The Giants will exercise lefty Matt Moore’s $9MM option for 2018, GM Bobby Evans tells Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. By doing so, they will avoid paying a $1M buyout and, more importantly, retain a $10MM option or a $750K buyout on Moore for 2019.
Moore has struggled in 2017, posting a 5.39 ERA over 167 innings in his first full season in San Francisco. Evans’ admission comes as little surprise, however, as FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal recently reported that the Giants seemed likely to retain Moore as part of an effort to retain pitching depth. Also, Moore is relatively young at 28 and posted reasonable peripherals (7.7 K/9, 3.3 BB/9) this season, and he has pitched significantly better in the second half than in the first, cutting his BB/9 by about a third.
By exercising the option, the Giants get Moore, and flexibility for 2019, at what appears to be a reasonable cost. They will effectively be able to retain Moore for one year and $9.75MM, giving them a price similar to those of recent contracts for free agents like Andrew Cashner and Bartolo Colon, whose futures looked questionable at the time their deals were signed. The Giants will also, of course, get an option that could turn out to be quite valuable.
Nonetheless, the Giants’ decision perhaps was not an automatic one, and not just because of Moore’s performance. The Giants already had north of $150MM committed for 2018, including salaries of $18MM or more for six players (assuming Johnny Cueto does not exercise his opt-out clause). Moore’s salary will add even more to their 2018 payroll.
Just… why?
The benefits exceed the potential risks for a player of Moore’s history. I’m sure if Moore was an FA he would get more on a one year deal
Because he’s an extremely affordable, relatively young lefty with another year of control that pitches a lot of innings and has a pretty good ceiling. Good rotation depth or potential trade piece.
The Giants also have the first pick in the 2018 MLB Draft because the Phillies front office is brain dead.
All season long the Phillies owned the worst record and then in the last month of the season……
yeah, gosh darn those front office people for playing our rookies when they are succeeding!
You bash the Phillies for losing, then bash them for not losing enough. You’re clueless.
We’re still at least 3 years away from being able to have any idea as to which team gets the better player or whether either, neither or both will become MLB regulars. It’s probably better to have found out that Ryhs Hoskins’ name is written in blood on 2018’s Opening Day lineup.
This isnt basketball. There is no drop off from 2 -1 in the draft unless the next babe ruth is there. And thats not the case
Babe Ruth, Strasburg and Harper. (Especially Strasburg)
Strasburg isnt even a top 3 player out of the 09 draft anymore. Machado is a nice consolation for harper too
Sure wish the Mariners hadn’t beat the A’s that last weekend a few years ago. I’d say it’s a pretty huge drop off between 1 and 2 there. Of course it’s comparing pitchers to hitters, but I don’t see Ackley helping lead the Mariners to a division title.
But Muchado was #3, not 2. Jameson Taillon was picked #2 and I’d rather have Harper. Your argument was “there is no talent drop off from 2-1 in the drafts unless Babe Ruth is there”
It’s easy to say what you just said about Strasburg with the benefit of hindsight. In the case of Strasburg, here’s a list of #2-15 picked after him:
#2 Dustin Ackley. #3 Donavan Tate #4 Tony Sanchez #5 Matt Hobgood #6 Zach Wheeler #7 Mike Minor #8 Mike Leake #9 Jacob Turner #10 Drew Storen #11 Tyler Matzek #12 Aaron Crow #13 Grant Green #14 Matt Purke #15 Alex White.
Pirates would have taken Taillon #1 overall. Even Harper wasnt a sure thing
Always have to go back to the NFL draft when both Dorsett and Ricky Bell were seen as 1-2 and the clueless bucks took Bell at #1, then dallas was able to get the far superior Dorsett next.
Just because a superior player is there, some teams in baseball also will seem to choose the wrong one often with their top pick. i could name names, but won’t.
There is so much wrong with this comment. First of all, first picks in baseball aren’t exactly guarantees to become stars. If the Phillies had three consecutive No. 1 overall picks, they likely wouldn’t net three players as good as Rhys Hoskins, Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams. They’d also be fortunate to end up with the likes of Crawford and Kingery. (Crawford, picked 16th in 2013, is arguably better than more than half the players picked before him–including top pick Mark Appel.)
Secondly, the Phillies have tremendous momentum heading into 2018; they’re in the top-5 in runs scored since the all-star break, and now they know they have a potent middle of the lineup. And they’re pretty much doubled up on the infield—with Hoskins pushing out Joseph, and Crawford and Kingery on the verge. As crazy as it sounds, they could trade away their entire 2017 infield and be just fine—and perhaps they could even upgrade at 3B and pick up a solid veteran SP in the process. Plus, they’re a big-market team with virtually no big contracts; their free-agent market potential outweighs—by a huge margin—anything they could expect from an entire future draft class.
Meanwhile, the Giants will probably squander the pick by doing what they always do in the first round: pick a high school pitcher or a light-hitting infielder.
Moonlight G, the media coverage for Harper and Strasburg was unlike any I’ve ever seen in my 24 years of existence.
Like Babe Ruth probably (I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t alive) these two were unanymous #1 picks for these two drafts, and Nats got lucky having #1 picks in both those drafts.
Even if some of you wouldn’t have taken them #1– knowing what we know now– in my mind, the hype was justified because Mike Trout defied all expectations, one of the best players in baseball and in our generation was picked at #25. That isn’t usually the case.
Rick Monday was the first player ever chosen in the MLB Draft in 1965.
Yeah. My point still stands tho,
I thought dodgerfan11 said “This isn’t basketball. There is no drop off from 2-1 in the draft unless Babe ruth is there. And thats not the case” but it was:
“This isn’t basketball. There is no drop off from 2-1 in the draft unless the NEXT babe ruth is there.”
Not exactly esoteric info, since I’m sure everyone knew there was no MLB draft in the pre-1920’s. but it was my mistake and I apologize for that. Reading it wrong or not, I shouldn’t have assumed there was a draft in era of babe ruth. It makes sense, since there wasn’t free agency until 1975! And I think FA status should be a birthright, salary cap or not. 🙂
My point still stands 100%. The media hype of the 2009 and 2010 MLB draft, surrounding the #1 pick, were in leagues of their own.
Just let it go. You are wrong. Pride before the fall…
The last high school pitcher that the Giants drafted in the first round was bumgarner. The last time the Giants drafted high they picked Posey. The Giants are actually known for rarely drafting hs talent, last draft was the first since bum that was drafted out of high school in the first round
Phillies have had their share of top picks for a long while now, for their own sake, the better they play this month, itll be better for them esp since theyve lost for so long
The Giants are horrible this year and yet somehow have almost $150 committed to contracts in 2018. Baseball Reference projects them to spend $183 for their whole payroll if they don’t exercise Moore’s option. That’s crazy.
They made some questionable moves. Now they almost have to get every move right to have any chance
The Giants are always right around the tax, it’s certainly no guarantee of success in baseball. I think the tax is at $197 mil next year and they want to contend, but excersiving
… ahem… exercising Moore’s contract and buying out Cain’s is almost another $17 mil.
I don’t think buyouts of contracts count towards the tax but I could be wrong on that.
Plus there’s a year another year of potential control too, in the form of another team option.
The Giants weighed their opportunity cost and found the potential benefits exceed the potential risks. $9M (with $1M buyout, so actually $8M) on a one year contract with one more year of team control in the form of a $10MM team option, is far from an albatross for a player of Matt Moore’s potential who has shown history of success and you just hope he rebounds next year.
By exercising options on Moore and Bumgarner the Giants will have a payroll over $190 million without adding anyone. So they’ll be bringing back the worst team in baseball for another year. The Giants have a few intriguing young players but their performance this year should tell Giant fans that Arroyo, Jones et al aren’t guaranteed to bring anything to the team next year.
Maybe Giant fans think that the team was bad this year because a few players slumped and Bumgarner got hurt. The team isn’t 72-73. They’re 57-92. The Phillies kept putting up bad years thinking they could just add 1-2 players and be contenders. That’s unlikely to work for the Giants.
Payroll will be a little less than that, because they’ll buy out Cain to save $13.5 million. Still, I’d prefer they also buy out Moore to save $8 million, and let Beede or some other youngster learn on the job. Even if the rookie approach didn’t work out, there’s always a veteran out there who can be had for veteran-minimum money who would be as effective as Moore.
Meanwhile, that Moore money could help strengthen the Giants’ financial position to go after a big hitter. (J.D. Martinez?)
As bad as the Giants are this year, I actually don’t think they’re in that bad of a position moving forward. Injury aside, Arroyo appears to be developing rapidly, so mix him and a Martinez-type in with Posey, Crawford, Panik and Belt, and they might have a nice lineup next year. The uninspiring Span and declining Pence are problematic but not exactly useless.
The biggest problem, ultimately, is the bullpen…which can be fixed rather easily and have a dramatic impact on the rotation. (As will MadBum staying off the dirt bikes and Cueto rebounding.)
They need a lot to go right next year to be competitive. Of course, a lot had to go wrong for them to implode this season.
I would be surprised if that were the case, the fo knows that pence and span need to be upgraded and that there needs to be some options @ 3rd- wouldn’t be surprised to see arroyo get some time again with some kind of insurance behind him ( he would be in there now if he didn’t break something and end up on the DL) the rest of the infield is fine. The bullpen needs something but as long as Smith and melancon heal ok after surgery, it will be a much different pen.. there is also the fact that span and pence are in their last year so they gain flexibility next year regardless of what happens with them
Third paragraph not so good.
It’s an effective $9.25m option for 2019, not $9.75m (assuming first paragraph has right numbers.)
And third sentence is a bit redundant and doesn’t really work without mention of Moore’s upside in the article, which I don’t think is exactly obvious.
Charlie is referencing the 2018 season control of Moore that the Giants will get for that $9,750,000 “[b]y exercising the option.”
And unless Charlie has updated the post since your comment, The explanation of Moore’s age, peripherals, and stronger second half at least in part because of his reduced BB/9 presents obvious enough evidence that Moore *could* be even more valuable in 2019.
Actually, it’s effectively a 8.75 million gamble as the Giants would’ve had to pay the buyout anyway, plus they can retain him for a reasonable 9.25 mil next year.
Yes, the gamble for 2018 is $8.75MM… but the overall cost for Moore’s 2018 services is the $9.75MM that Charlie originally cited.
Btw Roshental doesn’t work for Fox anymore
yes he does
I just saw him reporting for them this morning.
Barring a Huizenga-level salary dump, the Giants can write off 2018. It’s okay – three rings is close to a lifetime pass, so I can stick out the lean years.
If three rings for this front office isn’t a ‘lifetime pass’, 3 rings in 7 years is. They’re not stupid people, but the leash will be long — and rightfully so.
As a fan of baseball, I hope they get a 4th one. For all the complaining I hear from Giants fans (about this season) I think this current Giants Front office is approaching HOF status. It took the Cubs 100+ years to win 3 and some clubs still haven’t won a WS since their inception. Appreciate what you have.
But how many more seasons like this one, until they lose their job security and it comes to question?? Your guess is as good as mine, but I wouldn’t blame Giants fans for being impatient, I probably would too if my team won 3 in 7, and then this season happened.
Could Texas possibly bid at him?
If the Giants have any shot at competing next year they need to blow past the luxury tax and buy a whole new outfield, a third baseman, and cut old none productive players like Span and Pence. On top of that they need to hope for bounce back seasons from everyone not named Posey or Panik. Furthermore, Posey needs to remember how to hit home runs and Belt needs to stop swinging and missing so much.
Giants’ track record over the past 10 years is impressive, but the flaw in their system is their inability or unwillingness to move on from players who aren’t productive or injury-prone. If nothing else this offseason, they need to let go of Pence, Sandoval, & Cain, and at least shop players like Span and Belt.