Scarcely a day goes by in which the Giants are not linked to Giancarlo Stanton on multiple occasions, but John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that San Francisco is also considering the other top right-handed slugger that is available this offseason: J.D. Martinez. It’s not clear if the Giants have sat down with agent Scott Boras, and Shea is careful to note that the Giants are internally discussing a wide number of options to improve their offense. Martinez would represent the most aggressive means of doing so on the free-agent market. He’ll command fewer years and dollars than the remaining decade and $295MM on Stanton’s contract, though Boras is reportedly seeking a sky-high $210MM over seven years early in the offseason. (Martinez will quite likely sign for less than that, as early asking prices are always on the high side for any free agent.)
Working against the Giants is a payroll that is already dangerously close to the luxury tax barrier and that Martinez doesn’t help the Giants’ stated goals of improving the outfield defense or getting better in center field.
More on the from the division…
- The Padres are interested in reunions with right-handers Jhoulys Chacin and Craig Stammen, general manager A.J. Preller told reporters at this week’s GM Meetings (link via MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell). “From our standpoint, it’s about seeing how the next couple weeks play out,” said Preller. “They’re two guys we have interest in bringing back. We’ve got to see if we line up financially.” Cassavell reports that the Friars would consider a multi-year deal for either pitcher, though such a contract would likely need to come with a discounted second year. San Diego has a number of arms rising through the system and may not relish the idea of blocking those arms, though from my vantage point having either Chacin or Stammen around at an affordable rate is a good problem to have if all parties are performing well.
- In a separate pair of Padres columns, Cassavell characterizes their interest in Eric Hosmer as little more than due diligence, while Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune hears a bit differently and reports that their interest goes “beyond the cursory level.” Cassavell notes that the Padres have kicked the tires on roughly 50 free agents thus far (most of them pitchers) as they look to get a full picture of the free-agent market. Lin, meanwhile, suggests that the Padres may be intrigued both by Hosmer’s intangible leadership qualities and by his 25-homer output despite being an extreme ground-ball hitter. A willingness to amend that approach and put the ball in the air more often could yield untapped power; I’d imagine that the Padres, who call spacious Petco Park their home, are also intrigued by the pop that Hosmer showed in his own cavernous home park (Kauffman Stadium) in spite of an approach that isn’t traditionally conducive to power.
- The D-backs have added Jason Parks to their front office as their new director of pro scouting, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports (via Twitter). Parks, who many readers may remember from his excellent work at Baseball Prospectus, has been with the Cubs as a scout and a special assistant since 2014. He’ll join an increasingly youthful Arizona front office that is led by GM Mike Hazen and assistant GMs Jared Porter and Amiel Sawadaye. Notably, Parks’ role as director of pro scouting will be the same one that Porter filled with the Cubs when he and Parks were colleagues in Chicago.
outinleftfield
Great hire by the Dbacks. One of the better pro scouts in baseball.
BrianSouza
Totally agree. I listened to Professor Parks and Kevin Goldstein’s Up and In Podcast as well as Parks podcast with Mike Ferrin on Fringe Average and his knowledge on players is astounding. I think his best assets include a fluency in Spanish as well as an ability to recognize when to defer to others’ knowledge. Congrats to Jason and the DBacks
gmenfan
Giants: we are committed to staying under the luxury tax threshold
Also Giants: we’re interested in giving a 30 yo “DH playing OF” $30M a year.
sidewinder11
If they could move Span and Shark’s contracts, they would have the money to sign JDM while staying under the tax line. Definitely not the ideal situation but SF does need a big bat in the outfield and JDM is the best on the market
WalkersDayOff
How they gonna move span and samardjzia? No one would take on their contract without getting good prospect too and they dont have the resources to do that
gmenfan
People are underestimating the value of Samardzjia. Over 200+ innings, 3.61 FIP, 9K/1.4BB per 9 last year. There will be free agent pitchers signed for $18.5M+ AAV this off-season that will provide less value. If the Giants weren’t dead set on getting significant prospect value back, I wouldn’t be shocked if they can shed a good portion of that contract.
mike156
Shark is the guy everyone wants to believe in. 10 years, just 140 IP, ERA+ of 97. Yes, he was decent last year and in 2015, and he has value. It’s just hard to think he’s worth giving up something good plus taking on the bulk of $20M per year.
AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres
You are overestimating him. He has never been good outside of 2014.
WalkersDayOff
Samardzija has no value to the point of taking on his deal. Sure if he didnt have such a big contract he would be sought after. But no one wants that contract and giant fans need to accept that. 2014 was his only really good season to justify that deal.
cubsbearsbulls2018
I disagree
cxcx
If they were interested in giving him $30m per year he would not still be a free agent.
gmenfan
Tell Scott Boras that.
bleacherbum
In regards to Hosmer and the Padres, Love the player but don’t love the fit for multiple reasons. #1 being the fact that Myers will have to move back to LF most likely and after two injury free seasons, he goes back to the OF where he hurt his wrist multiple times.
#2 Naylor is a year away from the bigs, and can only play 1B. Signing Hosmer blocks him and Hosmer is another guy who can only play 1B. So you don’t leave yourself many options if you decide to go down that path, other than obviously trading Naylor which would be head scratching but possible.
Joe Kerr
If they do sign Hosmer, they could trade Naylor for a decent arm.
bleacherbum
They could, but Naylor is young, cheap and brings a lot of the same things that Hosmer would. Both L/L first baseman who can hit you 25 homers, and play good defense. Hosmer obviously has the championship pedigree and the ability to play on the big stage like the playoff’s and all-star game but is that worth the $$$$ if you are the Padres? Seems a bit pre-mature, especially with Naylor on the horizon.
lowtalker1
You forget Naylor is horrible at first
outinleftfield
So is Hosmer.
SixFlagsMagicPadres
They should just wait for Naylor to get through the minors and save their money for next year’s free agent class.
bleacherbum
I agree completely.
Harry h
Don’t worry about Hosmer playing for the padres they’re too cheap to sign anyone that would cost more then league minimum.And besides what power hitter would want to play in such a large ballpark & a loosing organization.?
AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres
You mean like how they were too cheap to sign Clayton Richard, Jhoulys Chacin and Clayton Richard for $1.75m each?
padreforlife
Yea big ticket items Richard,Chacin = Hosmer contract lol
JoePauer
I miss Fringe Average. Congratulations Mr. Parks!
antsmith7
When are we going to start seeing the hot stove heat up?
ABCD
Owners and GMs are caressing their leather binders of “JDM’s Career” that Boras has handed out.
The penultimate page shows JDM’s .700+ slugging pct. for 2017 that Boras has projected to over .800 on the last page for 2018 and through the remainder of the seven year contract.
Dock_Elvis
Hosmer leaves and they net the comp pick plus sign Logan Morrison…that’s a better deal.
outinleftfield
Royals should allow all 3 of their FA to walk. Getting 3 extra picks in the first 35 is huge for a team that won’t contend even if they bring back all three FA. The draft picks are much more valuable in my opinion.
Dock_Elvis
Royals recent team has always been sum is greater than the parts.
AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres
Preller should have traded Chacin and Stammen
SixFlagsMagicPadres
Maybe if they can resign Chacin and he continues his decent results, they can flip him at next season’s deadline.
AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres
Trading Chacin wouldn’t have barred the Padres from re-signing him
SixFlagsMagicPadres
Yeah that’s true, and I’ll admit I was a little surprised when they were not able to find a taker for him, by himself or as part of a package.
I guess the way I’m seeing it is now if they resign him and he puts up another decent year, the consistency might drive his price up a little bit by next year’s deadline compared to this past season. They could potentially get something back that’s a little more valuable than what they would have received from trading him this past season.
AndThisGameBelongsToMySanDiegoPadres
They could have traded him and then re-signed him and then if he continues to pitch decently could trade him again
padreforlife
Yea merry go round players they love that
Hiro
Rooting for Padres to re-sign Chacin.
obsessivegiantscompulsive
This reminds me of Boras’ handling of Carlos Beltran after his short stint with the Giants. He asked for an arm and a leg for Beltran, and teams would kick their tires, but eventually tired of waiting and got alternatives, until Beltran had to sign a much lower deal with the Cards, who lucked into that deal. I would throw out Ivan Rodriguez as well, with the Marlins lucking out.
$30M per season, for seven seasons, might not be as much as Stanton, but Stanton’s deal most likely will be heavily subsidized by the Marlins, bringing their total contract outlay much closer. Of course JD would not require players in return, but that’s a ton of money for a player who had played a full MLB season once in his MLB career. He has missed 85 games in the last two seasons, more than half a season (out of a total of four halves possible).
And who is below average defensively in the OF, by a lot, he cost his teams about 3 wins in the past two seasons due to his poor defense (another negative for the Giants, who wants to improve defense), he really should be DH-ing. He was so bad in 2016 that in spite of his hitting, his bWAR and fWAR was only 1.8. What if the signing team bought that JD?
That’s not even close to paying back his $30M/year contract, and he would be expected to get even worse. Though, at only 30 YO next season, likely not to be that low, but this is the age hurdle where you have to wonder if that’s it, if his decline might come sooner than later.
Given that he missed 25% of the past two seasons (less, since most players don’t play a full season; using 150 game season, that’s missing 20%), lets say Boras figured out the value of his player is $30M, assuming full seasonal play. 80% of $30M is $24M. That’s in the ballpark of MLBTR’s $25M/per season (6 years, $150M) projection, as rare power like that will draw extra demand, so that seems to align, he’s hoping to get full-season value for a player who has not been able to last a full season but once.
Harry h
Scott Boris is a complete criminal what ever price he is asking take that price and cut ✂ in half and that’s the true value of the player he’s reps.I bet Boris started working in a used car dealership wean he was a kid .cheating little old ladys out of they social security checks and selling them a piece of junk to boot.Any g.m.thats does business with him better be one hell of a closer or the ball club he’s working for is probably going to be filing for bankruptcy soon !!! Enough said…
bosoxforlife
I cannot imagine Stanton agreeing to go to San Francisco. There is no worse park for a HR hitter than AT&T. Many of Stanton’s hardest hit balls went to right-center and you need double juice, the ball plus whatever Bonds used, to get one out in that direction.
padreforlife
Stanton wants to win who cares about home runs
jollybucnroger
Hosmer to the Rockies I like. CarGo money coming off the books, plus his offense would replace Blackmon when he leaves in 2019 and Arenado leaves in 2020. If they have plans to lock up Arenado then obviously that changes things. And Hosmer would keep Desmond off of first base. Hosmer would be a good piece as other players leave and as the Rockies pitching continues to hopefully develop
padreforlife
What about Desmond?