Not much to note from spring training yet but a few tidbits worth noting:
Reggie Crawford and Bryce Eldridge are both pumping the brakes on the 2-way thing. Crawford will still take batting practice in the batting cages but will only pitch in games with a focus on starting. Eldridge will only hit and play 1B. Only slight surprise here is Eldridge moving from RF to 1B but 1B was his HS position.
At age 37, Pablo Sandoval is in the Best Shape of His Life and is in camp trying to win a roster spot. Barring injury, not sure if there's room on the roster for a guy who is limited to corner IF and DH.
More worrisome news on the pitching front as Keaton Winn RHP experienced elbow soreness after a bullpen session and will be shut down. MRI came back with no structural damage but you may recall Winn is a TJ survivor and was shut down for awhile last year with elbow soreness.
Do you think “one way” means they drafted too high?
ReplyDeleteI think both Crawford and Eldridge were drafted appropriately for their strong side talent.
DeleteThe Athletic wrote today:
ReplyDeleteWorst signing: Boston popped up where it didn’t want to be. Lucas Giolito’s two-year deal finished first, followed by two Giants (Jordan Hicks, Jung-Hoo Lee).
And you have to pay for this!
The Athletic has it wrong. The two worse signings, by far, are Ohtani's and Yamamoto's ridiculous contracts. The only reason why nobody is saying so is the perception that when, not if, they go bust, the Dodgers won't blink and will just keep on spending crazy amounts on superstar players.
DeleteBut then, for the Dodgers, they weren't bad signings at all..especially the deferred nature of Ohtani's contract.. They might have been bad signings for other teams if they happened but not for the Dodgers and how they operate..
DeleteSteveVA
Panda is "in the best shape of his life" for the 15th time in the last 15 years?! No matter the outcome, Panda going deeeeeeep 3 times in that 2012 World Series has cemented him as one of the greatest memories in recent Giants lore (I believe 2 of the 3 were off Verlander as well).
ReplyDeleteWould be a cool, fun story, but sort of doubt this team has a plan for a 37 year old with limited positionality.
Andy in OC
Does the Winn-Scare push the Giants toward Blake Snell?
ReplyDeleteAfter the Correa debacle, Boras most likely won't give SF any wiggle room, like a last chance offer.
OTOH, Boras will do the best for his clients and if it's more $$ from SF, well, it's a great place to pitch.
The same argument could be made for Montgomery but he is definitely Snell-lite although somewhat more consistent (in # of starts/year).
It's conceivable the Giants could just touch the Roster Resource payroll estimate for the luxury tax with Montgomery but be definitely over with Snell, unless they played some Dodger shenanigans ala deferring payment for 30 years.
Injuires like this and failure are gonna be common place for the too counted on Young Pitchers and the on the fly conversion of Hicks unless they get another starter or pitch WEBB every other day. Not getting another starter is is idiotic and actually , at least in my opinion, will hurt the kid pitchers
DeleteSteveVA
Here is the counter argument to signing any pitcher longer than 3 years: Note on MLBTR yesterday that Kodai Senga will start the season on the IL due to a posterior capsule shoulder strain. OTOH, Hyun-Jin Ryu just signed a contract with a Korean team for 8 yr/$7 M in U. S. $. What? A 1 year/$10 M contract would have easily topped that! Giants don't have to sign a huge contract. They need at least one more pitcher who will give them a chance to win every 5'th game for at least the first 3 months of the season. That could have been Sean Manaea, Jake Junis or Ryu. It could be Lorenzen or Clevinger.
DeleteI like Soler, Hicks and Lee signings. Agree with your C grade for this very odd off-season so far. What I'm trying to make sense out of is the Giants started off unsuccessfully chasing big free agents Shohei and Yamamoto so I thought they were gonna be big spenders. When FZ traded Descafani and Stripling , and didn't re sign Wood or Junis I thought they were gonna sign Snell and go with young starting pitchers for the 1st 2 months. I gett that the Boros 4 need to lower their demands otherwise this will continue to drag on .. Ridiculous! The Giants payroll according to Cots is $167 mil. $20 mil lower then last year's payroll. Can't say I'm happy with that. I thought they were a big market team who paid off their ballpark , so I expected them to spend a little more. Are my expectations too high?
ReplyDeleteBen Kaspick of Locked on Giants has a theory that makes a lot of sense that $167 M is the Giants ownership's self-imposed spending cap. Their payroll has been exactly that for the last 5 seasons except 2023 when it was $197 M. It just so happens that all MLB teams got a one time $30 M cash payment in 2023 from the sale of MLBAM.
DeleteOK, that's not quite right. The Giants Opening Day payroll the last 4 seasons assuming they don't make any more adds this year before Opening Day: $149 M, $155 M, $187 M and $167 M. So an alternate explanation is they are increasing payroll by about $6 M per season with a $30 M bubble in 2023.
DeleteAs of today, Fangraphs shows the SF payroll at $163,883,333, but, for luxury tax purposes, it's $213,258,333, which is under the first tax threshold of $237,000,000 by nearly $24M.
ReplyDeleteIf that $24M is spent preseason, any later spending would be taxed.
Penalties:
First year: 20% tax on all overages. $20M over would be $4M tax.
There’s also a surcharge threshold for clubs that exceed the base threshold by $20 million or more.
Clubs that are $40 million or more above the threshold shall have their highest selection in the next Rule 4 Draft moved back 10 places.
If $20 million to $40 million over there is a 12% surcharge.
Since it's OPM, we can say that it won't hurt the billionaire owners very much if they go over, especially if it gets the Giants into the playoffs, and even more so if they can get past the NL Division series for the first time since 2014.
source: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/giants
OK, thinking of, to me, the uncertain state of the Giants rotations with the youngsters/a converting close/rehabbing cobb/Ray....well, it may go better than I think and hopefully as good as I hope, but more than likely there will be injuries, inconsistencies, and inning/pitch limits on the entire boat load of them.....which...brings me to the long reliever(s). That/those guy might be as important as anybody for the Giants, but who will it be? Junis/Stribling gone...Is BECK likely for the rotation or is he more valuable as a long reliever that can pitch 2-3 times a week? And can they find somebody else that can do the same job (and that player is not usually a rookie) instead of or along with BECK? Am I missing somebody?
ReplyDeleteSteveVA
SteveVA