The Giants gave Brandon Belt a Qualifying Offer. (If you want to know the ins-and-outs of the QO follow the link.) Belt has until November 17th to decide. In short, if he says "aye-aye" the Giants keep him for another season (at $18.4M). If not he's a free agent.
No mutiny here--I say bring back The Cap'n!
--M.C.
8 comments:
One never knows what is going on in the heads of baseball players and/or their agents and family. I hope he does not go the Bumgarner way, but instead chooses to continue to play for a team and fanbase that wants him. Either take the 18.4 million, or sign a two or 3 year deal.
Yeah, it's hard to know what they think. They have agents and business managers (and personal lives!) that we don't know anything about.
Belt doesn't get a lot of love from the fan base but he's had to compete with the likes of Posey and BCraw and that's a tough row to hoe. I hope he takes the QO. Next year when he's a free agent he will not have a draft pick tied to him. Teams can sign him without the draft penalty. With the DH he could play forever. You never know, he might want to stay in SF. That would be cool with me, DH or not.
One more year of The Brandons, at least. I think that would be great.
I just saw an article saying that Brandon Crawford did not make it to the final 3 for the MVP. Considering Terry Pendleton's MVP, Crawford should have been a finalist based on his overall contribution to the giants, as opposed to just Offensive WAR, or offensive stats alone. Even advanced metrics do not describe the value that Crawford played in the 107 win season. Many players played big roles, but Crawford was the constant steadying force for this team. He was so steady that in his collision with Longoria, Crawford played the part of the Brick Wall, and Longoria was Humpty Dumpty. Seems as if the loss of Belt, or the loss of Longoria, or only 113 games from Posey did not slow down this giants team.
It's interesting that the MVP finalists (Ohtani, Vlad Jr, Semien, Harper, Soto, Tatis) all came from non-playoff teams!
I think it is good that players on mediocre teams can still be recognized for their value. Juan Soto, for example, is probably the best hitter in baseball, and I could see him being the best hitter in baseball for the next decade.
Also, on good teams, lots of players make outstanding contributions. Maybe that's why the team is so good--it doesn't rely on one monster player!
BCraw was obviously sensational and certainly deserved more MVP votes, no question. The Dodgers won 106 games and had no clear MVP candidate (except T Turner maybe), same with the Braves. But both teams had a lot of really good players.
It has been the best WAR player, and not necessarily the MVP. Perhaps if it were the best WAR player back in the Mays era, he would have a few more MVP trophies. Clearly only two MVP's for Mays has its issues. Andre Dawson, and Ernie Banks won for teams that were not that great but those were the exceptions. Banks offensive numbers from shortstop were something to behold in his era. But I also do remember the Pendleton MVP. He certainly was not a top tier WAR player that year. But his contributions to a winning team seemed to be the key factor in the voters decision. Seems as if how the voters look at the MVP does vary quite a bit from year to year, and it comes down to being whatever the current fad is that seems to sweep the writers perspective in a given year. I did think that the Braves third baseman was a strong candidate for MVP out of all the Braves players this year. Tatis is an awesome player and if healthy should have years that dwarf this year. He was both spectacular and clumsy at shortstop. Sosa had a great second half, and teams were willing to walk him quite a bit perhaps due to Washington's overall lineup. The giants seemed to handle Sosa quite well, even though Tauchman had to Rob Sosa of one of his home runs. Harper also had a great final third of the season, but I find there is a certain bias in his favor by many of the writers. Some of the writers were suggesting he was the MVP even before he had his August and September surge. If Trey Turner had been on the dodgers all year, he may have also been considered a snubbed candidate. It is difficult to argue against the 3, as best player of the year, but is that the same now as MVP, because certainly in many years it has not been synonymous.
Kap gets a 2-year extension. He was already signed for 2022 and this now includes 2023 and 2024.
Good news!
I looked at the voting for N.L. Rookie of the year. I was assured that Lamont Wade was actually an official rookie this year, despite some previous MLB time. In the voting it appears that he did not receive any votes. If this is true, how is this possible? He was one of the best late inning hitters in the game, rookie or no rookie.
I thought he might get a vote. But at least the winners both deserved it. Jonathan India got 29 of 30 1st place votes. And everyone already knew Arozarena.
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