The Dodgers made another splash, signing KBO IF/OF Hyeseong Kim. He's 25 and profiles much like our very own Jung Hoo Lee. Speaking of Lee, the Giants are counting on him big time. They need a good glove in CF and they need a steady leadoff hitter. We don't know yet if Lee can do that. In 37 games last year he was hitting .262/.310/.331 before his injury. His career line in Korea was .340/.407/.491 which would be phenomenal in MLB. I like to think that will translate into a quality hitter. Certainly we should expect an above-average on-base guy and a strong defender. If he can do that, be a 2-3 WAR player, that would be great.
The same goes for Heliot Ramos. Both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference rate him at 2.3 WAR for last year's .269/.322/.469 in 121 games. Ramos is only 25 so it's not unreasonable to expect him to improve as a hitter. He seems best in left field.
Mike Yastrzemski is a solid bet to deliver 2 WAR in RF. He's done that every year in orange-and-black. He's 34, however. If anyone is a candidate for a decline, it's him. He signed a $9.25M deal for his last year of arb (he's a free agent next year).
Luis Matos, Grant McCray, Jerar Encarnacion, and Wade Meckler all got looks last season. Maybe we'll get a fourth outfielder from that bunch. The starting three are dependable but at this point unspectacular. They can "hold down the fort" but aren't going to carry the club. This would be a good place to improve the team. A young stud emerging this spring or a fresh face from another organization added to the OF mix would be just the thing.
The Dodgers and Padres each have a superstar in their OF (Mookie Betts and Fernando Tatis). LA brought back Teoscar Hernandez. The Padres had a rookie sensation last year (Jackson Merrill, 4.4 WAR). The Diamondbacks have the 2023 Rookie of the Year (Corbin Carroll) who "only" managed 3.4 WAR last year. (I don't care about the Rockies.) It's going to be tough to match up against those teams.
I'll take a look at the infield in the next post.
Happy New Year!
--M.C.
6 comments:
We do have several young players that could be due for break out years, including Matos, Meckler, Schmidt, McCrae, Luciano and a whole bunch of young pitchers. Several of our young pitchers have potential to be very good if they could harness their control while keeping their good "stuff". Villar has always had potential power as does Encarnacion. If a few of these young players take a step up, the giants could be better than predicted. If Lee, and Wade can have decent OBP's, then guys like Ramos, Adames, Chapman, and Fitzgerald could drive them in. Although I am worried about all the possible K's from Adames, Chapman and Fitzgerald. McCrae if he makes the team could be a game changer if he learns how to make contact. But a guy with his speed needs to be a contact guy.
There is definitely an nice youth movement going on. Let's hope we get some real ballplayers from it!
If the Giants are determined to land a starting pitcher, as you and many others insist they must, and they fail in their Sasaki pursuit, they should go for a one year deal with someone who could give them a very good year, like Max Scherzer. Either that or package and trade some of their young pitching talent. The idea of a 5 or 6 year contract to a 30 year old guy like Flaherty that has been above average at best doesn't excite me. And unless they expect Eldridge sooner rather than later, they could use another hitter.
Burnes was the only one, other than Snell or maybe Fried, that seemed worth the risk of a long-term deal. At this point taking a shot with Scherzer or Verlander is OK by me.
I don't sweat long-term deals. One, the Giants can afford them. Two, if you get two years of All-Star level performance the deal was a "win." Teams know they will be paying for a decline or over-paying for half the contract, however you want to phrase it. That's figured in.
Obviously the best outcome is that your cheap rookies and youngsters deliver All-Star seasons. But that shouldn't stop a club from buying talent when they need it.
Eldridge is only 20!
From Mark Polishuk at MLBTR
The Giants were known to have had interest in Kyle Tucker before the Astros traded the outfielder to the Cubs, and The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly shared some details on that pursuit plus the new information that the Giants were one of the many teams who talked to the White Sox about Garrett Crochet. San Francisco “made legitimate offers” for both Tucker and Crochet, Baggarly writes, “to the point that [the Giants] were said to feel a bit uncomfortable with the players they were willing to sacrifice.” However, neither offer included top prospect Bryce Eldridge, and thus no trades materialized since the Astros and Sox each viewed Eldridge’s inclusion as “a prerequisite.”
Let's hope Eldridge has a good Spring and starts putting up some numbers in AAA. That will speed up his promotion to the bigs.
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