Skip to main content

Free Agents File, Rumors Begin

Some of baseball's biggest names wasted no time putting themselves on the free agent market this week. Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Torii Hunter where among dozens of players to file for free agency as soon as they possibly could. This is going to be a very interesting offseason for the Giants as they will be building a team without Barry Bonds for the first time in 15 years and already the rumors are flying about a possible Bonds' replacement. The San Jose Mercury News ran an article today discussing the possibility of Alex Rodriguez joining the Giants which all the sudden has become a popular thought. The normally discrete Brian Sabean dropped a hint that he would "kick the tires" on any potential Arod deal, something he didn't even say about Barry Zito while in negotiations last winter. Even the New York papers and baseball writers seem to think the Giants have a legit shot at landing the best player in the game. However, once the negotiations start, I have a hard time believing that Brian Sabean and Peter Magowan are going to get into another bidding war like they did last year for Zito. ARod is going to get 30 million a year from somebody and the Giants aren't in a position to be that team. Yes, it's certainly an interesting thought and I would love to see ARod dawn the Orange and Black, but it's a longshot and one that wouldn't be worth taking for the Giants.

Brian Sabean also dropped some news regarding potential free-agent shortstop Omar Vizquel saying that they were close on reaching a deal that would keep Vizquel around for at least one more season. I've said all along that bringing back Vizquel for a year makes a lot of sense. The free agent shortstop class is very weak this year, and Vizquel could probably get a decent deal from someone if he hits the open market. Even at age 40, Vizquel is still a top defensive shortstop and I expect to see him bounce back offensively next season. The potential Vizquel signing also makes it less likely that Pedro Feliz (free agent) would return next season. Vizquel and Feliz make a fine left sided infield, but having both of their bat's in the same lineup can get ugly.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Arod and the Giants? Who knows, I never thought Zito would sign so it could happen.
Anonymous said…
i hear there's another pretty solid offensive 3b available
Trevor Cole said…
Who, Mike Lowell? No thanks. The Giants need to get younger, not older, slower and more injury prone.
Anonymous said…
From what I hear, the Giants are the frontrunners for Torii Hunter. As of now, anyway.
Anonymous said…
An old team with pretty much no hope of contending in the next three years signing a 32-year-old centerfielder with a .324 career OBP to something like a 4 yr/$40 mill contract? They've got a young, quick CF already in Rajai Davis - not that he's all that great, but given the cost and the Giants' situation, he's a much better option than Hunter.

Not that I'd be all that surprised...the Giants have made a lot of shaky decisions the past few years (namely the Zito contract).

Popular posts from this blog

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...

SF Giants' 2024 season preview and predictions

 We've reached the finish line of spring training and it's time for the games to start mattering. The Giants are a much different team than the one we saw report to camp six weeks ago. Did they add enough over the winter and spring to catapult them into playoff contention? What are some keys to success this season? We'll get into all that and more in the 2024 season preview. A winter that started out a little slow and concerning for Giants' fans, really came into form in the spring and was capped beautifully by a Blake Snell signing just over a week before opening day. The Giants are indeed a much improved team from the one we saw in 2023, just how much better they become will rely a lot on three big things. Three Keys to 2024 1. Health Of course, you can say this about every team in baseball and in any sport. In order for them to reach their end-season goals, they'll have to have had stayed relatively healthy throughout the summer. But for the Giants I've highl...

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...