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Giants, Sandoval Agree To Extension

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The Giants and Pablo Sandoval have agreed to a three-year extension, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. The deal is worth $17.15MM plus incentives, Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News tweets. Morgan Advisory Group represents the 25-year-old third baseman.

Pablo Sandoval - Giants

Sandoval, who was arbitration eligible for the first time this offseason, had a projected $3.2MM salary for 2012 and would have been in line for raises in 2013 and 2014 via the arbitration process. The deal doesn't delay his free agency — he's still on track to hit the open market after the 2014 season.

Sandoval has had two tremendous offensive seasons and one forgettable one since becoming a full-time player in 2009. He posted a .315/.357/.552 line with 23 home runs for the Giants in 2011 and owns a .307/.356/.501 line with 64 home runs in his career. The Venezuela native is easily recognizable because of his stocky physique (he's listed as 5'11" and 240 lbs) and colorful nickname: the Kung Fu Panda.

Photo courtesy Icon SMI.

Record Filing Numbers For Lincecum, Giants

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Tim Lincecum filed for a $21.5MM salary through arbitration and the Giants countered at $17MM, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets. Both figures set new records for players with less than six years of service time. Derek Jeter ($18.5MM) and the Yankees ($14.25MM) had established the previous marks more than a decade ago, in 2001.

Roger Clemens once filed for a $22MM salary via arbitration, but it was after he had become eligible for free agency.

Giants Avoid Arbitration With Melky Cabrera

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The Giants avoided arbitration with outfielder Melky Cabrera, tweets ESPN's Enrique Rojas, signing him for $6MM.  Cabrera, who is represented by ACES, received a healthy $4.75MM raise over last year's free agent base salary.  The Giants acquired Cabrera on November 7th from the Royals for another arbitration eligible player, Jonathan Sanchez.

As our arbitration tracker shows, the Giants' remaining arbitration eligible players are Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo, Pablo Sandoval, and Nate Schierholtz.    

Giants Avoid Arbitration With Angel Pagan

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The Giants and Angel Pagan have avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal worth $4.85MM, reports The Associated Press (via ESPN). He can earn an additional $50K each for 550, 600, and 650 plate appearances. MLBTR's Matt Swartz projected the Legacy Sports Group client to earn $4.7MM next season.

Pagan, 30, was acquired from the Mets for Andres Torres and Ramon Ramirez back in December. He hit .262/.322/.372 with seven homers and 32 steals while battling a rib fracture in 2011, and is a .279/.331/.418 career hitter. Pagan was arbitration-eligible for the fourth time as a Super Two and will become a free agent after this coming season. He made $3.5MM last season.

As our Arbitration Tracker shows, the Giants still have six unsigned arbitration-eligible players: Melky Cabrera, Santiago Casilla, Tim Lincecum, Sergio Romo, Pablo Sandoval, and Nate Schierholtz.

NL Central Notes: Pujols, Beltran, Cubs, Aoki

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The Reds signed a catcher today and the Pirates avoided arbitration with a pair of pitchers. Here are some more notes from the NL Central…

  • Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said this weekend that his team must stay within certain financial limitations to put a competitive team on the field year after year, Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The Cardinals would have liked to retain Albert Pujols, but keeping him wasn’t necessarily realistic. “It's how much can I afford to pay one player and put together a team that's going to be competitive? That's the whole jigsaw puzzle that all teams have,” DeWitt said.
  • Carlos Beltran said the Indians, Rays and Giants were among the finalists for his services this offseason, MLB.com's Matthew Leach reports. Beltran said another team offered a three-year deal worth less money, B.J. Rains of FOXSportsMidwest.com tweets.
  • Cubs director of scouting and player development Jason McLeod said he's looking forward to meeting with his scouts this week to find ways of drafting more effectively under the new collective bargaining agreement, according to Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.
  • Tom Haudricourt on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets that there's an expectation that the Brewers will sign outfielder Norichika Aoki. They have until 4pm CDT tomorrow to sign Aoki, or else he’ll be returned to the Yakult Swallows and the Brewers will get their $2.5MM posting fee back.

Selig Prioritizing A’s Stadium Resolution

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Mark Purdy of the San Jose Mercury News writes that commissioner Bud Selig, who was recently extended through 2014, has placed the A's and their pursuit of a new stadium and a move to San Jose on the front burner.

The special committee Selig put together to examine the dilemma has delivered a "comprehensive" report but has yet to be presented to all 30 owners. Still, Selig says they're "proceeding at a rather quick pace" and seemed to agree to the suggested analogy that if the stadium issue were a baserunner, he'd be on third base.

Standing in the way of the transition is that the Giants claim San Jose — part of Santa Clara County — as part of their territory. The Giants have supported an organziation called Stand For San Jose that has protested the building of a stadium in downtown San Jose. The Giants' territorial claim can be overturned by a 75 percent vote from MLB owners.

The Giants could fight back by supporting an anti-ballpark campaign in San Jose, where a special ballot referendum (partially financed by MLB) would need to pass, or perhaps even by persuading one of their sponsors to sue MLB (the Giants cannot sue MLB themselves). There's also nothing preventing the Giants from filing a lawsuit against the city of San Jose itself.

As Purdy points out, if the Giants were to file any lawsuit, we'd see "the awkward situation of one MLB franchise spending money to defeat a project supported by another MLB franchise in an election partially paid for by MLB itself."

A's owner Lew Wolff said he's "delighted" to hear that Selig is prioritizing the situation and that MLB is moving toward a decision.

Giants Agree To Two-Year Deal With Vogelsong

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THURSDAY: Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com has the breakdown (on Twitter). Vogelsong will earn $3MM in 2012, $5MM in 2013, and then a $6.5MM club option with a $300K buyout for 2014 comes into play. The total guarantee is $8.3MM.

WEDNESDAY: The Giants and Ryan Vogelsong have agreed to a two-year contract with an option for 2014, reports Mychael Urban of 95.7 FM The Game (via Twitter). The deal is worth a total of $8MM, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports tweets. The Associated Press reports that the deal is worth $8.3MM (via ESPN). The team announced the agreement in a press release, noting that the club holds the third-year option.

Vogelsong, 34, was entering his final season of arbitration eligibility, so the contract will delay free agency by at least a year. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $2.5MM salary for the right-hander for 2012, though we heard during the Winter Meetings that the Giants intended to work out a multiyear deal.

Vogelsong pitched in the bigs last season for the first time in five years, enjoying a remarkable comeback. His 2.71 ERA in 30 appearances (28 starts) earned him an All-Star berth and even a Cy Young vote. The righty was originally drafted by the Giants, and was traded to the Pirates in 2001 in a deadline deal that sent Jason Schmidt to San Francisco. Over the next decade, Vogelsong underwent Tommy John surgery, pitched in Japan, and signed multiple minor league deals before finding success last year with the Giants.

Latest On Extension Talks For Lincecum, Cain

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Ryan Vogelsong signed a minor league deal with the Giants exactly one year ago on his way to a breakout season. The 34-year-old pitched 179 2/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9  in 2012. The Giants liked what they saw and agreed to terms on a two-year, $8.3MM extension earlier this evening. Here's a look ahead to a couple of the Giants' other extension candidates via Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News…

  • Tim Lincecum's agent said the Giants haven’t had dialogue with Lincecum in at least a month, Baggarly reports.
  • Giants VP of Baseball Operations Bobby Evans said the team hopes an arbitration hearing with Lincecum won't be necessary. "You do the best you can to find common ground, I remain optimistic we will," Evans said.
  • Evans said he has had "healthy, ongoing dialogue" with the representatives for Matt Cain about an extension, Baggarly reports. MLBTR’s Luke Adams looked ahead to a possible Cain extension last month.
  • Madison Bumgarner is also an extension candidate, as MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes explained.

Giants Sign Boof Bonser

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We'll keep track of the day's minor moves right here…

  • The Giants signed right-hander Boof Bonser to a minor league deal, his agency, Reynolds Sports, announced on Twitter. Bonser has a 5.18 ERA with 7.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 416 2/3 career innings and hasn't pitched at the Major League level since 2010. Bonser underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2011 season and likely won't be ready to pitch for San Francisco until midway through the 2012 campaign. The Giants selected Bonser, now 30, with the 21st overall pick of the 2000 draft. 

Checking In On Baseball’s Lowest Scoring Offenses

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The Giants won the 2010 World Series with an unspectacular offense and won 86 games in 2011 with one of the lowest scoring offenses in the game, but they're the exception, not the rule. Each of the five highest scoring MLB teams won at least 90 games in 2011, while the Giants were the only one of the five lowest scoring teams to avoid 90 losses.

Here's a look at what baseball's five lowest scoring teams have done to improve their offenses so far this offseason. Team name links go to a summary of the teams' moves on MLBTR's Transaction Tracker and 2011 run totals are in parentheses (for reference, the average MLB team scored 694 runs this past season):

  • Mariners (556) - GM Jack Zduriencik has added a number of former Major Leaguers on minor league deals and traded for John Jaso. The Mariners can expect more offense from Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak, Franklin Gutierrez and others in 2012 and they may make an addition or two before Spring Training.
  • Giants (570) - The Giants traded for Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera, who have both been above-average offensive players in the recent past. The Giants could improve considerably with a full season of Buster Posey and possible improvement from Brandon Belt.
  • Padres (593) - The Padres traded for Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal earlier this month. Both could conceivably add to the Padres' offense in 2012, and Alonso could have an impact from day one. GM Josh Byrnes has also added role players John Baker and Jeremy Hermida.
  • Pirates (610) - The Pirates signed shortstop Clint Barmes, catcher Rod Barajas and outfielder Nate McLouth and traded for infielder Casey McGehee. However, none of the four acquisitions posted an OPS+ of 100 or better in 2011, so it would be unreasonable to expect a surge in scoring based on these additions.
  • Astros (615) – Former GM Ed Wade added a handful of players on minor league deals and waiver claims and Jeff Luhnow traded for Jed Lowrie after becoming Houston's new GM.

The Giants are best-positioned to make a significant offensive jump in 2012, in my opinion. Not only do Pagan and Cabrera provide possible upgrades, Posey's return and Belt's upside will likely invigorate the offense that finished last in the National League in scoring in 2011.

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