With the signing of NPB super-ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12 yrs, $325M) the LA Dodgers have purchased the services of the two best Japanese ballplayers on the planet. One of them is arguably already the best player in MLB. Shohei Ohtani's $700M takes the total outlay to over one billion dollars. If you laid one billion dollar bills end-to-end (a bill is about six inches in length) they would stretch 500,000,000 feet or about 95,000 miles or nearly four trips around the earth.
That's a lot of scratch!
MLB annual revenue is about $10B, and the total value of all 30 franchises is about $70B. TV rights for MLB games come in at a little under $2B annually. According to Forbes the Giants are in the top tier of wealthy clubs, rating fifth with a $3.7B valuation. The Yankees top the list ($7.1B), followed by the Dodgers( $4.8B), Red Sox ($4.5B), and Cubs ($4.1B). The hapless and unfortunate A's rate 29th ($1.1B) and the Marlins get the honor of the bottom spot ($1B).
The Giants have a lot of payroll flexibility if you assume that ownership is indeed willing to spend money. Only Logan Webb and Jung Hoo Lee have long-term deals. Mitch Haniger, Wilmer Flores, and Taylor Rogers are signed through 2025 and are free agents after that. FNG catcher Tom Murphy is signed through 2025 with a club option for 2026. The Giants have a club option on reliever Luke Jackson for 2025. That's it. Everyone else is either a free agent after the 2024 season or is still under team control (or in their arb-years).
This year's payroll is about $160M meaning they have about $47M to spend without topping the luxury tax threshold ($237M).
The Giants need a starter. I'm hoping they will still pursue Shoto Imagana. Also both Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery are available. The Giants will need a shortstop. They'll have to work the trade market to upgrade at that position. I think they will have to trade some of their young pitching talent to make a meaningful improvement.
I really like the Lee signing but it won't be enough to compete for the Western Division title. They've still got some work to do if they want to win 90+ games.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Thanks for reading. I hope we'll have some fun news to talk about before January rolls around.
--M.C.
7 comments:
We shall see how they do this year, and although I hope they make the right moves and reach the playoffs, with Bob Melvin the Pads won only 82 games last year, With Tatis for more than half the year, Soto, and Machado and a solid pitching staff. This team on paper does not look as good as last year's Padres. Plus Melvin had several everyday players he did not have to platoon. The giants hopefully have at least one of those players in Lee. Perhaps many of our young pitchers will step up. I hate to give away young pitching. If it is our strength lets keep it our strength. Except for the Jackie Robinson signing, the bums, when the giants and dodgers played in N.Y. were always the stepchild. Now with Oakland gone, it looks as if the giants, one of the games great franchises, will become the California stepchild. Perhaps the Angels, are hoping to be replaced.
The NY Giants were certainly the top-tier, and Dem Bums always came up short. But since the move West the Dodgers have been far more successful. The Giants, it seems, are always playing catch-up. Except for that lovely run in the previous decade of course.
But the nature of the game and the randomness of the new playoff format means that "not quite as good" teams can still compete for the championship. (Arizona went to the World Series with 84 wins.) LA is doing all it can to hedge against the inevitable things like injuries and off-years by stockpiling superstars. I can't argue with the method! We'll see if it produces the results.
Giants need to beef up the talent department. This team is a little short of being in the mix. They need another big signing, or at least several more minor but smart signings (like the catcher).
I have been a bit disappointed with some of the minor league development. I expected a few of the minor league assets to do much better in the majors. Perhaps a few of them are late bloomers. Ramos was a stud waiting to happen and thus far has not. Bart was the next Posey and if he ever will be good, it probably will not be with the giants. I still remember the George Foster Trade. Duvall also was jetisoned a tab too soon. It is hard to give away potential power unless the return is significant. Matos looks good, but he somehow underperformed, expecially with his power. Perhaps he can turn it around, At some point I want to see if these guys can do anything including Casey Schmidt. The only questions I have with Luciano, are can he stay healthy and does he need a little more seasoning? Some of our young pitchers look like the real deal and are close, and I would hate to lose them. Although it took some time for Zack Wheeler to become the stud the giants expected, I was upset at that trade, mostly because they could or did not re-sign Carlos Beltran, and he did seem to sign elsewhere at a very reasonable price, and provided more than his value. Losing wheeler for 2 months of a great player, who was hurt for a few weeks of that time, seems like an awful result. Trades are spooky. The Gaylord Perry Trade looked good on paper, and turned out to be a disaster.
I was upset at the multiplayer trade that cost us Matt Williams, and resulted in getting Jeff Kent. It turned out to be a more than decent return for the giants. I still think that Kent belongs in the Hall of fame as he played most of his career at second base. Position matters. If Posey had his stats at a left fielder he would not even be considered. But most folks see him as having a good chance to make the hall.
I remember the Williams trade because it was on my birthday! At the time I thought it was a good trade and it turned out that way. Williams had signed a 4-year deal in 1992 and they were going to have to pony up to keep him. People hated losing Williams but the return was worth it. They not only got Jeff Kent but also Julian Taveras and Jose Vizcaino. You have to trade players when they are still good!
But I don't fret over trades once they are done. I don't do "what ifs?" It's all "water under the bridge."
The Wheeler trade is a good example. The Giants had just won their FIRST EVER SF CHAMPIONSHIP. They had the best pitching staff in baseball and a they were in a championship window that was going to close real soon so they decided to go "all-in" in 2011 and risk giving away their best prospect. It didn't work out, but the context mattered. It was a worthy risk because World Series chances don't come around very often.
The bad trade that I remember the most was the Nathan/Liriano for Pierzynski trade. It was a disaster, but the Giants really really really needed a catcher at the time. AJ was an All-Star and etc so it was not entirely crazy. No one knew that Nathan would pitch for 12 more seasons.
That was an odd trade. The first time I saw Nathan pitch, I liked him, and thought if healthy this guy is going to be good. Never like A.J. and it seemed he did not love being a giant either.
Yeah, Nathan was a stud. Somehow he wound up in Felipe's doghouse and that was that.
I never bought into the Pierzynski "bad teammate" thing. It seemed like he had a conflict with Brett Tomko, who had a reputation for being difficult, and it got played into something bigger. AJP was the catcher the very next year for the WS champion White Sox ('05). And then he played 10 more years and got a job in broadcasting. He couldn't have been that bad of a clubhouse presence.
A lot of weird shit went on with Felipe ('03-'06). I remember thinking when he took over for Baker that he would be a stable, don't-rock-the-boat type. Didn't seem to work out like that. Of course that was a crazy clubhouse over the years with guys like Bonds, Vizquel, Felipe's kid Moises, etc. And the ever-silent, ever-suffering Pedro Feliz went on to win a WS ring with Philly in 2008!
Both Matt Cain and Brian Wilson debuted under Felipe.
I am going to lean with the reporting that said A.J. was the problem. It seemed there was just too many reports at the time placing much of the blame on A.J.
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