Sept. 23: Smoak has been placed on unconditional release waivers, per Jessica Kleinschmidt of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link).
Sept. 21: The Giants have designated first baseman Justin Smoak for assignment, Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to report. They reinstated outfielder Alex Dickerson from the paternity list in a corresponding move.
This is the second time this month a team has cut Smoak, whom the Brewers designated Sept. 3 and then released on the 8th. Milwaukee signed Smoak, a three-time 20-home run hitter, to a $5MM guarantee last offseason off a so-so campaign with the Blue Jays. However, the switch-hitting 33-year-old only slashed .186/.262/.381 with five homers in 126 plate appearances before the Brewers cut ties with him.
Smoak may have been worth a low-risk shot for San Francisco, but he also couldn’t get back on track with the Giants, albeit over a small sample size of plate appearances. He wound up taking six trips to the plate and going without a hit as a Giant.
I still find it funny that they got rid of panda for him and now to just dfa
Then you clearly don’t get the notion that the bottom of the roster is subject to churn so that the Giants can make some moves in the interest of bettering the team.
Oh I fully understand, you apparently don’t. They literally replaced panda with smoak. Smoak is worst. They would have been better off taking a bat from their alt site then being him on board.
“They would have been better off taking a bat from their alt site…”
No they wouldn’t. They are well aware, certainly better than you and I are, of the potential of the guys at the alt site. They obviously felt that Smoak, based on his career, had more upside than anyone there. The article even states that Smoak was worth a low-risk shot. And taking a look at Smoak doesn’t prevent them from bringing someone up now.
But the issue of replacing Sandoval with Smoak is irrelevant. Both clearly proved them selves unworthy of a roster spot.
tad nailed it. Smoak didn’t cost panda a roster spot. panda cost panda a roster spot. Its basabe that replaced them both plus Dickerson coming back from paternity leave. ill take basabe and his speed and glove over smoak/ panda
I find it hilarious that you commentors that hate Pablo so much to see that his last 15 games with the team he had started contributing and that this whole Smoak trial was a huge mistake.
Keep defending the move, but your argument has no leg to stand on.
Really? Panda has no business on this team… from the get go. I’m not defending the smoak pickup but I am defending the panda release. He is NOT missed. Basaabe has speed and defense. And panda had neither. Plus he wasn’t hitting. Other than that, he was stellar.
4ever, quit assuming we’re bashing panda.
I mean neither Sandoval or Smoak was doing well, we’re talking about guys barely hanging on here…hard to really pick them apart here
Pablo had a -0.6 bWAR when released. The argument that has no leg to stand on is your own insistence that releasing him was some sort of crime. It’s ok to be a fan of a player because of what they used to be, but don’t get mad at others for judging him by what he is now.
Giants have no business in the playoffs
Don’t ask anyone from Boston about Panda, guy was a joke!
Another dolt with an opinion who can’t write in English.
Haha ….Frisco fans are the worst. Whiny, overly sensitive nincompoops
Smoak should have been DFA’d 3 teams ago.
Cosmodeus, first yes I like Pablo for what he did during the times when he was working hard during his first stint in SF. I actually was against them picking him back up a couple years back, but 19 he was a solid producer for them, and though he started this season very very slowly, he had started to hit prior to being released.
My argument was and has been that Smoak, who has not had a good season in more than 2 years was a downgrade from Sandoval. Yes, Sandoval’s WAR this season had shown he wasn’t helping the team, but for the umpteenth time, he had started hitting, plus he was a capable 3B when the Giants needed to spell Longoria. And finally, when you’re in the stretch run of a possible playoff birth, you don’t start releasing guys who play a major role in the clubhouse.
Claude, Basabe’s speed means nothing if he can’t get on base. So far he has not shown the ability to hit major league pitching.
SFGiants4ever:
Please stop. Sandoval is nowhere close to being a capable 3B. The stats show that clearly. He has become a DH/1B only player. And the numbers supporting Sandoval starting to hit is a minuscule sample.
You talk about Basabe not getting on base, but his .333 OBP was better than Sandoval’s .278 OBP. Yes Basabe’s OBP is a small sample, but it’s way too early to say he can’t get on base, whereas Sandoval has shown he can’t.
Sure, Basabe may not be able to hit major league pitching, who knows? But at this point it appears Sandoval has lost that ability, and Basabe, with his speed and defense has a much better upside than Sandoval.
Cokeman1959:
Three teams ago he didn’t have a great BA, only .208, but he did hit 22 HRs, with a .342 OBP, and an OPS+ of 101, Only someone deficient of baseball knowledge would say that was worthy of a DFA.
He’s not a capable third baseman and the fact that he “started hitting” is a non argument. So he sucked a bit less in a small sample size of recency bias. Means nothing. He’s done as a valuable player and I get that you’re a big fan of his but let’s live in reality here. Stop trying to make the case for a below replacement level player who is about to retire cuz he’s no longer viable.
C’mon 4ever! The first day on the team Basabe chased down a gapper as a defensive replacement. Speed did that. He can pinch run for someone that gets on base. Panda was supposed to be a pinch hit specialist, and failed. Basabe could have pinch run for Pablo but he couldn’t get on base. And like tad says, as bad as you say Basabe obp is it was still better than Sandovals.
Think about what you said man “speed means nothing”. It won a game on his first day with giants.
It means nothing?
Btw, Basabe is hurt and Robertson is up. Who are these guys? Well, they both have, in a very short time, contributed more than Pablo. I defended Pablo last year but he contributed a lot. Power against righties. I’m not one to bash his weight, but he basically was ineffective because of the weight, especially defensively.
If management signed him knowing this, shame on them BUT how can he justify getting one more shot and, to me, disrespecting that chance by being out of shape? I’m sorry, I’m a fan, but he showed no appreciation for this opportunity
This…from a Yankees fan
That didn’t last long.
This roster is a merry go round/garbage disposal. Lots of trash to sort through and no plan but to spin round and round
They are remaining competitive (granted just barely) in a year when no one expected them to compete. The roster churn is a huge part of that. They took a chance on guys like Yaz and Dickerson and Ruf, who were written off as garbage and who have all been tremendous cogs.
For a team that is rebuilding and that has some holes, you have to be open to cycling some guys in and out and trying new things. The cuts of Pence and Pablo opened up the door for Smoak; Smoak didn’t impress, so the door is open now for guys like Basabe and Robertson.
I know you have beat the drum of wanting more powerful free agents. That will be happening very soon. I don’t know where your “this is a conspiracy to keep the Giants rebuilding in perpetuity” hangup comes from except from an irrational dislike of FZ.
There’s definitely a plan here, and the future looks a heck of a lot brighter going forward, even if the Giants ultimately fail to make the playoffs.
The conspiracy is that Giants ownership has denied vehemently that they would ever go through a rebuild and yet here we are. The truth is that they just want to spend less when fans spend more and more each year. If they were pinched for cash then by all means act like a small market team but they have money and just prefer not to spend it.
This year is not a success. Mediocrity isn’t success and when draft picks are tied to it you could argue its worse than a losing season. The players that got us to .500 won’t be here next year most likely so no building blocks (none are long term blocks anyway even if they resign).
You need stars to win in this league. Farhan has a history of just dumpster diving which is why once he is gone you see the Dodgers actually spend money on Betts. This was why he was brought in, to be cheap and get payroll down and they hoped he would find a few diamonds in the rough. They hoped he would hit on a few draft picks and put together a few good trades but so far there isn’t much to hang his hat on.
The Giants.Lol
The ownership was loathe to use the word “Rebuild” with a capital R in the transition from the Sabean/Evans/Bochy era into the Zaidi/Kapler one (apparently there’s a GM named Scott Harris, but I’ve yet to see hide or hair of him so far). But that hasn’t been the case for awhile now. I think the fans grasped the idea of a rebuild last offseason when Bum left, and if they didn’t then, they surely did after the unceremonious cuts of Panik, Pence and Pablo. Time for ol’ Pato to come around on that one, too!
This year IS a success! What you’re calling “mediocrity” is a gritty team that has managed to contend pretty much up to the finish line. They’re really not objectively worse than the ’14 team that snuck into the WC and floored MLB by winning it all. I’m not saying that’s going to happen again, but I am saying give credit where credit’s due.
To your last gripe: Farhan will soon start signing FA powerhouses. He was in on Harper and Stanton, and I expect the Giants to start doling out some 3+ year contracts to stars beginning with this offseason. Belt and Crawford have heralded that they can still be productive, and that means money can be shifted to 3B and OF.
This team is looking up! Maybe you should look up too!
“Farhan has a history of just dumpster diving which is why once he is gone you see the Dodgers actually spend money on Betts”
Imagine think Zaidi had final say over Friedman on Free Agent spending. Yeah find another false narrative.
Farhan was brought to the Dodgers for the same reason he was brought to the Giants. Lower payroll and find somewhere else to do it 4-5 years later. Farhan did his dirty work already in LA and now Friedman gets to spend some money. In 2-3 years when the Giants fire him they will be able to blame the rebuild on Farhan.
Suggesting that the Giants were “in” on Harper is laughable and you are just the kind of fan Larry Baer is hoping for. If you believe they were in on Harper then let me have your email I know a prince who can make you a millionaire. Dodgers suck BTW
All your points are terrible except for that last sentence. That one I agree with.
Stars aren’t building blocks but rather they are the icing on the cake. You can’t start with high priced superstars, you need a foundation first. The value of any one player, superstar or not, is way overestimated by most fans. The Giants organization knows what it’s doing.
The Giants were very publicly in on Harper and were likely the 2nd place finalists, but don’t let facts get in the way of your irrational blathering about a team no one expected to do well thats doing well.
why would Yaz and Dickerson not be with the team next year? They’re both practically free and under team control for the foreseeable future.
Competitive? Lets establish something here. ‘Competitive teams” are teams with a winning record. A record above the .500 mark.
The Giants have spent 90% of this short 60 game season Below .500…..And project to finish the season below the .500 mark. They are….at best mediocre
Man, do you just come here to rag? You need a new team to root for. May I suggest the A’s?
well considering everyone had them winning like 18 games I wouldn’t pay attention to projections – if you have been watching it is pretty much young bullpen and errors that have let the team down not mediocrity.
They are rebuilding.
So…obviously record matters regarding “being competitive”, but what that record is doesn’t really matter if it gets you into the playoffs. You can argue all day that the Covid season is different, but the Giants are 100% competitive because theyre competing for a playoff spot. Thats all competing is. They can even be mediocre at the same time if you prefer.
Giants are mediocre. That was the correct comment.
The comment was that they have done nothing to improve the team. That is completely false.
Let’s establish what competitive means? The definition is “as good as or better than others of a comparable nature..” That’s what it means.
Competitive means having a chance to win any game they participate in. Competitive can also mean being in the hunt for a playoff spot until the end of a season.
How do you project them to finish under .500 when they are at .500 right now? Way to fit your narrative with false facts.
Dickerson has never been “garbage.” The Padres DFA’d him because he was stuck with the injury bug for a while and then decided that they didn’t have a place for him when he finally was ready to return. That was back when SD had outfielders to burn.
He’s done well with the Giants. Kudos to him.
Is Dickerson going to be our #4 hitter for the next 3-4 years? Is Yaz really going to be around in 3 years when the “core” finally comes up? How about Donnie Barrels and Wilmer and Ruf and Longo? Any of these guys going to be around in 3 years?
Basically what you are left with is a lost season and no development for maybe Jaylin Davis and a few others? No trades for any prospects or trades to improve the team when it is on the verge of making the playoffs?
So what really was accomplished this season? No playoffs, no development (please don’t say Dubon is developing), and no top pick! The roster will look entirely different next season but my guess is the record will still be just below .500 which will be good enough to miss the playoffs and a chance to draft an actual impact player. Thanks Farhan!
You obviously no nothing about the Giants, or baseball. Why do you continue to comment.
Dickerson: gets on base, terrible fielder
Pato349, there are only about 3 guys that would be in AAA this season that have any chance to be in the Giants future. All the rest of the top prospects were AA and below and not likely to see the majors this season anyway. So you go out and get guys to be a part of this season, and maybe a few stick around and help the young guys as they come up over the course of 21′ and 22′. I don’t know what you were expecting, but they couldn’t just play with young guys like Shaw and Davis all season, they don’t have enough guys like that, that were close enough to major league ready that playing them wouldn’t be detrimental to their development.
Are you sure others “no nothing” or are you just a blind Giants fanboy who knows very little? Honest question as you kinda stepped in it.
The guy continues to make silly statements about the Giants, and how to rebuild a team. The Giants aren’t title contenders. But, the whole organization continues to get better. You can not deny that.
I don’t get your points at all.
“Is Dickerson going to be our #4 hitter for the next 3-4 years? Is Yaz really going to be around in 3 years when the “core” finally comes up?”
Who knows? If not them than someone else who can hit like them. They aren’t old can easily be playing in 3 years.
“How about Donnie Barrels and Wilmer and Ruf and Longo? Any of these guys going to be around in 3 years?”
Probably not. However, what should the Giants do – leave those positions empty? Someone has to play there and they are producing. You can’t always be looking three years ahead when you have a game at 7pm. You want to shove a AA player at 3rd base?
“Basically what you are left with is a lost season and no development for maybe Jaylin Davis and a few others? No trades for any prospects or trades to improve the team when it is on the verge of making the playoffs?”
If you don’t think the Giants having a shot at the playoffs is good news then you really aren’t a fan. This has been a fun dang season and who doesn’t’ like rooting for an underdog that shouldn’t be there in the first place? They were projected to be a last-place team and this team of cast-offs has pulled off something great.
“So what really was accomplished this season? No playoffs, no development (please don’t say Dubon is developing), and no top pick! ”
First off, your magic 8 ball is saying there is no playoffs when they right now still in it? You’re such a Debbie Downer that you are complaining they might make the playoffs this season and might not get the top pick. Do you realize the one sport where the ‘top pick’ doesn’t come close to guaranteeing a good player? This isn’t the NBA.
You would be better off rooting for the Yankees. You sound like one of their fans.
You accumulate talent. If Yaz isn’t going to be part of the next core, then you trade him for other talent. Your solution is not to have him at all??????
No one knows what his solution is
DrDan75:
I agree, except that saying Dickerson was DFA’d implies he was released. He was not released by SD. I don’t remember if a DFA preceded the trade, it probably did, but the Giants traded Franklin Van Gurp for him So any team could have gotten Dickerson had they been willing to part with an asset.
Signing Smoak was a joke from the get-go, even if Panda was worthy of the DFA. I’m just hoping Austin Slater’s elbow is healing. We could use his bat on a regular basis and his arm in the outfield—especially with Yaz down.
This was a classic “let’s hope we catch lightening in a bottle” move, a la Pat Burrell. Maybe the guy is done, and maybe he never really got a fair shot, but at .500, the Giants need guys who are going to produce right now.
Darin Ruff is looking pretty good though. .303/.384/.579
yeah I was hoping for bigger things from him early the way he played in spring but it has taken him a while to get comfortable – better late than never
30mil in career earnings isn’t all that bad for a guy like this. About 150,000 per HR
well you know what they say where there’s smoak there’s…um DFA
Designated fire assignment?
The Yankees could use him at first base because Luke Voit is hurting and would be a good backup or DH!
Smoak, you’re fired.
It’s amazing how many people posting on MLBTR are smarter than Farhan Zaidi. How did he ever get hired when the Giants could have plumbed the comments section for all the people more knowledgeable about baseball, that they could have hired as their president of baseball ops.
And god forbid that Zaidi should take a low-risk look at a guy that could maybe hit some HRs for the Giants. Somehow he was supposed to know that a change of scenery would not be enough. People would be saying the same thing had guys like Taylor, picked up on the cheap, or Muncy, released by the A’s, not worked out for the Dodgers either.
Other teams do this all the time, not just Zaidi. It’s the last spot on an expanded roster, I’d expect most teams will use that as a revolving door.
He was hired because he’s a Billy Beane disciple who backed into a nice, cushy job with LA while falling short year in and year out with a team mostly built by Colletti. But we’ll find out how great he is in a couple years.
Tad2b13, first off that is exactly what a comment section on a site like this is for, to give fans a place to express their opinion. Sometimes those opinions are completely incorrect, or sometimes those opinions conflict with your own, so you don’t care for them, but the fact is that is why you come to a site like this, especially after the main site for ML baseball decided to get rid of their comment section (Which was a horrible decision btw).
Secondly, everyone defending the move says it was no risk, that isn’t accurate. Sandoval had been hitting better for the team the last 15 games he had played, he was capable of playing multiple positions which gave guys like Longoria a break, he also had chemistry in the clubhouse which is an underrated asset on winning teams.
Yeah, I don’t get paid like Zaidi, but I can still say that move was the wrong one.
It came down to defense. And panda came up short. Wotus plays better 3rd base
SFGiants4ever:
It’s one thing to think a move made by Zaidi is not right, but you’re sure the Sandoval release was wrong. How can you be so sure? Nobody knows how any move will work out. My point is that Zaidi has vast amounts of information that we don’t have. No team president or GM makes a move completely on his own. If the coaching staff had felt Sandoval was starting to produce, I doubt he would have been released.
Your view of Sandoval is clearly through rose-colored glasses. There is no way he could effectively play any position other than 1B or DH. A UZR/150 of -37.3 at 3B shows he’s a huge defensive liability there.
And if he was productive with the bat it might have been worth keeping him. He wasn’t. His small sample over the last week was not enough to convince the team. What happened to his power? In 90 PAs he had 1 HR and 1 2B. He struck out 18 times and walked only 6. His wRC+ was 55, meaning he was about half as productive as MLB average.
Smoak was a low-risk move. Maybe you’ve convinced yourself it wasn’t, but that make no sense, and puts you in a distinct minority. Smoak didn’t work out, but his failure is not justification for keeping a non-productive player like Sandoval.
BLM
Theyre competing for a playoff spot and AT THE SAME TIME REBUILDING. Clearly Zaidi is too blame? Or to thank?
Bi*** about Zaidi all you dips**** want. He is and will resurrect the Giants.
what color was he – did we get a new pope?
Is it that zaidis gone that the dodgers are now spending money or is that zaidis stud draft picks are being extended? Didn’t zaidi do the same thing in LA dumpster dived until he found the Justin turners or max muncys?
Didnt he inherit the same situation in LA with high dollar contracts from Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Andre either etc?
he kind of did in LA with the exception that in SF the contracts are ending much sooner than in LA – most of which are entering their final year next year and some falling off this year, Giants unless something goes sideways are looking at having one of the lowest payrolls in baseball unless something happens between now and the end of 2021 whereas throughout his time in LA they had an enormous payroll exceeding the tax year after year
Wolf Chan:
You’re absolutely right. Zaidi was in LA from 2014 through 2017. Over that span they paid $150M in CB taxes. The Giants were under the threshold in Zaidi’s first year, and previously paid only $8.8M.
The fact that Zaidi worked for the A’s and Dodgers is irrelevant to his approach to spending on FAs. The A’s just don’t have the money to spend, and the Dodgers needed to stop the outflow of cash.
The Giants were definitely in on Harper because they could easily afford to be. Those saying otherwise are simply rejecting facts that counter their opinion.
Every other post on this article is, “You’re an idiot.”
Are people who care about the Giants all jerks?
Have a nice day.
It is only because the other half likes to make their hatred of the Giants known to everyone.
Smoak getting passed around.
The Giants should have put Panda on the IL and let him figure things out in Sacramento or just ride him out there. He was struggling and having a negative effect on team production but he deserved better treatment.
Panda has 3 rings and this should not have been how he exited. We don’t know what was going on behind the scenes but clearly the new regime didn’t think enough of the past to allow this guy to finish the season and probably his career wearing a Giant uniform, as it should have been. Sticking him in Sacramento would have been the right thing to do and replacing him with Smoak was a slap in the face; Jake Lamb would have been a much better replacement.
I completely disagree because I think your assumptions are wrong. Plus there is much that none of us can know. I seriously doubt Sandoval would have accepted, or been happy with being stashed in Sacramento. We don’t know if Sandoval chose to be released. Being released allowed him to sign with another team and have a chance to play meaningful baseball. Something that wasn’t going to happen in Sacramento.
Sandoval was lucky the Giants welcomed him back in the fold after his unfortunate comments after signing with the Red Sox. They surprisingly brought him back this season, though the Sox were no longer paying his salary. He surprisingly made the opening day roster despite him being clearly out of shape. I’d say the Giants gave him an abundance of opportunities, and he failed to take advantage of them.
Lastly, pro sports is no place for sentimentality if it affects the team and roster. Every player knows the deal. If Sandoval wants to retire as a Giant, he can always come back on a one day contract and do so.
The player isnt performing on offense nor defense and they are competing for a playoff spot, so the move seems pretty obvious to me. This isn’t a game of feel good stories, its a professional sport.
davenlaw. I also disagree with you. There is no room for sentiment in sports. Sandoval has overweight and out of shape and very bad for years. I think keeping Sandoval is a slap in the face to Giants fans.
Somebody got into the heads of belt, Crawford, Longoria, etc. Their hitting as well as ever. And the others (Dubon, Ruf, Dickerson Solano Flores) are hitting well. We have to assume this young coaching staff (3 hitting coaches) is likely the reason.
Pablo was brought in solely to hit. Versus righties. As a pinch hitter and DH. He played more than expected early cuz Longoria and belt weren’t healthy early. So he had PLENTY of opportunity to hit.
If the previously mentioned success stories happened then why didn’t it happen with Pablo given equal opportunity. It didn’t.
He had to go.