The blockbuster news of the day happened this evening after the Winter Meetings officially ended. The Padres traded Juan Soto OF to the Yankees for 4 pitchers and Kyle Higashioka C. Outfield was pretty much a disaster for the Yankees last year and they fixed that big time with Soto and Alex Verdugo, who came over in a separate trade with the Red Sox. In the process they gave up some better then decent pitchers, at least from looking at their stat lines and it's not like the Yanks are overflowing with pitching. Maybe they plan to also sign a couple of FA pitchers?
Could the Giants have traded for Juan Soto? Probably not. It's very unlikely the Padres would trade him within the NL West and I am not seeing how the Giants could have matched or beaten the Yanks mix of MLB pitchers and prospects.
The Rule 5 Draft happened today. The Giants did not lose any players in the MLB phase nor did they select any. The minor league phase was more active with the Giants selecting a couple of players who could break out while giving up three who are extremely unlikely to ever get close to a MLB roster.
Giants Acquire:
Nick Garcia RHP(Rockies). DOB: 4/20/1999. 6'4", 215 lbs.
2023(AA): 3-0, 7.35, 94.1 IP, 7.92 K/9, 3.63 BB/9.
Former third round draft pick by the Pirates in 2020. Traded to the Rockies for Forever Giant Connor Joe. AA numbers don't look great but I believe the Hartford Yard Goats home field is a very tough environment for pitchers. He reportedly has a low 90's FB with a good changeup per Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs.
Dariel Lopez SS(Pirates). DOB: 2/7/2002. 6'1", 183 lbs.
2022(A+): .286/.329/.476, 19 HR, 6 SB, 5.0 BB%, 25.5 K%, 420 PA.
Lopez missed last season with dislocated knee which is presumably healed. He's still young entering his age 22 season. He's a big dude with a reputation as not a great fielder so will likely move off SS but he has tremendous power. The Giants give him a chance to have a breakout season
The Giants lost Sean Roby 3B, Hayden Cantrelle 2B and P. J. Hilson OF in the minor league phase. None of them are likely to ever see a MLB roster. Roby has light-tower power but an extremely low contact rate. Cantrelle is a decent hitter for a MI but lacks power and is pretty much limited to 2B on D. Hilson was a tooled up but raw HS draft pick in 2018 but just took too long to develop skills. Very doubtful he will ever hit enough to make a MLB roster.
The second-highest payroll in baseball last season (more than $290 million) apparently wasn't enough for the "Evil Empire": they are piling on more (Soto, Grisham, & Verdugo) and even more (Yamamoto?).
ReplyDeletePssst: $290M barely got you 2 games over .500 last year and didn't even make the Playoffs – can any amount of money get through the treacherous Post Season where last year the 3 teams with 100 or more wins plus another with 99 didn't even make the League Championship Series?
Ontani decision on Friday?
ReplyDelete5 (or more) in the running.
Wish for finish:
1. Giants - what a risk!
2. Blue Jays - let the AL East fight it out
3. Angels - won't happen unless He wants to stay "home" in LA
4. Cubs - lesser NL threat to Giants
5. Them - Betts, Ohtani, Freeman, all 160+ OPS+, 1927 Yankees?
Very mixed feelings about Ohtani to Giants if that's what happens. Extremely exciting and terrific in short term. Worry about long term drag on the roster building. If it happens I guess I'll just shrug and say it's not my money and enjoy the ride.
Delete...but it brings back memories of Bonds, who was great and tremendously entertaining to watch but it seemed like Bonds was the only star player they had room and money for and spent every offseason finding castoffs to put around him. Maybe Farhan is better at that, but so far The Churn has not been noticeably more productive at finding those players than Sabes was.
DeleteAgreed, but arguably the Giants have a better farm post Farhan hiring than pre Farhan, and they do have a lot of pitching.
DeleteThey really need 2 "sticks" – perhaps Conforto/Haniger can be the 2nd one in 2024, then Conforto would be signable ongoing.
Pretty big what if there...
With each passing day, it just seems like the top targets (Ohtani, Yamamoto) won't be Giants. I think Ohtani was already kind of a long shot given the state of the team, but I was hopeful Yamamoto could happen. Both the Yankeees and Mets appear to really want Yamamoto, and they are bigger spending, bigger market teams.
ReplyDeleteAssuming FZ can't get one of the two big fish, I hope he is ready to be aggressive with other FAs.
Conorto, Haniger, Stripling ...
DeleteTake your tail out from between your legs Farhan and throw down a $300 million offer for Yamamoto! In 3 years it will be a bargain. You are all out of excuses. Don’t waste money on Bellinger or Chapman put it in a pitcher who will be top 5 in the league for the next 6-8 years!
DeleteLooks like it's the BJ's – Best of all Worlds for Giants: no Dodger or Yankee Mega-team and as far away as possible!
ReplyDeleteWe are fairly conditioned not to expect any high quality FA bat to come to SF. Maybe they can sign Lee or otherwise shore up CF, and then plenty of pitchers would be happy to come and improve their stat line in front of a killer defense. Offensively, Dr B has said it all along that Haniger and Conforto are going to have to produce - no one else is coming...
ReplyDeleteAll this for a .275 hitter,who is probably afraid his HR numbers would go down at Oracle Park.
ReplyDeletePer MLBTR:
ReplyDeleteGiants agree to minor league deals with Daulton Jefferies & Yoshi Tsutsugo
That ought to scare them in LA!
I thought it would be a waste of time/effort to get involved in Ohtani, but maybe this slow down in the decision means he might be weighing a Giants offer as a "non-winning" team versus the Dodgers and BJs? Thought Yammamotto and pitching should have been the big whale from the start but with other teams prioritizing him with attention and bags of money, don't see the Giants having a chance if he is where they go to as a 2nd Choice.....Still plenty of other options ..Snell? Trade for Burnes/Glasnow? out there but I really get scared and little nauseous when I keep reading about Harrison Bader and Bellinger!!
ReplyDeleteSteveVA