Hot Stove Update: Grading the Offseason

Pitchers and catchers reported this week, so despite the bitter cold back east, it's time to shut down the Hot Stove and count the cards from the winter long poker game.  A couple of closers, Francisco Rodriguez and Rafael Soriano, are still out there, but it's definitely time to declare the 2014/2015 offseason over.  When grading the offseason for Future Hall of Fame General Manager Brian Sabean and the San Francisco Giants, it's important to define what we are grading.  While the Giants offseason was solid from a baseball standpoint, it was a near-disaster from a public relations perspective.

The offseason started with another parade, and flags fly forever.  This parade had just a bit of foreboding attached in that one of the Giants homegrown core players and postseason heroes, Pablo Sandoval, was entering free agency and didn't seem particularly set on returning to the field where he accomplished so much and was so loved by the fan base.  Brian Sabean may have a great baseball mind, but he is not one to mince words and talk smoothly.  The Giants had issues at several positions, but Sabes held a postseason press conference and basically refused to discuss anything but how essential it was to re-sign Pablo.  Now, part of by brain thinks that this was just Sabes being Sabes with no clue how to handle the PR side of being a GM.  The other part of my brain suspects this may have been a smokescreen to to help the fan base accept Pablo leaving and even like it.  I mean, if signing one player is your one and only offseason priority, and you know at least one big spending team is also involved, you better come in with an offer you know is going to beat all other offers.  In the end, the Giants complained that they never made their final offer.  Well, why didn't you make your final offer if you wanted him back that bad?  By the time Pablo actually signed with Boston, a lot of fans were fed up and just as happy to move on.  Pictures of a very large Panda in front of Dunkin Donuts wallpaper did a lot to ease the pain.

The Giants moved on to pursue first Yasmany Tomas then Jon Lester with similar results as the Pablo pursuit.  By the time Lester signed with the Cubs, the Giants were looking like Jimmy Carter trapped in the White House during the Iran Hostage Crisis or King Henry waiting in the snow for an audience with the Pope.  It was awful!  The postseason looked like a huge bomb had gone off in the middle of the Hot Stove with debris littered everywhere with members of the Giants front office wounded and bleeding.  Sometimes, you have to hit rock bottom to start moving up.  The Giants offseason hit rock bottom with the Lester debacle.  From that point on, Sabes rolled up his sleeves, went to work and produced a very solid, if unspectacular offseason.

First came the trade for Casey McGehee.  Sabes gave up Kendry Flores and Luis Castillo, a couple of minor league pitchers who may or may not develop into something.  McGehee won't replace Pablo on his good days, but will field the position and keep the line moving on offense.  The market for starting pitchers got a bit ridiculous with the Dodgers 4 year contract for Brandon McCarthy.  By comparison, Jake Peavy was a steal.  Peaves seemed to be out of gas by the end of the postseason, but without him, the Giants wouldn't have been there in the first place.  Sergio Romo seemed to be possibly dealing with some personal issues last year that may have contributed to his up and down season, but he showed how valuable he is in the postseason.  Getting him back at that price when relievers with less proven track records were getting $40 M contracts was also a great deal for the Giants.  The last piece was Nori Aoki who took a look at what the Giants had from across the field in the World Series and told himself he wanted to be part of that.  Aoki struggled in limited playing time in the World Series but had been great in the postseason up to that point.  He is not the power hitter fans were hoping for and he is not graceful in the OF, but he will field the position and get on base a lot.  Some fans, including Willie McCovey, thought Aoki was a little too much like Gregor Blanco.  I agree, but I think Gregor Blanco is a pretty darn good ballplayer, so I am not unhappy to have two of him on the team.  I do think Aoki is a better suited to lead off, which would free up Angel Pagan to move down in the order where his gap power can do more damage.  We'll see how that shakes out, but Bochy has already hinted that he may be thinking along those lines too.  With several physical question marks in the staring rotation, the Giants needed some depth there and Ryan Vogelsong was the best depth option on the market.  He came back on another 1 year deal, much to Nicole's joy.

If you block out the PR disaster that was the early offseason pursuits of Pablo, Tomas and Lester and look at the offseason from purely a baseball standpoint, it was a solid offseason.  Not spectacular, but solid.

1.  The Giants avoided getting locked into more bad, long term contracts that might become limiting in the future.

2.  They ended up with a team that is not worse than what they won a championship with last year and is possibly a bit better, particularly in the OF.

3.  They kept their first round draft pick and even moved up 4 slots from #22 to #18 which should produce a talented prospect.

4.  They gained a supplemental first round draft pick, #31 overall, which should also produce a solid prospect.

5.  They kept most of their farm system intact, a system that gets scoffed at way too much, but is underrated and much better than it is generally give credit for.

I am going to split Brian Sabean's offseason grade this year.  He gets an F for PR and a B for baseball decision making, although I am still at a loss to explain why he got involved in the public big name pursuits in the first place, which is very un-Sabes-like.