The Giants are cornering the market on four-letter pitchers. Veteran righty Alex Cobb joins the team on a two-year deal in the $20M range. Alex Wood is supposedly returning but that deal has not yet been made official. The rotation of Webb, Wood, and Cobb has an alliterative, Anglo-Saxon meter to it so it's a good thing Anthony DeScalfani is there to broaden the poetic possibilities.
Cobb's forte is limiting walks and getting ground balls. Those two things fit well with the Giants pitching philosophy. Last year he upped his swinging strike and strikeout rates to the best marks of his career. That's a good trend line to be on!
--M.C.
update: the Wood signing is now official, two years, $25M
12 comments:
Last year the Giants signed four pitchers to one-year deals (Gausman, DeSclafani, Wood, ASanchez). Three of them were huge contributors. Two of the four are returning on multi-year (but short-term) deals.
I think the F.O. is doing a good job here. The FNG (Cobb) is a good fit. He's not a rehab project, he's a fully developed major league veteran, so I think they know what they'll get from him. He's not a rehab project like Sanchez, for example. And Sanchez even delivered some value!
I have a good feeling about the recent moves and I have faith that they'll keep improving the roster.
Also, it's way better to sign players to high annual salaries for shorter duration contracts. Players of course want the long-term security--who turns down a $100M offer? But I'm glad the Giants seem reluctant to commit to longer deals. At least for now.
Unless you have a true "franchise" talent (Juan Soto, Fernando Tatis, Ronald Acuna, etc) you stay away from the mega-deals. Plus higher annual salaries (like the $40M paid to Scherzer) raise the bar and wind up raising salaries for other players. The Mets were willing to spend more dollars per expected future performance value (per WAR, for example) than other teams. Now that means other teams have to spend more to get the talent.
Well, the lockout is official. Things were really quiet for a while from both sides and I thought that might be a good sign, but they obviously couldn't agree even on a deadline extension.
We'll see if they can hammer something out before February.
David Pinto Baseball Musings sums it up:
The players were on the right side in the 1970s. It took twenty years for MLB to accept the new system, and another fifteen to learn how to game that system to their advantage. On the players side, they should have seen this efficiency movement and done something two CBAs ago. They could have fought harder against service time manipulation and free agent compensation at that time. They could have resisted saving MLB money on amateur signings.
They, in fact, could have constantly pushed for more freedom. Now that they are finally doing so, they face an ownership that learned the union will cave on those issues. As in the 1970s, the players are on the right side here. Getting younger, better players into free agency quicker will be good for the game, just as the limited free agency of the 1970s was good for the game. The end of service time manipulation, and a year less to free agency, and no free agent compensation likely gets a deal done quickly. People value freedom, and an offer of real movement in that direction is needed right now. I hope MLB doesn’t make the mistakes of 50 years ago and stubbornly cling to a paradigm that is out of date.
The whole post is worth a look.
https://www.baseballmusings.com/?p=141761
Maybe they should give some value to a tenure system for those who want to stay with a club.
That's an idea I could get behind.
As usual, we don't even get a mention in the latest story about Seiya Suzuki. Gee ... which Teams are involved? Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays - the current Teams w/ seemingly unlimited money (aside from Texas, who have apparently already spent more than they could possibly imagine on Semien & Seager). So, get ready for another yawner of a Season in the Giants' OF - if there is a Season.
Supposedly the giants were in hot pursuit of Cincinnati's star outfield, but he wants as reported a 7-year contract. I don't see the current giants management team going for a 7 year contract. Not for a guy who will be North of 35 for a few years of a 7 year contract.
Free agent starters who would be a good "fit":
Matthew Boyd
JA Happ
Chad Kuhl
Mike Fiers
none of these 4 really excite me. May as well try to get Johnny Cueto back at a bargain price. If we are looking for a fifth starter these guys can compete with Beede, Long, and maybe another pitcher we already have in the minors for the fifth slot. Because the team seems to still have quite a bit of budget left to spend, I was hoping for at least another guy of similar quality to the pitchers that the giants already signed. Then with potential injury one of our minor leaguers can step up if needed.
Andrew Baggarly had this to say, and I think he hits it on the head:
The Giants won 107 games in large part because they avoided giving plate appearances to below-average hitters and they avoided giving innings to below-average pitchers. They’ll take everyone’s best work in shorter bursts and share the burden.
I think the Giants are doing fine. They've added several guys on minor-league deals. Once the freeze is over I expect they will add at least one more FA starting pitcher. I'd love to see them take a run at Suzuki, but they'll have quality guys in there next year even if they don't get him.
The Giants may be fine, but are not good, not at this point. They were a team that could not score when they needed to in the playoffs and now do not have Posey and Bryant on their team (not that Bryant is outside of the realm of possibility, but seems unlikely given the published remarks on the Giants potential interest in him). They need another pitcher and I think you're probably correct about signing one from the free agent roster. They need a couple of more hitters, though.
The Giants had a hard time scoring in the playoffs against a 106-win team with a great pitching staff!
They will need to beef up the offense, of course. As you say they've lost Buster's bat, and most likely Bryant's, and there will inevitably be injuries and regression. Giants had a whole host of guys that hit the snot out of the ball and that's hard to repeat. You can stack up the talent but that doesn't mean they will all produce together. Last year they did.
But I also think they've shown that they know how to acquire good players and find key contributors. I think they've shown they can build a competitive roster without monster FA contracts. There is always someone knocking at the door for every spot on the 40-man.
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