The Giants landed their big fish. It turned out not to be Aaron Judge but Carlos Correa. Correa will replace fan favorite Brandon Crawford at shortstop and be the "face of the franchise" for a mind-boggling 13 years. These mega-deals are actually all about short-term returns. Teams expect big performances right away and are willing to punt on the back end. No one expects Judge or Correa to be All-Stars at age 37, but there's a good chance they will still be productive. No, Judge and/or Correa are supposed to be All-Stars right now.
The Giants need some All-Stars and Correa fits the bill nicely. So, that's good. The Giants also added a slugging outfielder, Mitch Haniger, and a couple of veteran starters, Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling, to beef up the roster. Again, no complaints. Those are all good moves.
But what's next? What do the Giants still need to compete in the NL West? I know they were interested in Kenley Jansen and it seems like adding another closer-type to complement Camilo Doval would be a good idea. It worked really well when the team had both Jake McGee and Doval for those last few outs. Maybe they can find another power arm for the bullpen.
The Giants picked up a player from the Reds (cash trade) named Blake Sabol who is a catcher and an outfielder. He's 24 and seems ready to be promoted to the bigs. I mention him because the team needs help at catcher. Joey Bart is expected to start, but he will need backups. What's the plan?
Will they need some more thump in the lineup? Is a LaMonte Wade, Jr. and J.D. Davis platoon at first base the answer? Will Thairo Estrada be the starting second baseman? Both Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt are out there as unsigned free agents. Do you think the team should bring either or both back?
Despite landing a premier player there seems to be lots more off-season work to be done. What's on your list?
--M.C.
6 comments:
I've been assuming that Carlos Rodón is off the table because of the Correa signing but a quick look at Cot's Contracts and all the empty spaces in the future payrolls has me questioning that.
The Giants could easily take on another big contract. Whether they will or not is anybody's guess, of course. But after the surprise of the Correa deal I'm not going to make any more guesses!
Anyway, of all the long-term deals handed out so far I think Correa is the best prize. He's the youngest and will certainly play SS for another 5-6-7 years. And if he slows down in his late 30s it is easy to see him transition to 2B or 3B.
He's not the impact hitter that Judge is but he is patient and disciplined at the plate. Those skills tend to age well. He will probably never be a Top 10 batter but he will be consistently above average (career 130 wRC+ and 129 OPS+) and combined with his fielding he will provide value for a long time.
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/nl-west/san-francisco-giants/
Belt if healthy could be signed on an incentive laden contract. If healthy he is valuable and would be a nice target for Correa to throw over to first base, but will another team beat us to it? Same would have been true of Longoria, but the giants seem loaded, with players at third, even if none is Longo, but over the last few years his ability to stay healthy is lacking. Except for a minor leaguer we have in the waiting not sure we have a third baseman with his fielding skills unless perhaps Crawford can take over third. We have first and third guys like Flores and Davis, and I think Davis can play the outfield. Villar is also a first and third guy with huge power potential but needs a lot of work on his defense. Perhaps some trades are in the offing. Would love to get Rodon, which would give us 8 guys who could start but at least Junis and Stripling have been swing men, and someone is always hurt. The Pen right now looks like Doval, Alexander, and Brebbia (I thought Brebbia was quite lucky last year as some ball came off his pitches hit very hard but were turned into outs). That would leave us with 2 to 3 bullpen positions and hopefully at least one if not both (lefties).
They keep talking about the Giants coming up with Rogers for the pen. Taylor, the other one. That would be cute, and as always, you can kind of fill in relief pitching once the big names are off the board. Jansen is way too dodgery for me. What they still need is outfielders. With some power, Mitch Haniger notwithstanding (who was limited to just over 200 pa last year). The rest are all platoon players. Crawford will be manning third, I presume, so with a productive Estrada, they can manage at first, or get someone there. Maybe Villars can become a better defender.
Belt would be limited to 1B and DH. They already have LH DH Joc Pederson. And a lot of possible guys for 1B. I'm having a hard time seeing the fit. It's going to be a while before teams know how healthy he is (he had surgery after the season) so I suspect his market may take a while to develop. The Giants might already have moved on by then. I'm a big Belt fan and I'd be sorry to see him go.
Bullpen arms are always tough to predict. Performances vary a lot from year-to-year. The Giants will sign some guys and there will be another flood of arms come Spring Training. But I think Doval, Brebbia, Rogers, and Alexander make a good core. They have another lefty (Szapucki) from the Ruf trade. There's still Hjelle, Long, Waites, Santos, and Marte. One (or two, if we are lucky) of those guys will emerge as a regular.
There are some FA OFs out there (Wil Myers? Andrew Benintendi? Michael Conforto?) but they may have to go the trade route, too. I wonder if Heliot Ramos is going to get a shot. He's had a "checkered" minors career but he's only 23.
The Red Sox just signed NPB OF Masataka Yoshida for 5/90.
Yankees get Rodón: 6 yrs, $162M.
$27M/yr.
Seems cheap.
Carlos Correa gets 13 yrs, $350M.
$27M/yr.
Anyway, here's MLBTR:
The Giants will receive compensation for Rodón’s departure. As a team that neither received revenue sharing payments nor paid the CBT this year, they’ll pick up a bonus selection between Competitive Balance Round B and the start of third round (typically around 75th overall) in next year’s draft. San Francisco had seemingly prepared for Rodón’s departure from the roster by making a pair of their preferred shorter-term rotation additions, bringing aboard Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling on two-year guarantees.
With a sub 2.o ERA at home last year, surprised he did not want to come back. Maybe the giants would not go six years. Was really hoping to get him back. Lost two co-aces in 2 years. Reminds me of the 60's when the giants always seemed one pitcher short. We also could have used a good hitting shortstop in the 60's.
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