The Giants signed a veteran free-agent catcher to a two-year deal with an option for a third. His name is Tom Murphy and he has just over a thousand plate appearances in the bigs (eight seasons) and over two thousand innings (261 games) behind the plate. Most recently he slashed .290/.335/.538 in 47 games (159 PA) with the Seattle Mariners. He's got some pop and is clearly going to back up youngster Patrick Bailey, the putative starter.
Blake Sabol, after surviving his rookie season and Rule 5 status, seems like the obvious backup to that tandem. Where does that leave Joey Bart? He can't stay in AAA forever. He has no options remaining either, while Sabol's three are still intact.
There's a rumor that the Giants are willing to deal some of their young arms. Will they include Joey Bart in such a deal? I'd rather they sign Shoto Imanaga or Yoshinobu Yamamoto but if they can pull off a trade for someone like Framber Valdez I won't complain. There's also talk of a reunion with Sean Manaea.
Regardless, the catcher position seems to be in good shape. The Giants have a trio of young players and added a seasoned, part-time slugger to the mix. We all know FZ likes to make lots of moves around the margins that aren't exciting but are necessary. They also added a minor-league righty named Devin Sweet to the 40-man roster.
--M.C.
18 comments:
Hey I got quoted by David Pinto at Baseball Musings!!
https://www.baseballmusings.com/?p=150911
LINK
The above link didn't work, try this one.
Good article in The Athletic today by Andrew Baggarly: What Buster Posey Did (and Didn't) Say.
You'll have to fill us in--I don't subscribe to The Athletic any more, that's why I took the link off the sidebar.
Giants picked up a RH OF named TJ Hopkins from the Reds for a PTBNL. He's 26 and has a solid NCAA and minors track record. He has two options remaining after last year where he lit up AAA but struggled in a brief stint in the bigs (25 G, 44 PA).
Giants have a lot of lefty-hitters (Lee, Yaz, Conforto, Sabol, Meckler) in the OF/DH mix. Hopkins joins Slater, Haniger, Matos, and Ramos on the other side. At the very least he's AAA depth if Matos makes the big club. I suspect he displaces Ramos on the depth chart right now and perhaps even pushes Slater who is 31 and a free agent next year.
MLBTR says the Giants are pursuing a SS via the trade market.
They certainly would be smart to have a major-leaguer ready for Opening Day. I'm excited about Luciano and hope he gets lots of time to show what he can do BUT he's only 22 and probably needs to play every day at AAA.
Dan Szymborski at FanGraphs likes the Murphy signing by the Giants.
With all the needs the giants have, not sure that Murphy would be the guy I would go after. He did have one decent year. Interesting, back in the 1920's my dad used to be a professional boxer for a few years, out of N.Y. and he boxed under the name of Murphy. Not even close to his real name in any manner or fashion.
Andrew Baggarly spoke to Buster Posey after Ohtani signed with LA. You have surely seen numerous other sites rephrasing Buster's comments about players not wanting to sign with SF because of the filth and crime. Baggarly takes great pains to emphasize that what Buster said was quite different. He spoke about the perception, or narrative, about crime and filth in SF, and said that was a perception FAIR OR NOT. The article went on at length about how homelessness was greater and crime was higher in other cities, like LA and Philadelpia and New York, but those cities are spread out while SF has all of 49 square miles. You don't have the luxury of ignoring homelessness in SF like you do in LA. He was scathing in his criticism of the many articles that were inaccurate representations of what was reported, either due to an agenda or stupidity. He also pointed out that Judge is a Yankee and Ohtani a dodger because of Judge’s desire to have a Yankee legacy and LA's winning record.
My opinion on Judge is that he (or his agent) played San Francisco. ThebYankees matched or exceeded the Giants' offer, not the other way around.
Judge was going to the Yankees regardless, I think. He needed the Giants to prove that he had a market elsewhere. I'd rather the Giants swing-and-miss at a great player than not give it a try.
I don't put much stock in baseball narratives. SF is an easy city to pick on regardless of your politics. In fact, all cities are as they all have crime, bad neighborhoods, eyesores, etc. As you say SF is a compact city compared to sprawling places like Chicago or LA and you can get an eyeful quickly.
The Giants need to build a fun, competitive, marketable team. That will take care of any "perceptions" whether they be good or bad, fair or unfair.
The Giants are certainly ACTIVE. There's only been one Splash Hit--signing Lee--but they aren't sitting on their asses, so that's good.
And athletes don't live in the cities they play for. Not the big guys like Ohtani, anyway. They don't experience urban blight any more than Hollywood stars experience it. Baseball players are protected from the stuff that gets shown on the news.
ZiPS projections for the 2024 Giants are out on FanGraphs.
Not exactly exciting reading. The Giants need to beef up the starting rotation and the lineup.
I guess folks actually think that the Bronx is nicer than SF. I travel all over the country, and persist in my opinion, that SF is one of the nicest and safest cities to walk in or be in. I live in the suburbs of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale right now, and certainly SF. is far safer than Miami. LA may be sprawling but it seems just as crowded as SF. Tampa looks a bit like a modern day SF, without the mountains, but plenty of Bay, and two recent trips to Tampa establishes my preference for SF. All those crimes reported as happening in SF are happening in Miami, and then some. Including street feces. What I originally was going to post is that perhaps the giants driving up the price of free agents, that the bums and yankees have to pay may actually be a smart move by the giants. It forces these other teams to pay top dollar and then some for their desired players, even if the Ohtani contract is structured for years after the dodger owners think the world will probably come to an end.
Yeah you have to think the LA owners REALLY REALLY REALLY believe that MLB will be thriving in 20, 30, 40, even 50 years into the future.
Or that they could really give a fuck as the money will be heavily discounted by then and someone else will be running the goddamn outfit anyway so who cares if one set of bosses shit a big turd or not.
Regardless I'd like to see another starter and perhaps a shortstop who can hit. Supposedly the Twins might trade Kyle Farmer. Someone like that might be on the Giants radar to back up Luciano. This presupposes Brandon Crawford has no role on the team. He's a free agent of course so it's hard to say what will happen. Would he come back to the Giants at a reduced rate for a reduced role? Does he still have it?
I'm glad someone else makes those decisions!
The crime rate statistics back up your argument about SF, LA, and Miami. LA to me looks like a team aging out of its window of opportunity to win it all. Of course, they have a strong farm system and the recent track record. That only adds to my disappointment in the Ohtani deal. I would have rather seen him go to a team on the upswing, like Seattle (not that they made a serious bid for him from what I read). The free agent misses that the press keeps citing are Harper, Judge, and Correa. Harper was never going to come to SF. I remember he said he hated it here, and obviously wanted a park that would boost his hitting stats. Judge would have been a Giant probably if the Yankees didn't bother to make him an offer, but they did. Correa, of course, was damaged goods in the physician's opinion and Boras got him a quick deal elsewhere. Those aren't very good examples, to me, of failure to recruit, and certainly not an indictment of the city. Where I will fault the Giants is that they appear to have swung for the fences with big names, but have not appeared to have B list names ready to move on. That's just my perception. But, yeah, we need another starter.
Of interest, Florida and Miami, are known to severely under-report their crimes. The long conservative rule, and the importance of their brand being tough on crime has gotten them into quite a bit of trouble for under-reporting. I feel much safer walking around downtown, in SF, Portland, or Seattle, compared to Miami. And I worked in Miami for over 43 years. The homeless problem in Miami has been a problem since the Reagan administration, but Miami has done a better job in scattering the homeless and making them less visible during the last decade.
Dodgers sign Yanaguchi for well North of 300 million for 12 years. Top 5 players on the dodgers probably have a payroll higher than the entire roster of each of the botton 22 or 23 teams. Ohtani, Betts. Yanaguchi, Glasnow, Freeman. 3 MVP's in that list. An Multi-award winning pitcher from Japan, and a very good pitcher in Glasnow. What does this mean for the giants on the free agent market. I hope the giants bid a lot for Yanaguchi, so at least it will cost the bums more to have signed him.
Just saw that about Yamamoto. 12 years, $325M. Adding Glasnow makes them very scary.
Ah well, Giants have to be David to the Dodgers Goliath--what else is new?
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