Per Cot's Contracts website, the signing of Harrison Bader leaves the Giants approximately $26 M under the CBT threshold. For the sake of this discussion, Buster Posey is willing to use half of that to sign at least one more player while leaving a bit of room for midseason upgrades.
Question: What position do you upgrade with that $13 M? Here are the choices:
Second Base
DH
Starting Rotation
Bullpen
None, keep your powder dry for a bigger midseason move
*Warning: Rants about ownership not spending enough will not be posted.
None. That isn’t enough money to get a difference maker. Keep the powder dry or — more likely — make another trade.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt in my mind, we should pick up a couple more RPs.
ReplyDeleteBullpen, Bob in Dixon.
ReplyDeleteMLBTR adjacent "Headliners" points out:
ReplyDeleteGiants to sign Harrison Bader ($20.8M for 2 years, ~ $10M/year)
Yankees re-sign Cody Bellinger ($162.5M for 5 years, ~ $32M/year)
So for $13M you can get ~1⅓ Baders.
According to what's left in MLBTR's unsigned Top 50 MLB Free Agents:
You can't get Galen.
You can't get Bassit.
You could get:
Giolito (almost - two years, $32M).
Martinez
Arraez
Littell
Verlander (maybe, but probably not)
Scherzer (maybe, but probably not)
So: Gioloto
That's probably not enough to get any FA position that would help, but the trade market still is an avenue which would take prospects and a 2026 salary which would likely be less than $13M.
ReplyDeleteSuch as Brendan Donovan who will get $5.8M for the 2026 season (and more for 2027).
He would help the most, but is it worth giving up one of the Top 3 (Eldridge, Gonzalez, Hernandez)? The Giants do have 4 infielders in Doc's Top 6 so maybe one of them but not Eldridge or Davidson (the only OFer in the top 12).
Getting Donovan would give the Giants a very solid defense and improve the offense, perhaps more than any other (available) player.
Otherwise pick up Lucas Giolito because at least one of the Giants' 5 SP's will falter which would allow Roupp to
be a swingman.
As constructed now team can start with respectable roster, see how things go and be well positioned to be seller (contracts of this year's FA signings, Ray, any reliever who catches fire), or buyer (with legit SP prospects up & down the minors levels, lots of SSs & the #4 pick coming in to help patch or at least compensate for whatever stockpile gets depleted). Right now, in advance of that, I like just about any Brendan Donovan trade -- one I have in mind is Dakota, Kilen & one of the San-Jose/Eugene SPs, and I would have liked to be more in market for RP upgrading, but seems that ship's sailed and plenty of candidates go to camp, hopefully one emerges as legit CL.
ReplyDeleteThey said it above......the bullpen as constructed is going to lose games this year. They are either very young, coming off injuries or just plain waiver wire pickups. I am not saying One or two will not have good seasons....but a whole season with a pen like this is going to be a long one. The biggest issue is that the free agent market has already been picked clean...so unless a trade or two is made they better have the fire brigade standing by to put out the fires.
ReplyDeleteAre there any meaningful bullpen arms left in free agency? Looks pretty pricey for mediocre (and less) talent still remaining. Donovan was never a real option, St. Louis would never turn him over to the Giants for anything less than a haul, especially with so many American League teams and others kicking tires. Giolito is an injury away from being a big waste of a roster spot. Time to see if Bednar and some other youngsters in the system are ready and able to step up. Save any dry powder for the trade deadline.
ReplyDelete