The Giants spent a combined $13MM on right-hander Kevin Gausman and southpaw Drew Smyly in free agency last winter, and those short-term, buy-low deals worked out well for a club that narrowly missed a playoff berth. Now, the Giants are hoping to retain the pair, according to president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area).
“It’s obviously their prerogative to play out the market, but we certainly have interest in bringing both of those guys back,”said Zaidi, who added that the Giants are “going to be shopping for some starting pitching this offseason.”
The Giants’ rotation was a middle-of-the-pack unit in 2020, but Gausman and Smyly were bright spots. Gausman, a former Oriole, Brave and Red whom the Giants signed for $9MM, gave the club 59 2/3 innings of 3.62 ERA/3.09 FIP pitching with 11.92 K/9 against 2.41 BB/9. Pound for pound, the hard-throwing Gausman was among the most effective starters in the NL, so his next deal should be far more lucrative than the one he signed last winter. For what it’s worth, Gausman said last week he’s interested in staying with the Giants, who could tender him a qualifying offer before he returns to free agency.
Smyly only tossed 26 1/3 innings as a Giant after inking a $4MM contract, but the results were highly encouraging. He concluded with a 3.42 ERA/2.01 FIP, 14.35 K/9 and 3.08 BB/9. All of those numbers represented major rebounds for a hurler whom injuries have ravaged in recent years – including during a 2020 in which he missed over a month with a left index finger strain. Smyly also recorded a career-best 93.8 mph as a Giant, and that’s another reason he should draw a good amount of interest if he gets to free agency.
As of now, the Giants’ rotation is facing a slew of questions as the team heads into the offseason, which is why Zaidi will work to address it. Along with Gausman and Smyly, Jeff Samardzija and Trevor Cahill are on track to reach the open market. Those four amassed 25 starts for the Giants in 2020, and nobody remaining (Johnny Cueto, Logan Webb and Tyler Anderson) recorded particularly strong numbers.
I doubt the feeling is mutual if they get offers anywhere else. It’s kind of the reason they signed in SF in the first place. Nobody else really wanted them and they knew that if they performed well they would either get traded to a contender or parley their season here into a big contract next year. Since the Giants have started to exclusively shop at the dollar store for players the last few years, my guess is they won’t be back.
Shoulda traded ’em
Little help here Giants fans, please. For some strange reason I’m trying to remember a reliever possibly 80’s or 90’s. Announcers used to make fun of him the way he wore his jersey….skin tight. Big dude. Was it Minton or something like that? I saw him pitch at Candlestick on my tour through the MLB ball parks.
It just came to me. Rod Beck.
RIP Rod
LethimTroll
Which Giants Fan took your wife or husband lol
Probably hates seeing Giants fans in New York still. And also one took his partner.
Good season for Giants. Not expected to do anything. Thanks to Rob Manfred, Jints we’re in it until a wayward pitch was called strike three, ending their too small season. The analytic Giants were entertaining to watch. Up and down (almost) the lineup, hitters were dangerous. Posey was definitely missed.
There were actually 4 pitches, all shown to be outside the strike zone, and all in critical ABs. One came with runners at 1st and 3rd, and only one out. Rob Drake completely took the bat out the Giant’s hitters hands.
That said, I’m not blaming Drake, he’s either a terrible umpire, or simply had a terrible day calling pitches. The Giants had their chances, and it shouldn’t have come down to some egregious calls. Those happen to every team. The Giants were a decent club that needed better relief pitching. Not getting that cost them the postseason, and had they made it, would have undoubtedly meant an early exit.
The calls in that last game were atrocious, but they had plenty of chances over the last week to get into the playoffs and didn’t capitalize.
Drake was downright awful, but it’s not on him. That’s just the human element of the game. There were like 7 games this season the Giants lost that would have been W’s with even an average back end of the bullpen. The A’s series at Oracle Park comes to mind. At least 2 against the Rockies. I’m sure I’m forgetting some but you get the point. Plenty of chances to make the postseason, but shot themselves in the foot. Really enjoyed watching the offense, Gausman and especially Smyly this season. Would love to see those two back.
dandan:
Agreed. Drake was not only downright awful, he was downright awful at several crucial points of the game.
I still enjoyed the season, despite the frustrating losses that you mention. The Giants were in it up to the last day. And even if they had gone to the postseason, I have no doubt the bullpen wasn’t going to get them very far, like the NLDS.
Agree that it was their fault ultimately, but that was such a frickin 2020 way to end the season I couldn’t believe it
I’ve never seen such bad calls, where are the robot umps!!!
The 2021 season will be the one for the Giants.
The team slipped the Commissioner some bread and
The Giants will play ZERO games against the Padres in 2021 !!
And Giant fans claim the Giants are “competitive”. Wake up.
Not contending. Not competing when you’re in the bottom 5 or 6 in the NL. Call it a dragging rebuild, sure. Keep talking about the 5 prospects inside of the Top 100. Be fortunate two of the five make an impact. Be happy if Posey returns and produces in his mid-30’s next year.
But stop telling people your team competes. You are closer to 5th than you are 1st.
LOL. They were a game away from making the roster where a bunch of league-minimum salaried 30+ year olds led the team.
This Giants team wasn’t supposed to be good according to anyone, but they actually were.
Now, imagine you get a full season, and Farhan supplements that with some free agents (considering the money he’s saving with Yaz and Solano and his young guys).
It takes a special kind of child to look at a team’s success and say it wasn’t success, Congrats kid.
Mr Nate – Giants were under .500. I did not know a team on-pace for 77 wins is considered good. Not sure where the success comes in but I’m sure people who don’t know baseball can see it. Do you enjoy bedtime stories too?
Wild Bill, I wouldn’t talk about bedtime stories when it’s evident you don’t know how to read.
Zaidi turned a guy like Mike Yastrzemski, who the Orioles—THE ORIOLES—wouldn’t even give a look at into a top 10 offensive player.
For two seasons, Donovan Solano, another castaway player, has had back-to-back .300 seasons. He didn’t even play an MLB game in 2017 or ’18.
He brought in Gausman and Smyly on dirt-cheap salaries and watched them turn into studs on the mound.
If. the Giants can do that and finish near .500 (in a season they weren’t supposed to be good), imagine what Zaidi’ll do with a full season. They have every ability to be a competitive team.
And “good” is contextual, Billy Boy. What were the Giants supposed to be? By every pundit, they were awful. Yet, they took playoff contention to the last day of the season, with a rag tag lineup of scrubs and castoffs.
I’m not sure how anyone can look at that and think this is some bottom-dweller team. Are they the Dodgers? Of course not. But there’s a lot of similarities between the Dodgers now and how the Giants are re-tooling.
Better start paying attention.
“not contending”
what world do you live in? this is a team that got KERSHAW(during the season, not postseason) out of a start early. they raked off him that game. they were in it up to the last day. they tied for the last postseason spot. they had a dangerous lineup. i would love to hear an answer to this comment
Sure…I’ll answer it: 29-31 and only competitive for a playoff spot because of the ridiculous expansion.
And the mid-90’s to 2000’s Texas Rangers always had a dangerous lineup, but few people outside of the Metroplex remember them because they lost a ton of games by scores like 10-8 and 7-6 because their pitching staff couldn’t get anyone out.
‘Dangerous lineup’ doesn’t mean a damn thing if the pitching can’t even keep you in half of your games.
But you said it, they were by definition “competitive” by being near .500 and also by being in the playoff chase…these are facts
A below .500 team isn’t competitive. And if Manfred wants to do what’s right the playoff field will go back to 10 after this year.
Not contending is correct ttard.
They pushed Kershaw out of 1 game early. Wow. Hand them a participation trophy. How about a load of who cares?
You do not want to hear the answer to your comment because you cannot comprehend the fact that the Giants are nothing more than mediocre who played nice baseball for a couple months. Gee, didn’t they do that last season? What happened? Did they fall off? Yes they did!
Even facing a weakened AL West could not propel them above .500.
they went from the bottom to the middle – I don’t know what world you are living in but the giants system is ranked 13 and being 1 game out of the WC puts them right in the middle of the pack as far as play goes – they are also over 500 in their last 162 – so considering the upward trajectory from literally one of the worst records and near the bottom in worst systems – whatever world you live in is not reality
Their 3 best starters from 2020 are free agents this offseason…
Middle would have the Giants in the postseason. They were not middle. Still not seeing the upward trajectory since they were kinda contending for a WC last season.
I guess I live in reality. You should join. It’s not a bad place to be.
If you’re not seeing the upward trajectory, it’s probably because you’re too busy getting your rocks off to your own nonsense instead of just, I don’t know, looking at some numbers:
At the risk of wasting my time on a fool like you, here’s some upward trajectory:
In 2019, the Giants had 2 hitters with wRC+ of 120 or higher. In 2020, They had 5. As a team, they took significant steps forward offensively. Mind you, this is with a new coaching staff, very little turnover on the offensive roster, and no Buster Posey.
The Giants aren’t a team without their issues. Their pitching staff needs a lot of work. I’m not as convinced Zaidi can just piece together a bullpen for 162 games like he did this year. He needs to bring some guys in.
But the offensive numbers leave a lot to be excited about if you’re a Giants fan. And the fact that they exceeded almost every expectation for this shortened season should suggest there’s an upward trajectory.
The offense would be even better if Zaidi had traded Bum, Smith and Gausman for some controllable position players with upside. And by your own admittance, there is no pitching.
Good lord. Who would have been brought in for the 2020 season that would have contributed offensively, or as a pitcher?
Please, name some actual players.
And please cite when the offers were made… time and date.
I meant for the long-term Einstein. You are talking about upward trajectory, that doesn’t end at 2020 and if it does then your Giants are screwed.
Upward trajectory is measured by wins and losses. Nobody cares about the stats you brought to the table.
Now, I see you’re trying to be cute with some dig over rocks. That’s nice. Knowing about sports, competition and winning I would say you missed all of that. Otherwise why would you bother with lightweight opinions? You’re getting destroyed by MikeE, by the way. Since you don’t know what winning looks like I figure I should point out the obvious.
Keep up the excitement. Sounds like it’s the only excitement you get.
Wild Bill Tetley,
Why do you say wins are the only way to measure upward trajectory? Statistically, any improvement is upward. Take a graph on any stat, if it gets better, that’s upward trajectory. If you want to limit it to team wins, then sure.
But the Giants have improved remarkably over several factors, and they look like a significantly better team than when Bobby Evans was in the front office.
But it seems like you’re more wanting to stoke flames of dissension than it is to carry on a conversation. That’s par for the course in this article.
Gausman and Smyly are FA’s. Who else?
Anderson has a year of arbitration (unless they don’t tender him a contract).
Cueto has a year remaining.
Webb was a rookie.
So unless you think Samardzija is one of their top 3 starters, they have 2.
And I’m not sure that’s some indictment. It works in their favor to get those contracts off the books (although Gausman and Smyly will almost certainly be back).
“Gausman and Smyly are FA’s. Who else?”
Trevor Cahill. Anything else you care to be wrong about today?
“… although Gausman and Smyly will almost certainly be back”
You said the same thing about Bumgarner last year and it wasn’t any more true then. You don’t know that Gausman and Smyly will be back. And even if they are you don’t know that they wouldn’t have signed with SF if they hadn’t been traded.
had* been traded
When you’re old enough, you should really run for office, since making stuff up really seems to be your specialty.
I never said the same thing about Bumgarner last year. I don’t know where you’d begin to think that. In fact, I’ve held that the Giants would be best to move on from him when his contract is up, unless it was great value to San Francisco.
(Value is when the Giants benefit from the contract. Just thought you might need that explained.)
And of course I don’t know what Gausman and Smyly will do for sure. Based on the comments they’ve made for a while now, it seems that Gausman, especially, really liked his time in San Francisco and how they handled playing in the pandemic. Unless he’s offered a much better deal somewhere else (which is a possibility), I’d predict it’s very likely he returns to the Giants in 2021.
As for Cahill being a top three starter, no. He had a 0.2 WAR as a starter. In fact, here’s how much the Giants valued him as a starter: for the last two weeks of the season, they pulled him from the rotation and made him a reliever… in the middle of the playoff chase. You don’t take your 3rd best starter and turn him into a reliever in a playoff chase.
Cahill had the third best ERA for any Giants pitcher appearing as the SP, but that’s like saying your car is the best because its tires shine real pretty.
The funny thing is, all of this information is readily available, and yet you still insist on making it up as you go.
“I never said the same thing about Bumgarner last year.”
Yes you did!
“I’m not fully convinced that Bumgarner’s no-trade clause is to make money, and slightly convinced he might actually block a trade. He wants to be a Giant.”
“Or they extend him, and for the next few years run a rotation of Bumgarner, Boyd, Cueto, and Samardzija. They don’t HAVE to trade Bumgarner.”
Those were your words…
“And of course I don’t know what Gausman and Smyly will do for sure. Based on the comments they’ve made for a while now, it seems that Gausman, especially, really liked his time in San Francisco and how they handled playing in the pandemic. Unless he’s offered a much better deal somewhere else (which is a possibility), I’d predict it’s very likely he returns to the Giants in 2021.”
Like I said, if he really liked it in SF so much, then they definitely should have traded him. They would have had no problem bringing him back as a FA, traded or otherwise.
“As for Cahill being a top three starter, no. He had a 0.2 WAR as a starter. In fact, here’s how much the Giants valued him as a starter: for the last two weeks of the season, they pulled him from the rotation and made him a reliever… in the middle of the playoff chase. You don’t take your 3rd best starter and turn him into a reliever in a playoff chase.
Cahill had the third best ERA for any Giants pitcher appearing as the SP.”
You just contradicted yourself. He was in the top 3 in ERA among Giants pitchers who made at least one start in 2020. Right now, the Giants don’t have a single starter signed for 2021 who had an ERA below 4.00. Not looking good.
And you can rest assured, you will be hearing from me if the Giants don’t sign Gausman and Smyly. Or if they do sign them but some other team didn’t verifiably offer them more $ than the Giants.
LOL. I’m flattered I’m so much in your head that you’re digging up comments from well over a year ago.
For what it’s worth, you realize “He wants to be a Giant” and “He’s absolutely, 100% going to re-sign with San Francisco” aren’t the same thing, right? Based on Bumgarner’s own words, he wanted to be a Giant. And the Giants made a legitimate offer to him, and Arizona gave him more money. It’s not like he left money on the table to leave San Francisco.
But you can chalk up a wrong prediction against my record. To be fair, I’m not going to bother wasting time looking up yours. I have neither the interest, nor the slightest care for you to give you that sort of benefit. I’m both flattered and a little creeped out that you find me this important to hold me to every word I’ve ever said.
I’ll applaud you for punching up.
As for Cahill, he’s not a top 3 starter. He had a top 3 ERA as a starter… that’s not a top 3 starter. But seeing that you need basic baseball principles explained to you, I’m not surprised you think ERA is what we rank pitchers by. I’m sure you also still watch your movies on VHS?
Anyhoo… gloat away. Should I send rent money? It’s clear that I’m taking up a lot of space in that brain of yours. And it also seems I’m getting in the way of the precious, valuable, yet limited space it needs for your reasoning skills to function.
But I’ll send the check in the mail. The memo line will read, “Find a new hobby.” Be on the lookout.
It took all of two seconds to find that. And as expected, you accuse me of finding you important because I expose your blatant lies and dubious calls. That’s the second time I’ve forced you to admit you were wrong in just a few hours and I could do a lot more if I wanted.
“But I’ll send the check in the mail. The memo line will read, ‘Find a new hobby.’ Be on the lookout.”
You are doing the exact same thing I’m doing (arguing on an Internet message board in the middle of the day) but sure.
Once again, you better not go into hiding this offseason if Smyly and Gausman don’t take verifiably discounts to stay in SF.
No, I say that because literally zero people care that much about anyone on this site that they are looking for comments over a year old.
And if Gausman and Smyly don’t sign with the Giants, you should probably check in on me. Because I’ll be living in abject fear over the thought of some guy digging up my old comments on a baseball site waiting to expose me!!!
If anyone see smoke signals coming out of central Missouri, please send help.
Also, Bumgarner literally said that the Diamondbacks were not the highest bidder. He indeed did leave money on the table to sign there. Although I do not remember if the Giants offered him more.
Gausman and Smyly signing with SF won’t be enough on its own. We have to have some kind of tangible evidence that they wouldn’t have signed if they had been traded.
And if you are going to lay it all so vehemently on the line and be an a-hole to people who disagree with you, you can bet your as that you will hear about it when your ill-conceived predictions blow up in your face.
Other Giants predictions… please hold me to these:
-Trade Jarlin Garcia and Tyler Wade for Mike Trout.
-Will Clark only hits .155
-Tim Lincecum comes out of retirement as a 2B and wins the Triple Crown.
-Lou Seal is forced to start one game on the mound.
I fully expect you to hold me accountable for each of these predictions.
Oh so you are a troll? Ok. Carry on then.
I’m giving you ammunition to store away for next season. I’ll be honest, I feel pretty good about these predictions. Save it away and bring them back in November 2021.
lol
No, Bumgarner didn’t say that. Andrew Baggarly wrote that it was “very possible”, but never confirmed such was the case.
The Giants reportedly offered a four-year deal, and it seems that it was for a higher AAV. So in a sense, Bumgarner might leave more money on the table in the annual value, but overall, the Diamondbacks gave him more money.
It could also be that other teams offered him more overall money, but every indication that’s been reported suggests it wasn’t the Giants.
Your write-up tells us the Giants are still not competitive and we’ll wait until 2022 before they make a serious move for the top. Good stuff.
Loved that time in 2019 when that HORRIFIC Giants team got hot in mid-July, actually thought they could contend, didn’t sell anyone off at the deadline, then went back to being crappy and had nothing to show for it.
And now their fans are celebrating a 29-31 finish, talking about how great the offense is, and that they weren’t mediocre. This is freaking priceless!!
At the same time, I believe Zaidi does have a plan…He absolutely knows what he’s doing…But the Giants are not going to contend while building the infrastructure for a consistent winner like the Dodgers did because ownership isn’t willing to burn through cash the way the Dodgers did from 2012 – 2016.
This year for the Giants, among other teams (Marlins, Reds, etc.), was an aberration. A full 162 game schedule would have exercised the Giants’ paper-thin depth, and they would have finished a hell of a lot lower than 2 games under .500.
A lot of people are trying hard to diminish the season that the Giants had. Sure, they were mid-pack, but that was far better than the predictions of an historically bad season. Plus their record was identical to two other teams that went to the postseason, the Brewers and the Astros. They also finished better than a number of teams with high hopes: the Phillies, Mets, Nats, and D’backs. In fact they were supposed to finish behind both the D’backs and the Rockies.
They got closer this season than last, and were closer last season than the year before. They’re making progress, and the biggest advances are in the farm system. I enjoyed the season despite too many frustrating losses that can, and I expect will, be fixed with better relief. I’ll take it
Stay the course, I would sign them….