The Giants are rumored to be committed to avoiding contract which significantly increase payroll obligations beyond 2020. Well, Matt Harvey, a pitcher with as high a ceiling as any in this year's FA market agreed to a 1 year/$11 M contract with the Angels with an additional $3 M in incentives which start kicking in at 15 Starts.
Harvey was once one of very best pitchers in the game, a true ace. In 2013 he sported a 2.27 ERA in 178.1 IP and in 2015 a 2.71 ERA in 189.1 IP. In between he spent a year recovering from Tommy John surgery. Since 2015, he's battled a series of injuries including Thoracic Outlet Syndrome and a stress fracture of the scapula. He also was a regular visitor to the tabloid pages in New York linked to a series of romantic relationships with supermodels and developed a reputation as a hard partier. He famously failed to show up for a game in 2017 and was suspended for 3 games. In 2013 SI had him on their cover and dubbed him the Dark Kight of Gotham, a nickname he embraced to the point of carving it into the knobs of his bats. The beginning of 2018 was so disastrous, the Mets tried to send him down the minors, which he refused and eventually designated him for assignment. He was claimed by the Reds who traded of-injured C Devin Mesoraco for him. Harvey pitched better for the Reds, but was dinger-prone and his 4.50 ERA paled in comparison to his top seasons.
So, $11 M is a lot of guaranteed money for a guy with that track record. The key is it is only for 1 season, so the risk is quite limited and he will have a ton of incentive to make good on the opportunity and re-enter free agency for 2020. Nice upside play by the Angels with limited risk.
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Daniel Descalso signed a 2 yr/$5 m contract with the Cubs. Check out a recent Fangraphs article entitled The Quietest Swing Changer for a read on how Descalso has changed himself into a flyball hitter and increased his offensive production over the past 3 seasons. He enters his age 32 season coming off the best season of his career.
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Not too surprising for the Giants to pass -- they don't seem to like disrupters.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for not "taking an AB" as another anon said than a predictive whiff!
Sadly, I'd put Pollock in that category, unless he'll take an incentive laded contract and then I don't care how big it is commensurate with the objectives.
There is a risk to every transaction. So far the Giants offseason appears to be risk free, but the risk is that none of the minor league/Rule 5 signings do a "Max Muncy" and you end up with another completely unproductive OF when they left close to $50 M of spendable money on the table.
DeleteWhile they haven't signed him yet, it appears Farhan and the Giants are putting a lot of eggs in the Kikuchi basket. But Kikuchi has a long string of shoulder injuries(or maybe it's just one recurrent shoulder injury). We'll see how much it costs to sign Kikuchi, but I'll bet it's more than what Matt Harvey cost the Angels.
Delete....and what about this interest in Troy Tulowitzki who has been Injury Central for the past several years?
DeleteI guess Tulo actually has a pretty sweet contract already, so like Panda the signing team only has to pay league minimum with the BJ's picking up the rest.
DeleteAccording to Alex Pavlovic the Giants are close to a deal with relief pitcher Pat Venditte.
ReplyDeleteNow THAT would be worth seeing!
Not THAT is a deal that will change the balance of power in the NL West!
DeleteWhat balance of power?
DeleteThere's an 800-pound gorilla in LA and everyone else.
Giants could sign every FA left that they can entice (and afford with their $50 million) and not make up 18 games on the Dodgers.
But I'd buy a ticket to see an ambidextrous pitcher -- never seen that.
Giants want to be interesting and spend money that won't hurt 2020 and beyond, kind of a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm.
Zaidi is starting to channel Charles O Finley...
Delete1. I don't agree that the gap between the Giants and Dodgers is insurmountable, even in 2019.
Delete2. I don't think, or at least I hope, the Giants did not bring in a new President of Baseball Operations to turn them into a sideshow.
I would add that Pat Venditte is not exactly a new novelty. He's pitched professionally since 2018 and has pitched off and on in the majors since 2015. He has a 4.50 career ERA in MLB with worse peripheral numbers. Look, if the Giants want to give him a minor league deal with an invitation to camp, that's great. He's not going to be part of any rebuild, reload or whatever it is they are trying to accomplish.
DeleteI'd still like to see him pitch!
Delete