Giants Staying Quiet for Holidays

Ever since their flurry of moves at the end of November that really put a shape to their team, the Giants have been extremely quiet on the player transaction front.

After re-signing Aubrey Huff and Pat Burrell, then obtaining Miguel Tejada to take over at short, Brian Sabean and co. have stood pat as they decide whether or not to add to what they've already constructed here. It's no secret that Sabean was seeking another infielder, one who could handle shortstop seamlessly. They made an offer to World Series hero Edgar Renteria (who has apparently decided he'll be playing again in 2011 after all) of $1 million to come caddy Miggy at short, but Renteria was "offended and hurt" by what he deemed was a low-ball offer from a team he helped win the Series. As I've said many times here, I'll never forget what Renteria did for this club in October/November this past season, and I will always have a fondness for him, but for him to get so upset at a real reasonable offer kind of disturbs me. Burrell is much more important to the Giants 25-man roster than Renteria would be, and he accepted the hometown, $1M gladly and I'm very surprised Edgar didn't do the same thing. Let's face it, Edgar Renteria made way more from the Giants in '09-'10 than his actual value to the team was. The dude made nearly $20 million over those 2 seasons, and was essentially a non-factor until the postseason this year. He should be darn grateful he was able to rake in that type of cash because had he been a free agent after the 2009 season, he would have been lucky to make 1/4 of what he did in 2010. Long story short, I don't think Renteria will get much more than $1M from anyone else, and after all the money he's made from the Giants, the right move on his end would have been to accept that deal.

As far as the Giants competitors down south, the Padres just pulled off a few moves that now make me wonder a bit why they dealt Adrian Gonzalez when they did. They got Jason Bartlett (who's going to make roughly $5-6M in 2011) for practically nothing from Tampa Bay, then added Orlando Hudson on a 2-year, $11.5 million deal. After the Gonzalez trade, I figured they were entering full-blown rebuild mode, but now they've just added two veterans who have the capability to be all-star caliber players. If A-Gone was still a Padre, and they would have been able to add the players they just added, they would have been a threat to the Giants next year, but now they look like a team going in two different directions. With that up-and-coming staff and dominant bullpen, they could have made some noise in '11 with Gonzalez, but luckily for the Giants, that won't be the case. One of the Padres' new acquisitions, Jason Bartlett, could have been a nice add for the Giants, especially after seeing what they parted with to get him. Not sure he would have taken kindly to playing 2nd fiddle to Tejada at short and he would be quite an expensive pine-rider for a team that already has $12 million sitting in one bench player. Tejada's natural spot is at short as well, but his range has declined massively, and I don't think he's a guy who can be counted on playing 150+ full games at shortstop, so they have to get someone else, or the Fontenot/Buriss duo has to step up. Again, I like the prospect of Cesar Izturis' glove and pinch-run abilities, but he's a Neifi Perez clone at the plate.

*Blog Note: Happy Holidays from The Giants Baseball Blog to you and your loved ones. Barring any big Giants news such as player additions/trades, we likely won't be posting again until after Christmas, so tune back on the 26th as we start preparing for the 2011 season! And as a gift for any true Giants fan, and as a way to remember the 2010 season and the memorable playoff run for ever, we suggest you get the Giants World Series DVD brought to you by Shout Factory, and Congratulations to those of you who won our 3 copies as a token for being such loyal readers!