Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Giants Rumors

2012 Contract Issues: San Francisco Giants

By | at

The Giants are next in our 2012 Contract Issues series.  Here's what the team faces after the 2011 season:

Eligible For Free Agency (6)

  • Veteran position players Miguel Tejada, Cody Ross, Mark DeRosa, and Pat Burrell will be eligible for free agency after the season.  Tejada, Ross, and DeRosa are making $6MM+ this year, and it probably won't make sense to keep them around at similar salaries.
  • Relievers Javier Lopez and Guillermo Mota are both off to good starts in the early going.

Contract Options (1)

  • Jeremy Affeldt: $5MM club option with a $500K buyout.  I'm not sure this is a good investment given Affeldt's control issues.  I'm leaning toward this being declined right now.

Arbitration Eligible (11)

Lincecum is the arbitration case everyone will be watching.  He was aiming for a first-time record before settling on a two-year deal in February of last year.  Lincecum is in a class by himself and could seek close to $20MM for 2012.  The Giants could try for another multiyear extension instead of working to prevent their ace from shattering arbitration records for his '12 and '13 salaries.

Sandoval and Sanchez deserve consideration for extensions as well.  Otherwise, I could see the pair earning around $12MM in total for '12.  Torres, Romo, and Ramirez would also make sense to retain at the least.  It's a very rough estimate, but the Giants' arbitration eligibles could get around $40MM for next year.

2012 Payroll Obligation

The Giants' 2012 payroll obligation, according to Cot's, is $72.933MM including Affeldt's buyout.  Arbitration eligible players could put them in the $113MM range, $5MM shy of this year's $118MM payroll.  It's difficult to see the Giants taking payroll much higher, so barring trades or money-saving extensions GM Brian Sabean will have to go cheap at shortstop and in the outfield.

Giants Make Nate Schierholtz Available

By | at

The Giants are letting teams know outfielder Nate Schierholtz is available, tweets ESPN's Jerry Crasnick.  Andres Torres might come off the DL soon after recovering from a sore Achilles tendon, perhaps leaving the out of options Schierholtz without a spot.

In Schierholtz, Pat Burrell, Darren Ford, Cody Ross, and Aaron Rowand, the Giants currently have five outfielders on the active roster.  The Giants could retain Schierholtz by just sending down Darren Ford, who was recalled when Torres went on the DL.

There's also the question of whether Rowand has more value to the Giants than Schierholtz.  The 33-year-old Rowand is off to a tolerable start in 69 plate appearances after his ugly 2010, and is owed $22.3MM through the 2012 season.  Schierholtz has only 31 plate appearances, and has not produced.

Schierholtz, 27, was known to be on the bubble in March, but the Giants ended up outrighting Travis Ishikawa instead.  Schierholtz appears to have defensive value, and has shown promise offensively at Triple-A.

Rosenthal On Fielder, Marlins, Yankees, Giants

By | at

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports brings us another edition of Full Count.  Here are some highlights..

  • Prince Fielder is off to a great start and one GM predicts that he'll be one of the most interesting free agents of all-time.  The GM says that Fielder runs hard and is more athletic than most people think.  He's about to turn 27 years old which means that he's about four-and-a-half years younger than Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols.  A team like the Cubs could use Fielder against Pujols, saying that if he doesn't meet their price, they could sign Fielder instead.
  • The Marlins are second in the National League in ERA and first in bullpen ERA by a wide margin.  Theyr'e going to have to keep winning with pitching as Hanley Ramirez is off to a slow start, Logan Morrison is out with an injured foot and Mike Stanton still hasn't found his form since coming back from a hamstring strain.  Last week, Rosenthal pointed out the potential availability of Mark DeRosa and this week he says that the veteran would be a perfect fit in Florida.
  • The Yankees will soon face some decisions regarding their rotation.  Kevin Millwood has an out in his contract if he's not in the majors by May 1st.  The club might have better options such as Adam Warren and possibly Hector Noesi or David Phelps.  In addition to those prospects, Carlos Silva is working his way back into shape and Phil Hughes is about to start a rehab assignment this week.
  • Miguel Tejada is off to a rough start in 2011 as he looks less-than-sharp in the field and is hitting just .209/.239/.328.  The Giants don't have any great internal options at shortstop, so Rosenthal says to keep an eye on Jose Reyes, Marco Scutaro, J.J. Hardy as possible trade targets.

Offseason In Review: San Francisco Giants

By | at

The World Champion Giants conclude our Offseason In Review series.

Major League Signings

International Signings

  • Simon Mercedes, Adalberto Mejia

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

Trades and Claims: None

Notable Losses

Summary

Brian Sabean, the longest-tenured GM in the game, bought himself some offseason leeway by winning the World Series.  It's harder to question the guy who put together the team that won it all, but I'll give it a shot.

Huff

In Sabean's defense, the Dodgers seemingly offered Huff something close to the two-year, $22MM deal he ultimately signed.  That doesn't make it a good signing though.  This was a risky move, with concerns about Huff's defense and uncertainty trying to project his next two seasons.  There's also the presence of top prospect Brandon Belt, who might be able to approximate Huff's offensive production at four percent of his salary.  The Braves took a different approach, installing Freddie Freeman at first base and ignoring the free agent market.

The Dodgers did steal away Uribe, though I don't blame Sabean for not offering that magnitude of a contract.  Sabean had to put someone at shortstop, though, so he signed Tejada for $6.5MM.  I would have estimated a contract about half that size for Tejada.  Pursuing J.J. Hardy would have been preferable, but failing that I can understand adding a stopgap -  just not a $6.5MM one.  Hopefully the Giants will be in the mix for Jose Reyes this summer, as he'd represent a significant upgrade.

It's hard not to like the Burrell signing, as the veteran signed for a million bucks despite being the only free agent left fielder to hit 20 home runs.  This was similar to the Kerry Wood deal, where a player dictated his team by taking a pay cut.  The Sanchez extension, on the other hand, was acceptable but didn't represent a bargain.

Sabean's offseason was very quiet otherwise; I think he was the only GM not to make a trade or claim.  The Giants did have quite a few arbitration cases, and I can't fault them for tendering contracts to everyone but Ray.  Cody Ross was a borderline case, but the decision had to be made before Burrell was signed or Mark DeRosa's health was fully assessed.  If DeRosa bounces back to his 2007-08 levels for a few months, Sabean might be able to shed his salary midseason and gain extra payroll flexibility.

The Giants' offense should be a little better this year, and they've got the same excellent rotation.  That doesn't necessarily put them in the playoffs again, so hopefully Sabean will be active this summer in seeking an upgrade at shortstop.

Photo courtesy of Icon SMI.

Giants Option Brandon Belt

By | at

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt has been optioned to the Triple-A Fresno, tweets CSNBayArea.com's Mychael Urban.  The move opens a spot on the 25-man roster for Cody Ross.

The demotion is justified based on Belt's performance; he hit .192/.300/.269 in 60 plate appearances and the Giants can't afford to give him on-the-job training.  He's still considered one of the best 20 or so prospects in the game.

There is another benefit to optioning Belt, as MLBTR's Ben Nicholson-Smith explained yesterday.  If he stays in the minors for 20 days or more, which seems likely barring an injury at the big league level, Belt's free agency will be delayed until after the 2017 season at the earliest.  Had he remained in the Majors all year, Belt would have been eligible for free agency after '16.

Rosenthal On DeRosa, Rangers, Gonzalez, Garcia

By | at

Let's dive into the latest edition of Full Count from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports..

  • It's early in the season, but it already seems like the Giants' Mark DeRosa could be the odd man out in San Francisco.  DeRosa is obviously versatile, but the club seems to be set at shortstop, second base, third, and in the outfield.  The veteran is earning $6MM and he seems like a prime candidate to be traded. 
  • The Rangers are off to a hot start but the club is concerned about their lack of a dominant right-handed set-up man.  Alexi Ogando was supposed to fill that role but instead, he's flourishing as a starter.   Darren O'Day is coming off two strong seasons but he's viewed as more of a "seventh inning guy".  Because of that, look for Texas to target a strong right-handed reliever before the deadline.
  • The next young starters in line for contract extensions might be the A's Gio Gonzalez and the Cardinals' Jaime Garcia following the deals given to Trevor Cahill and Clay Buchholz.  However, Gonzalez is a Super Two player, meaning that the A's might have to guarantee him another year to cover his first year of free agency. 

NL West Notes: D’Backs, Mota, Padres

By | at

Let's check out the latest from the NL West…

  • The Diamondbacks are putting some serious money into upgrading their player development system, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.  "We spend more now on scouting and player development than we ever have," said Jerry Dipoto, Arizona's senior VP of scouting & player development.  "We made that an internal focus, that these are areas where we can create an advantage in the industry. I don't think it's short-term. I think it's something we're going to do over and over for many years."
  • In another piece, Piecoro looks at "the interconnectedness" of the Snakes' coaching and development process throughout the organization, using 2009 third-round draft pick Keon Broxton as an example.
  • Guillermo Mota tells Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle that the Giants' World Series victory last year was a major reason he chose to re-sign with San Francisco rather than accept one of the other four offers he received in the winter.
  • In his latest mailbag for CSNBayArea.com, Mychael Urban looks at such Giants-related topics as how the team will shuffle its roster when Cody Ross is healthy.  Urban shot down a reader suggestion that San Francisco could release Mark DeRosa to make room.
  • Anthony Rizzo, Casey Kelly and Reymond Fuentes (the three prospects the Padres acquired from the Red Sox in the Adrian Gonzalez trade) are off to good starts in the minors, reports Gordon Edes of ESPNBoston.com.  Rizzo is at Triple-A, Kelly at Double-A and Fuentes is at Class A Lake Elsinore.   

Quick Hits: Zito, Rangers, Morgan, Angels

By | at

Links for Thursday night..

Heyman On Hamilton, Young, Felix, Royals

By | at

Rangers left fielder Josh Hamilton is out for six to eight weeks after enduring a non-displaced fracture of his right shoulder and, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com, some people in Cincinnati may not be completely surprised. After the 2007 season, Reds medical people strongly suggested that the front office should trade Hamilton because of his health reports. Here’s the latest on the Rangers and other notes from around the league:

  • The Rangers were “extremely close” to sending Michael Young to Colorado about a month before Spring Training, according to Heyman. The Rockies loved Young and he would have welcomed a trade to Denver or to either L.A. team. The infielder has since reconciled himself to his role in Texas.
  • A rival GM says he’d trade Felix Hernandez to the Yankees for Ivan Nova, Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos and Jesus Montero if he were running the Mariners.
  • One GM says Royals GM Dayton Moore did a good job of ‘bottom feeding’ this winter to come up with left-handers Bruce Chen and Jeff Francis on affordable deals.
  • Andres Torres suffered an Achilles injury, so the Giants need outfield depth and are unlikely to release Aaron Rowand soon. Rowand has a .923 OPS so far including two hits yesterday.

Quick Hits: Buchholz, Ishikawa, Tabata, Rivera

By | at

Rounding up Sunday's links, as Andre Ethier celebrates his 29th birthday….

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top