He's not Aaron Judge but he's a Bay Area native (Mountain View) and a former 1st-rounder (#38, 2012) from Cal Poly. Mitch Haniger turns 32 in December and is a right-handed hitter who has mostly played right field in his career. It's a 3-year deal worth $43.5M. There's an opt-out after 2024.
When he's been healthy he's a solid player with some pop. The Giants need some shoring up in the outfield and in the middle of the lineup and Haniger should help with both. He's a career .261/.335/.476 hitter in 564 G (2437 PA) mostly with the Mariners. I can see him as the starting LF next year (and the RH complement to Joc Pederson at DH). He has a reputation as a good "clubhouse guy" and the Giants like that
It's not a very exciting move but it is a move and that's something.
--M.C.
16 comments:
If you sort the 2012 draft class by career bWAR then Haniger is 8th (15.5) just ahead of Joey Gallo (14.7).
The number one pick overall that year was Carlos Correa who also has the most bWAR (39.5). He's followed by Corey Seager (25.4), Matt Olson (21.7), Byron Buxton (20.2), Marcus Stroman (20.0), Kevin Gausman (19.5), and Max Fried (18.1).
Buxton was the #2 pick overall, Gausman #4.
Giants drafted Chris Stratton that year with the 20th pick.
MLBTR says Aaron Judge will stay in the Bronx.
9 years, $360M. Supposedly both the Giants and the Padres offered something similar.
According the KNBR, the Giants offered 9 yrs and $360 million. But came up empty. You can argue CAstatetaxliberalSanFranciscoballparkdimensions all you want, but my guess is that one look at the team that the Giants had to field around him said ".500 team for years to come as a best outcome." I mean, what moves did the Giants make this offseason (prior to the monumental Mitch Haniger signing)? They dumped their productive (when healthy) first baseman and their productive (when healthy) third baseman. Who is going to protect Judge in the lineup? Mike Yaztremski? They don't even have a minor league system that looks any better than mediocre. The Giants should have realized that they are going to have to OVERPAY for talent. They needed to offer $380 or $400 million, analytics be damned.
I suppose the Giants were just in it to pump up the value Judge got from the Yankees. If so, it seems like the Giants get played a lot. At this point, they probably need Kodai Senga and Brandon Nimmo both, and that's just for starters. If they had anyone to trade (which they don't it seems to me) they could add Brian Reynolds.
I expected Judge to stay with the Yankees. (You had to figure they'd make a comparable offer to anything out there.) All that nonsense about him being a "NorCal boy coming home" was just sports-writer hype.
The Giants were kind of damned if they did or didn't with Judge. They had to pursue him and make a serious offer even if the odds were low (they weren't ZERO, just low!).
I should note the CA high-tax Padres made a play for Judge and their lineup looks pretty good so I doubt that was part of the equation. Teams change in a hurry these days. (And the notion of "lineup protection" for a slugger is bogus anyway.)
There are still plenty of ways for the Giants to improve. It's only December.
Ben Clemens at FanGraphs has a good take on the Haniger signing. I like his perspective on this deal--it's worth a read.
I lived in N.Y.C. and Cal. And NY.C.has city and state in ome tax, and if he li es in N.J. they have tax too. So taxes between N.Y.C. and S.F. should not be an issue. Giants need to add 2 aces and a solid everyday bat. I could see the posters with the GIANT JUDGE with the golden gate bridge in the background. Lets see how the yanks fare this year. Giants still need to make some serious moves
Rodón!!
I think he's the best risk/reward/cost out there.
Brandon Nimmo, 8 years $162M to stay with the Mets.
Yikes! The FA market is HOT!
I was certainly interested in Nimmo but 8 years seems kinda crazy. But they are paying out crazy dollars and crazy years right now so I suppose it is the cost of doing business.
Xander Bogaerts gets $280M for 11 years from the Padres! Wow. That means it will take over $300M to get Carlos Correa.
I want the OTHER Carlos: Rodón!
MLBTR says Carlos Rodón wants a seven-year deal.
This is the time to up your asking price! Teams are paying big money right now and they don't seem worried about "the decline years" of these athletes.
Inflation. If we ever get to a period of deflation, these prices will look ridiculous. If inflation keeps marching forward at a high rate, these prices will look cheap in 7 or 8 years. I want Rodon, but I do not know if I would go 7 or 8 years as he has been fragile, and we do not know how these big contracts will effect these teams going forward out a few years. Giants should have signed Rodon last year to 2 or 3 years with an additional option instead of one plus an option, as long as they have a healthy Webb. The 1960's always seems to have the giants one pitcher short.
There's more money in the game. MLB has new income from the gambling deals, for example. And every team this year got a $30M bonus because MLB sold some tech to Disney for a near-billion dollars. The owners aren't going to increase their spending without a damn good reason!
It's good for the players, of course, if the game is richer then they should be richer.
But I'm leery of the long deals, too. I can see taking a chance on someone like Judge (or Harper) because they really are impact players, but I don't mind missing out, either. I'm not sure Rodón is a great risk for that long (think about Johnny Cueto's deal!) but it may not matter. If you sign a guy for seven and he gives you three great seasons that deal may be worth it in the long run. The salaries at that point are sunk costs. If they project their revenues to keep climbing they can spend like crazy and not feel the pinch later.
Senga is off the table and has signed with the mets who have a very expensive roatation.
The Mets payroll is up to about $350M.
5 yrs, $75M for Senga.
how much of that 350 Million has gone to pitching?
Scherzer 43M
Verlander 43M
Diaz 21M
Senga 15M
Carrasco 14M
Quintana 13M
Robertson 10M
Raley 5M
That's only 8 guys of course. They will have to fill out the rest of the staff. But that's $164M give or take a few mil (I rounded off the numbers from Cot's Contracts). That's about half their outlay.
Billionaires are crazy-ass motherfuckers. The one who owns the Giants (well, supposedly his son has taken over) gives gobs of money to wing-nuts and sickos, and the one who just bought the Mets figures he can just buy a World Series ring. He's probably bought everything else he ever wanted in his life, and this is the final thing for his collection.
David Pinto at Baseball Musings thinks owners like Cohen and the late George Steinbrenner are good for the game because their outrageous spending prompts the other owners to play catch-up and not get complacent. He may be right. I don't live in the world of the hyper-rich!
I just hope our ownership spends the money they need to spend in order to field a winning squad. You don't have to buy a $300M player to win the World Series. Sure, they can help, but it isn't the only path. I'm curious to see how it all unfolds. At some point every free agent will be a $100M investment. The 5/75 player will become a 4/100 player.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
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