year offers “for less than a third” of his hoped-for dollar figure.  The Blue Jays, Giants, Mariners, and Orioles have been linked to Dyson at various times this winter, though the first three of those teams have since addressed their outfield needs with other players.
  • Heyman adds Jaime Garcia’s name to the list of veteran starters receiving consideration from the Orioles.  Garcia posted a 4.41 ERA, 2.02 K/BB rate, and 7.4 K/9 over 157 innings for the Braves, Twins, and Yankees last season.  As noted by Heyman, the O’s are particularly stringent when it comes to pitchers’ medicals, which could be an issue in Garcia’s case — the lefty has a history of shoulder problems and a Tommy John surgery on his record.
  • The White Sox are looking for DH help, but they don’t appear to be looking at the Dodgers’ Matt Kemp as a trade possibility.

Giants Sign Andres Blanco To Minor League Contract

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The Giants have signed infielder Andres Blanco to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets. Blanco’s deal includes an invitation to big league camp. He’ll receive a $1.1MM salary and $400K-plus in incentives if he makes the Giants’ roster. Otherwise, the contract will allow Blanco to pursue opportunities in Asia should they arise.

This is the second straight day in which the Giants have added a Blanco, as they reunited with outfielder Gregor Blanco on a minors pact Monday. While Andres Blanco has also played some outfield in the majors, nearly all of his work has come in the infield since he debuted with the Royals in 2004. The soon-to-be 34-year-old brings at least 95 games’ experience at second base, shortstop and third. The hot corner was Blanco’s primary spot with his previous team, the Phillies, from 2014-17, though he hasn’t graded out particularly well there during his career (minus-10 DRS, minus-6.1 UZR).

Offensively, the switch-hitting Blanco has been a below-average producer across 1,321 plate appearances (.256/.310/.378), and he’s coming off a miserable year in which he hit .192/.257/.292 in 144 PAs. He wasn’t able to find a major league deal as a result, but it was a different story a year ago. Then fresh off parts of three consecutive solid seasons at the plate (.274/.337/.457 in 523 PAs), Blanco tested free agency before ultimately re-signing with the Phillies for $3MM.

As he did in Philly, Blanco will attempt to fill a utility role in San Francisco, which has established starters across the infield in first baseman Brandon Belt, second baseman Joe Panik, shortstop Brandon Crawford and third baseman Evan Longoria. Pablo Sandoval and Kelby Tomlinson are the current backup infielders on the Giants’ projected 25-man roster.

Giants To Sign Gregor Blanco To Minor-League Deal

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Jan. 30: FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweets that Blanco would earn $1MM upon making the MLB roster and can pocket another $500K based on plate-appearance incentives.

Jan. 29: The Giants and Gregor Blanco have agreed to terms on a contract that will bring the outfielder back to San Francisco. Blanco himself announced the reunion on his Instagram account. Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets that it’s a minor-league deal.

Blanco, 34, will return to a Giants team with whom he played from 2012-2016 and won two World Series rings. During his years in San Francisco, he was a roughly league-average hitter, slashing .259/.338/.360 (99 wRC+) across 2,054 plate appearances. A good portion of Blanco’s value came from his outfield defense and base-stealing ability. Though he never hit well during the postseason, he managed to walk 11.9% of the time during October of 2012 and 2014 combined, and crossed the plate a total of 20 times in 33 games.

Blanco’s tenure with the Giants game to an end following a 2016 season that saw him hit the DL in August with a right shoulder injury. The Diamondbacks elected to scoop him up on a minor-league deal last offseason, and the team ended up selecting his contract on May 5th following the transfer of the injured Shelby Miller to the 60-day DL. Blanco went on to hit .246/.337/.357 across 256 plate appearances while playing a reserve outfielder role.

Though Blanco is now 34 and his speed isn’t what it once was, he still has a shot to split playing time with the newly-signed Austin Jackson in center field. Indeed; a platoon combination of the two makes a lot of sense; the left-handed-hitting Blanco is a 98 wRC+ hitter against righties for his career, while his mark against lefties is 13 points beneath that. Meanwhile the right-handed-hitting Jackson absolutely demolished lefites last year, to the tune of a .357/.440/.574 batting line.

West Notes: Mariners, A’s, Duensing, AJax, Giants

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Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto told Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and other reporters this week that the club’s largely content with the work it has done this winter to improve its roster. While the Mariners haven’t addressed their rotation in any noteworthy way, Dipoto’s confident their starters are at least on par with most AL rotations, “with the exception of last year’s playoff teams — the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Houston Astros.” Whether Felix Hernandez will be able to amass 25-plus starts, as opposed to the 16 he made last year, will go a long way toward deciding how Seattle will fare in 2018, Dipoto believes.

With a couple months left until the start of the season, the Mariners could still complement Hernandez & Co. with more starting help – payroll’s “not an issue,” according to CEO John Stanton. However, if we’re to take Dipoto’s word, it doesn’t seem likely. “We are doing the best we can to develop our system, not to clog it,” Dipoto said. “Could we go out and sign a free agent that would be better than our current fifth starter? Absolutely. Would that be the best thing for the present of the Mariners? Maybe. Would it be the best thing through the wider lens for the present and future of the Mariners? Probably not. We’ll be able to address those needs as we go. Because the one thing we’ve not had to deal with here is a lack of resources.”

More on a couple other West Coast clubs:

  • In search of left-handed relief help, the Athletics “made some offers to some guys; we just weren’t able to get them here,” manager Bob Melvin informed Jane Lee of MLB.com and other reporters Saturday (Twitter link). One offer went to Brian Duensing, who turned down a deal worth $3MM more than the two-year, $7MM pact he took to re-up with the Cubs, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The A’s also attempted to pick up outfielder Austin Jackson on a one-year deal, but the Giants reeled him in with a two-year, $6MM contract. Now, Oakland’s not discussing any “significant free agents,” Slusser writes.
  • Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic has an excellent, free-to-read piece on new Giants hitting coach Alonzo Powell, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer Jan. 2 and will undergo prostate removal surgery on Tuesday. Powell’s support system includes his wife, Jana, as well as both the San Francisco and Houston organizations (he was the Astros’ assistant hitting coach from 2015-17), which Baggarly details. The Giants have been invaluable to Powell, as they took over his medical care after scans showed his cancer had spread to his bones. Had that been accurate, surgery would not have been an option for Powell, who would have instead had to go through a year of chemotherapy and radiation. But the Giants’ chief internist, Dr. Robert Murray, was skeptical of those results, and he had Powell undergo another bone scan that ultimately returned good news. After his surgery, Powell will need “daily radiation treatments for several weeks,” Baggarly writes, but the hope is he’ll be with the Giants when their pitchers and catchers report to spring training Feb. 13. We join those around the game in rooting for Powell to achieve that goal.

Orioles Acquire Engelb Vielma

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The Orioles announced that they’ve acquired infielder Engelb Vielma from the Giants in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com had reported just a minute or so prior that the two sides had completed a minor trade (Twitter link).

It’s been a busy few months for Vielma, who has gone from the Twins to the Giants to the Phillies to the Pirates and back to the Giants before today’s trade. The switch-hitting infielder doesn’t come with Major League experience, and hasn’t hit much in the minors. However, scouting reports tout his excellent defensive skills, making him a possible option for the Orioles, who are in need of a utility infielder.

Vielma, 23, has spent the vast majority of his career in the minors playing shortstop, though he also has experience at both second base and third base. He’s a career .256/.316/.302 hitter in the minors and spent the 2017 season between the Twins’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliate, posting a combined .229/.273/.280 batting line in 455 plate appearances.

Giants To Sign Chris Heston

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The Giants have agreed to a minor-league deal to bring righty Chris Heston back into the fold, according to a report from Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. Other terms of the contract are not yet known.

Heston, 29, is a former 12th-round pick who debuted in the majors with the Giants back in 2014. He went on to turn in a strong rookie campaign in the following year, etching his name permanently into organizational lore with a no-hitter.

Unfortunately, Heston’s career has largely sputtered since. With mounting injuries and marginal output on the hill, he has thrown just 11 MLB frames over the ensuing two seasons. Heston spent time with three organizations last year after San Francisco dealt him to the Mariners in advance of the 2017 campaign.

While expectations won’t be very high at this point, the move could certainly help bolster the Giants’ pitching depth. The team has parted with a few MLB pitching assets to improve in other areas, so non-roster players could play an important role if needs arise during the course of the season. While it’s hard to imagine Heston earning a roster spot this spring, he’s said to be healthy and could take up a key spot on the Giants depth chart.

Giants Still Monitoring Outfield Market, Don’t Plan To Exceed Luxury Tax Barrier

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The Giants shored up their outfield mix with yesterday’s addition of Austin Jackson on a two-year, $6MM contract — threading the luxury tax needle by adding a veteran that serves as an upgrade while still squeezing in just south of the $197MM barrier. That doesn’t leave much room for further upgrades, but executive vice president of baseball ops Brian Sabean and GM Bobby Evans tell reporters that the Giants are still open to supplementing their outfield (links via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area and John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle).

Notably, Sabean suggests that Jackson was “probably not” signed to be the team’s everyday center fielder. “I don’t know that in his recent history he’s been able to go out there in that fashion,” Sabean says of Jackson. San Francisco is still exploring some low-salary trade options, and prospect Steven Duggar remains a candidate to win the job (if not in Spring Training, certainly later in the season). Duggar, though, has just 232 minor league games under his belt, with only 60 of those coming in Double-A and just 13 in Triple-A.

San Francisco remains confident in its ability to acquire an additional outfielder via trade, Pavlovic writes. That’ll likely require prying loose a pre-arbitration player making near the league minimum, as the Giants are now within about $2.1MM of the luxury threshold (per Cot’s Contracts). Such assets are the types with which teams are typically loath to part, though the Brewers have reportedly been exploring trade scenarios involving their potential outfield surplus, with names like Keon Broxton and Brett Phillips circulating on the rumor mill.

The waiver circuit could present another option for the Giants as rosters are shuffled leading up to Spring Training; numerous players with some degree of big league experience figure to become available in coming weeks as teams clear roster space for veteran additions. That was the manner by which the Tigers plucked Mikie Mahtook from the Rays last year, acquiring him for a player to be named later and enjoying a fairly productive year out of the former first-rounder. (Speculatively speaking, Mahtook himself could be an option for the Giants, as the rebuilding Tigers will likely be willing to listen on virtually any player.)

If the Giants don’t succeed in landing another option to take over in center field, it seems that Jackson, Duggar, Austin Slater and Gorkys Hernandez will vie for time in center field to open the season. At the very least, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to the Giants add a left-handed-hitting veteran on a minor league deal. Jackson, Hernandez, Hunter Pence and Andrew McCutchen all swing from the right side of the dish, so adding a lefty to create more matchup flexibility in the event that the left-handed-hitting Duggar opens the season in the minors seems logical.

Giants Sign Austin Jackson

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Jan. 23: Heyman tweets that Jackson will earn $3MM in each year of the deal. His 2019 base salary can rise by $1MM based on the number of plate appearances he tallies in 2018, and his 2019 salary can rise by $1.5MM based on that season’s plate appearance total.

Jan. 22: The Giants have announced the signing of outfielder Austin Jackson, as Jon Heyman of Fan Rag first reported (via Twitter). It’s said to be a two-year, $6MM guarantee, but the Octagon client can also escalate his 2019 salary by as much as $2.5MM if he meets certain plate appearance-based targets, as Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic explains on Twitter.

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Jackson, who’ll soon turn 31, turned in a nice bounceback campaign in 2017 after three straight seasons of subpar offensive production. Over 318 plate appearances with the Indians, he posted a .318/.387/.482 batting line with seven home runs and three steals.

Though there’s obviously some promise in that output, it comes with a few caveats. On offense, Jackson benefited from a .385 batting average on ball in play that isn’t likely to be repeated. And his is wOBA of .378 widely outpaced his Statcast-based xwOBA of .335. (For what it’s worth, too, he mostly succeeded by dominating left-handed pitching. He has typically carried reverse splits, so it’s somewhat unclear how that ought to be interpreted.)

Importantly, too, Jackson is no longer a top-end asset in the field and on the bases. He has floated in range of average in both areas in recent years, but generally has graded as a slightly below-average fielder for the past several campaigns. It seems reasonable to believe he can still handle center, at least on a part-time basis, but he’ll surely be put to the test at the spacious AT&T Park.

[RELATED: Updated Giants Depth Chart]

There’s plenty of reason to wonder whether Jackson will be capable of coming close to repeating his output from 2017. But the contract seems to be a reasonable one for a player who has had success in both the recent and the more distant past. Certainly, the price is right for the Giants. This move dovetails with the team’s reported preference to fill out a roster without going past the luxury line.

As things stand, Jackson arguably sits atop the San Francisco depth chart in center field. That said, Giants GM Bobby Evans says that Jackson will “provide additional depth at all three outfield positions,” suggesting that the club does not expect to hand him the reins to the regular job in center. (Via John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, on Twitter).

The question, then, turns to what other options the Giants have to round out their outfield mix. Internally, right-handed hitters include Gorkys Hernandez, Austin Slater, and Mac Williamson. While the first two of those players are capable of  seeing time in center, they wouldn’t add much functionality beyond what Jackson provides, particularly since the team’s veteran corner outfielders — Hunter Pence and Andrew McCutchen — both hit from the right side. The lefty-swinging, out-of-options Jarrett Parker is another option, up the middle, though his recent output does not inspire much confidence.

So, what options remain for the Giants? If a golden opportunity arises to add a higher-end player, particularly a left-handed hitter, then perhaps a move past the luxury tax line could still occur. Alternatively, as Baggarly notes on Twitter, the club could chase a pre-arb player while staying just shy of the tax, though that’d presumably mean either taking a risk on a less-than-certain asset or giving up good value in return. Free agents like Ben Revere could still be pursued, but anyone achievable at a bargain rate likely won’t be a good enough performer to bump Jackson into reserve duties. Of course, the team also surely hopes that left-handed-hitting prospect Steven Duggar will prove himself ready for a MLB trial in relatively short order. If the team truly believes in him but also wants a more established player to open the season without bypassing the luxury line, it’ll have to get rather creative.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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