The Giants have a ton of money tied up in the bullpen right now, writes Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, so they're trying to move Jeremy Affeldt or Ramon Ramirez. Many teams seek bullpen help, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Tigers, Twins, Angels, Mariners, Mets, Brewers, Cardinals, and Reds.
Affeldt, a 32-year-old lefty, had his $5MM club option exercised by the Giants in October. Ramirez, a 30-year-old righty, projects to earn $2.3MM in his last year before free agency.
Including Affeldt, Ramirez, Brian Wilson ($8.5MM), Javier Lopez ($4.25MM), Santiago Casilla ($1.9MM estimated), and Sergio Romo ($1.3MM estimated), the Giants project to have a $23.25MM bullpen in 2012. That doesn't seem too bad against a $130MM payroll, though it increases to over 23% of the team's spending once you remove the dead weight of Barry Zito and Aaron Rowand.
So the Giants give away two guys that are better than the one coming in, and they only clear about one million after replacing one of the two? Good luck with that
Pitching is our strength, it would be smarter to keep the pitching together
and sign a free agent. Winning will keep the attendance high. We already
got rid of Sanchez. We are paying a middle reliever, Affeldt, a starters
salary. Perhaps some team sees him as a starter? With weaker pitching,
last year, the giants would have lost 100 games with their 570 runs. Keep
the pitching, and sign a decent free agent bat. The smarter way to go.
I agree, Wayne. I just don’t see the value of anyone we get in a trade for those guys exceeding what they provide. It was frustrating to hear all the pie-in-the-sky ideas about what the Giants could get if they traded Jonathon Sanchez. They got exactly what he was worth with Melky Cabrera. For anyone who thought they could get a game-breaking bat for Sanchy, they were smoking crack. The same thing goes for Affeldt and Ramirez. What the G-men need are more reliable hitters, and I don’t think you would get a truly reliable hitter in trade for one or both of those guys. It would weaken a strength, their bullpen, without really helping the offense; and probably wouldn’t save much money, if any at all.
I heard the Giants did fairly well 2 years ago with this philosophy. I missed all of October though, how did that end?
Thanks for reminding us Giants fans. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
giants fan here, Affeldt is not only a good setup man, he’s also a class act, hate to see him go, he can be lights out
Try these two scenarios: 1) don’t pick up the option, Affeldt walks, Giants get nothing. 2) Giants pick up the option, Sabean trades him for a footlong and a coke during the winter meetings. In either scenario, the Giants pay him nothing and in the latter, Sabean gets a free lunch. That’s the logic. If they had no plan on keeping him, then anything they get is a worthwhile deal.
But everyone screams “Sign a bat, sign a bat!” He signed “a bat” with Rowand, giving the KNBR callers what they wanted. These are the same callers who begged for him to sign Soriano, Bay, Werth and Carlos Lee.
Maybe Sabean knows what he’s doing.
The Giants ought to be able to trade Zito to Boston or NYY for what is remaining on his contract and get something in return. Zito may find himself, he was durable up to this year and never has had arm trouble. He is better than Lackey and A.J. . The Giants possibly considering trading Affeldt and Ramirez is ludicrous you don’t trade good relievers because if you do, before you know it you will be looking for one. sabean is more than a few bricks short of a load. Paying Rowand for nothing is idiotic. Rowand could have been moved even if the Gs had to eat part of the contract. With what they did they eat all 15 million. Signing Huff to 2 years for 22 million was stupid because they have Belt and now Pill. One year at 11 would have been understandable. Why do the Gs have two all star caliber 2nd basemen who don’t play any other positions? The Gs sellout just about every game but the fans are tired of seeing great pitching efforts get beat because of no run support. Keep the pitching maybe even Zito and spend the money and at least bring Beltran back for 2 or 3 years.
Lopez is generally lights out. Frankly Nylund you are the LOOGY !!