Why Giants are cautious to hand out large contracts this offseason | NBCS Bay Area

Why Giants are cautious to hand out large contracts this offseason | NBCS Bay Area

What’s up, Giants fans? Welcome to another episode of Giants Talk. I’m Cole Kyper here with Giants insider Alex Pavlovich. The stove is heating up around the league with signings happening, including a little one for the Giants already. We’ll talk about what’s going on in free agency in Major League Baseball, both in San Francisco and beyond, plus our Monday mailbag and much more. Before we get started, Giant Talk is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. Manini Sleep World’s Black Friday sale is on with savings of up to $1,200 on top mattress brands. Plus, for the first time ever, they’re having 14 days of deals starting on November 14th. Every single day, they’ll feature a brand new limited time deal with everything you need to upgrade your room and home. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. All right, Alex, let’s start with the Giants. We signed a guy. I I’m glad we’re starting with the Giants. We We’ve started off with some heavy tangents this year on Giants Talk. There’s been episodes where we did a good 20 minutes on the Padres before even mentioning the Giants. We’re waiting from, you know, we’re waiting for that Willy Adamus lightning strike. There we go. Like, here’s something to help us for for three or four episodes. Uh yes, Sam Henches. Did I get that right? Hench henches. Henches. Yes. um a left-handed reliever. He is it’s a one-year deal, 1.4 million according to Robert Murray, who does a great job with this stuff. Um has not been announced by the team yet, so we’re waiting on full details on everything. They’ll have to make roster move there at 39, but uh yeah, we have an actual live human being who is not just like waiver claims are fine, too. We talked about that. But, uh, a little addition here. And I think it it’s it it’s one of those things where we talked the last episode feels like three weeks ago about Joey Leasey and how we were like slightly surprised. Um, and it it makes more sense after this because this is similar piece. Um, I think a higher upside lefty given what he’s done in the big leagues. Uh he is coming off shoulder surgery and had knee surgery while he was rehabbing from shoulder surgery. So he didn’t even do a rehab assignment last year. But you look what he did in Cleveland. Big tall left-hander, throws mostly a curveball. Uh four seamer slider sinker. He was made a reliever in 2022 full-time and for the next three years 2.93 erra, 2.66 fib, uh 10.1 strikeouts per nine, 95% ground ball rate last time he had a full big league season. So, we know that fits with what the Giants try to do. And yeah, I think it it makes a lot more sense when you look at that number, assuming he’s healthy for spring and assuming he is he’s right there with Eric Miller. It’s I think a little bit more upside than Casey. Um, and also just a little bit cheaper, which is helpful. Is was this one that dropped on the holiday for you? When did this No, I think this is Wednesday. Okay. Yeah. I always cringe whenever these little ones happen um right around Christmas or Thanksgiving just knowing that you’ve got to step away from the table. I’ve reached the point of my career where the little ones I go I have a family now. We will, you know, short of emergency podcast territory. Uh but yeah, no, you’re definitely on like Saturday I kind of was like we went out and did a bunch of stuff and I’m like this is when it’s gonna happen when it starts to happen. So yeah, you know, put the ringer on again. Um, but no, I I think going back to Sam and and what he can bring like it it, you know, makes makes a lot of sense now when you look at the left side and and uh Eric Miller, we have this guy, we have Matt Gage who’s who’s still around and then San Martin who they they claimed a few weeks ago and and that’s four guys. I would bet we’re going to see some non-roster guys in camp as well from the left side, but they have some options now. And and I you know I one thing that stood out in the wake of this even though it’s a very small move it does seem like they’ve kind of figured out the left side of their bullpen and it’s not like I mean you don’t want to go pay Tanner Scott anyway but it’s not like they went crazy. They just I think this is what they’ve been hinting and if you go back to like when Zack Massian was on Giants talk a few weeks ago talking about how do you rebuild a bullpen and like kind of the first thing they always go to is these minor deals, these minor league free agents. Um sometimes you get a deal on a guy coming off injury which is what they did here. Somebody Cleveland kept all of last year as he was rehabbing. So that’s a smart organization. They like him. Um, so I I think that the key here is they’ve kind of filled that spot in a really cost-effective way and given themselves we talk a lot we we’re not fans of spending too much money on relievers. So they’ve given themselves some options here for spring training. We’ve just learned that you never know which guy like this just sneakily comes out of nowhere off an injury off a a year that does not match you up to the year they could have this year and just blows the doors off everyone. Yeah. Um and then we’ve been burned too many times by the put shell out the checkbook for a closer and the guy can’t close. Yes. If he if his shoulder is not right in spring and I don’t think that’s the case, but if if that’s the case, like this doesn’t cost you anything really. Yeah. Uh and the other thing that stood out here is it seems like you know the outfield moves I know again like not sexy. Um, but I do think they’ve kind of I don’t want to say solved that, but figured out maybe what they want to do there short of something dropping in their laps. And yeah, seems like they’re doing the same thing with left-hander relief. So, some of these holes on the roster are being again like solve is not the right word, but are they’re giving themselves options in a cheap way. and we will get to the big starting pitchers out there, but they have set themselves up where they’ve kind of filled some roster holes in November and allowed themselves to go get the two starters they need. And and something we’ve talked a lot about is like if you have an extra dollar to spend on a backup catcher, spend that, throw that towards the pitcher. So, it seems like they’ve set themselves up to do that. Now, we’ll see if they do, but I do. We want to take that and just head straight to the big discussion every everyone wants to hear about in this episode. Sure. All right. So, all anyone can talk about right now is the Giants potentially being tied to Tatsuya Emi. We’ve we’ve mentioned him on the podcast before. I think we promised we’d go deeper into that discussion later. Today’s as good a day as any I guess especially as ESPN’s Buster Only wrote an article that kind of um I don’t know if not debunked is too strong but uh toward cold water I guess on the thought of the Giants getting this guy. Um, the upside of this guy, uh, Tatsu and by coming out of Japan, he has been, I don’t know if if he’s been vocal about wanting to be the guy who can go out there and beat the Dodgers, beat the players he’s played against or played with on national teams for the past several years. Um, and that’s exactly the guy the Giants have been looking for. That being said, fabulous. Go out there and make yourself known free agent strategy. That is better than the Aaron Judge getting on the elevator at the hotel. Going out there and basically forcing the Giants fan base to love you with without them knowing anything about you. Brilliant. Yeah. Yeah. And I I think you know we localize it obviously and we look at the rivalry but there’s you see you know you get on social media you see a bunch of other organizations that have lost to the Dodgers in recent years who go like oh this guy like Yankees two years ago in the World Series. They’re like this is the guy who wants to go get him in the World Series. Um to the Buster Only tweet. I will say first of all I really like Buster Only. I’ve known him for a long time. He used to have me on his podcast when I was like just nobody knew who I was. Um, which I was appreciative of. I think he does a great job and I don’t think I don’t if you follow his work I don’t think he throws stuff out there generally like he doesn’t tweet a whole lot like give his thoughts like this a whole lot. Can I can I read the the tweet for listeners? All right. Buster only said on the 29th the Giants have been repeatedly linked to Tatsuya, the premier free agent pitcher from Japan. But a lot of their market pitching inquiries have been for more modestly priced arms. A strong indication that they aren’t chasing the highest priced pitchers like MI. So I think there’s three parts of this tweet. One of them I think the first part is they are linked and they get linked by everybody now just because it’s a lazy thing to do. It’s it’s this has been five years of this and I don’t want to call anybody out but like you read these articles of like where’s so and so going. I mean I’ve seen them link to who I still see them in like Pete Lonzo stories every once in a while. I just think people don’t like they don’t actually like look at the roster. They don’t actually look at who they are. They just go like team that’s been trying to spend for for five six years now has been trying to land their big free agent. Let’s throw the giants on our graphic. Let’s throw the giants in our story. So, I do think they’ve been linked in that way. I think there are other people who are just frankly throwing out on Twitter and trying to get engagement right now, which is a dangerous part of that website right now. So, um now to the part about them being in on more modest pieces, yes, they also need two starters. And I don’t think that, you know, I don’t think those things are related necessarily. Like they they could use the guy long-term to pair with Logan Webb. They also need if they get MI, they need another starter, you and I believe. And if they don’t get him, they need probably two guys in that spot. So, I don’t think I’d necessarily put much stock in in that part of this. Like, who is your you loved Chris Basset, like I’ll use him as an example. um they could use both of them and they have the money for both of them this offseason, especially if they do what we’ve seen and it’s kind of go a little lighter on other spots. They can fit both of them within whatever their budget is. Um so I I don’t think that part of it what was the third part of the tweet? I had a third uh the third part of the tweet was a strong indication that they’re they aren’t chasing the highest priced pitchers. Yeah. And then the third thing here is they’ve you know Greg Johnson said this publicly like they don’t love the nine figure deals. So that’s that’s kind of hanging over all of this is he has been very clear and this guy when you look at what where the pitching market has gone and you look at who his agent is Scott Boris this is not going to be 90 million like Boris I’m I’m sure and this is not any information I just he probably sees the Dylan Se’s deal and sees some of the numbers being thrown out for for Amber and goes like 200 million out there like let’s go crazy right like what’s he’s he always goes for the biggest number. So, yeah, it’s not something that generally fits what we think they want to do. Now, to your point, he checks a lot of boxes for him. And I I think he’s somebody they like. He’s somebody they’ve seen. Zack and Buster saw him in person last year on on a trip to Japan. Like, so it it a lot of this makes sense. I just also I I don’t read too much into anything that’s happened in the last couple weeks. And this is also a guy who’s going to be like one of the biggest talking points at the winter meetings which is starting next week. I think he has another month and a day before he has to sign. So everyone can I think settle down a little bit. Yeah, it’s I have to imagine with the Giants hesitancy or ownership group’s hesitancy to do those massive pitching deals, a guy who we know way less about than any pitcher you’ve seen regularly, like basically a rookie coming into Major League Baseball over here just compounds the concerns about the big deals. You know, the pitching deals, they fall apart because of injury. they fall apart because the guy getting on the back end of that isn’t the guy you’re getting on the front end of that. Um, and those question marks just are are even bigger. Uh, even more of a red flag with someone. Yeah. Yeah. That’s who you am. It’s like, oh, by the way, they’re not wrong. So, yeah. It’s I would be terrified if I was if you know if it comes down to the end and they’re like, “It’s going to be 160 million plus the posting fee.” Like, I would be terrified to write that contract. I you can feel as as good as you want to about um someone coming over, but we’ve seen some big misses in not just with the Giants long-term long-term deals, but also just with guys coming over from Japan. And you know, you read some of the scouting reports and it’s it’s really hard to tell uh from people who have seen him. I mean, some people are like ace potential, a lot of them are like he’s the strong number three and then you kind of go like that’s a lot of money for a number three. Yeah. So, um, yeah, I think it’s I think it’s a terrifying proposition. That’s why, you know, Buster, you get paid to make this decision, Buster Posey, not only and and deal with it long term, but he is he is, I think, scarier than some of the other, you know, where you look at like a Ranger Suarez and you go like, we’ve seen what he can do the last few years in the big leagues. Like, you kind of know what he’s gonna give you. Um, Famber Valdez, you know, Dylan sees, you don’t know because every other year, like that’s a different year. But guys like that, you you kind of know what they’re going to give you and this is taking a big swing, which could be great. It could also be, you know, Jungle Le is a good example of this. Like that’s a big contract and last year was fine. Yeah. There’s also, we kind of talked about it in the year- end recap. like they’re going to be really hoping for a a better than ever version of Jungu Lee in the next year or two or it’s really going to scare them away from deals like that in the future. And there was a lot of projection there and a lot of how is this guy going to look in Major League Baseball and what do we think he can do in Major League Baseball? And we’re jury’s still out a little bit and it’s a big contract and it’s um one they probably you know I don’t think they regret it but one right now they’re probably like we wish we could get a little bit more out of this. So yeah, this is a this is a complicated one. Um, I think there’s Yeah, but I I do think he he makes it is really like if you’re trying to and this is again you go back to Boris like I don’t think he was involved with that interview, but like that’s like the perfect thing to say. I think he he watched that and just went like, “Oh, this is beautiful. We nailed it. We nailed it.” Yeah. No, it’s it’s flawless, but um I don’t know. It’d be a great story. It’d be really fun to follow, but it does feel like um like the call is coming from outside the house, you know, like like all of the things tying the Giants to this guy are not coming from the Giants organization. Yeah. And can I also, you know, it’s my job to try to get stuff from the Giants organization. And this this is a weird thing to talk about because a lot of this is like kind of gray and behind the scenes, but it’s like they’re very very good at not letting stuff out. Um they’re very good at it. It’s and I I think, you know, I think this is a good beat and I think there’s people who do a really good job of of getting stuff that national people are not getting on this beat. And I would just say that like kind of trust the beat here that there’s not a lot of BS being thrown out by the people who are there every single day. Yeah. Um there’s people trying to get engagement on Twitter and then there’s people just throwing the Giants into uh not saying Buster only. I think that was just a separate tweet, but there’s people throwing them into like top five top five destinations for so and so every single time. So um the the Giants, this is bad for me because it’s my job to get information. It’s good for them. They’re very good about moving in in silence. Yeah. So, just everybody keep that in mind. Like you you see some of these things and it’s like where’d that come from? It’s like probably nowhere. Probably someone just pulled that out. And I’m not talking specifically again about this one tweet, but just some of the some of the stuff that’s been out there the last week, week and a half. As we talk about the Giants needing a twofer um in the starting rotation, where do we like stand now years removed from the Johnny Quato Shark contracts? Because that was kind of like they could have gotten one but spent the money on two instead. And it seemed like that was ended up being like the preferred move. I think people forget how good it was that first year. Yeah. Remember when Bumgner, Quato, and and Samar were like basically throwing complete games back to back to back first? Yes. And um it was really Yeah. I mean, Quato goes into Wrigley Field and he’s ready to go. I mean, he’s ready to go in game five. So I That’s the thing with these deals is and it’s the old like ZTO joke where Sabian’s like it was worth it. We won a World Series and he you know, we don’t win that World Series without Zitto in St. Lewis and um Zito in game one of the World Series. So, but you kind of if you’re if you’re ownership and you’re the board, you probably go, I don’t know if that was worth it. Somebody else probably could have done that. Yeah, those those the ZTO deal was worth it. They’re all very tongue andcheek. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it was worth it. They won a World Series. It It was incredible. ZTO got two hits in, I think, in that first game, including one offer. still insane amount of money. Yeah, I mean going to Ku and Smart, they’re not they weren’t like crippling, but that also just put him in a bad spot. And I I think that is you look at again the history of this organization with those long-term deals. And I’ll even go to like Matt Kane’s extension. Like I mean that he was great for stretches. He also broke down. Pitchers break down. Whoever they give, if they give someone six years to, decent chance at some point they’re gonna have major surgery and miss one of those years. Decent chance by the end of it you’re, you know, remember Quaido at the end we’re just kind of like what do you do with this contract? Like where do you slide them in? Yeah. What does he pitch four innings for you here? So it’s um those contracts hurt and and it is one place where I know teams get called cheap. It’s one place where I just I just don’t disagree with them on this. I like I you have to do it and you kind of have to get those guys, but it’s so much more valuable if you can draft them. And unfortunately for the players, if you can go through like what Pittsburgh has right now with the Paul Skins, just what the Giants had with the Tim Winsum, just go through his early years, go through the arbitration years, um you know, maybe get the the good extension. But these guys who who uh get the six, seven years in free agency, like they’re frightening. And yeah, and I as if that’s I don’t think it’s an organizational thing like we’re never going to do this, but if it’s something they really really don’t like doing, I I don’t blame them at all. I it’s it’s something that can really set you back and um it can just be an anchor on your payroll there for a couple I mean we’re looking at these guys now like Dylan sees is getting 30 million a year like that’s it it’s great if it’s good but also like that can just be a $30 million anchor on your payroll. So yeah. So with that let’s talk about some of the deals that have happened this week in baseball. The biggest one being Dylan cease to the Blue Jays. I think this was Wednesday. Um, I lost track of what happened over the last week. Yeah, the week of Thanksgiving always kind of is just like a nebulous blob. Uh, but heading to Canada for seven years, $210 million average of 30 a year. Um, the biggest one for me was that this took the Blue Jays presumably out of the MI race. That was my first reaction as well. like it, you know, I think that’s actually, you know, a sneaky nice spot for him um for EMI if he and that is a team that kind of doesn’t they’ll go they’ll go pretty big with these numbers. Um so yeah, that was my reaction as well. I mean, you never know. They might be just like, we went to the World Series, we’re Canada’s team, there’s of money pouring in. Um, yeah, I think they have some pitching contracts coming off the books, so maybe they just want to throw a second big one on there and have this be a $500 million off seasonason. But, uh, yeah, I think that’s probably from a Giants perspective, that is probably the the huge plus here. Exactly. Exactly. Other than that, I mean, that was by far the biggest deal of the week. Oh, and I guess were you surprised by Ce to the Blue Jays? No, I I like what you know, I’m always a big fan. We talk about it here all the time about the teams that go for it. Yeah. And you know, they just made the World Series and I think there’s probably some I mean, they were a very good team. There’s not flukiness there, but there’s probably some like it’s going to be really hard to run this back, do this again, get through this American League again, and, you know, good teams in that division. Um, so this I I love the doubling down on it and I I’m not a huge fan of his as a pitcher. Like I think he you can get seven innings, 12 strikeouts. You can also get two and a third like five run. Like it it’s he’s for a guy who posts every five days. He’s wildly inconsistent. That’s where I just kind of feel like there’s going to be a year where they’re paying 30 million and he has like a 4.3 RA. Yes. Going to be like ugly. But I I love them going for it. Um, and it’s interesting that there’s this other team out there that’s kind of been, you know, they’ve been the Giants East, like thrown into every rumor for the last five years and they’ve now locked up Guerrero and they got their pitcher and um, good team out there. But I that’s one where I would not have like I don’t know how far the Giants went into how far they dipped their toes into that market. I think that’s that is when it was clear he was at the top of that market. I was like, “Okay, good luck to somebody. You might be getting Zack Wheeler. You might also be like throwing up in two years. All right. All right. Elsewhere in Baltimore, Ryan Helsley signed for two years, 28 million. Um although this is one of those deals, right, that it’s like if he has a good year, he’s gone after one. Yeah. Yeah. he was my pick is um you know low-key reliever signing which I love this number like it’s that would have been right up my alley if I’m if I’m the Giants. Um I think we’re seeing some big numbers for relievers. So Devin Williams probably not going to come too cheap. Um other guys probably not going to come too cheap. I think Buster did kind of hint that a few weeks ago here on the podcast about like maybe more of an open competition for closer next spring and don’t go and get one of these. But I I didn’t mind this contract. I think it’s a good risk to take. And I I do think like I saw some people on Giants Twitter talking about like the opt out and probably something the Giants don’t want to do. That should not be the case. I mean, I one I don’t think they’ll ever say that’s the case, but even if that is the case behind the scenes, I know Buster wanted some long-term certainty. Like, we need to get over that opt out thing. I know everyone, it was one of those Farhan leftover things that Yeah. seemed like every deal had it. Like, it’s not a huge problem, especially for reliever. If this guy goes out and he’s has a 1.7 RA next year, it’s like, I’m going to go get the 80 million. Oh, what’s the problem here? Yeah, we got we had a guy who biffed incredibly. Great year. and reliever at the deadline like always valuable. Um I people need to get over the opt out stuff like this is Giants need to start handing those deals out again like if that’s what it takes because it’s guys want those deals and generally like you know we talk about the ones that that like sucked for the Giants but generally those guys pitched well. Yeah. So it sucked because they weren’t around long term. And I also think the other thing that’s happened here is there was a stretch where you could be like, “Yeah, who who are you gonna who’s your kid gonna like for the next three years? They have Adamus, they have Devers, they have Chapman, they have web, they have Lee. You can buy a jersey now.” So many people who are like my somebody asked me for a book the other day and said, “Are they going to trade weed? My daughter loves him.” And I’m like, “No, you’re fine.” Um they have Bryce Elders. Like it’s they have these guys now. You can buy the jersey comfortably. So, if if there’s a starting pitcher who signs a three-year deal this off seasonason with two opt outs, like don’t freak out about it. Yeah, it’s not a bad thing anymore. Yeah. One more move in baseball, Sunny Gray traded to the Red Sox. Alex, I still have Sunonny Gray is one of those pitchers who he was an Oakland A for a while. I really liked him as an A. I did not realize how much he has moved around the league since then. Yeah. Well, so sneaky. He’s a sneaky 36, I think. 35. He’s 36. Yeah. So, um there was some giant smoke about him at times. I don’t think that was ever too real. So, um ultimately ends up like St. Louis chips in a ton of money. I don’t I don’t think this is a you know, would have been fine. They also gave up a decent hall to get him. Yeah, Austin did. So, yeah, I don’t think there was ever too much here in terms of Sunny Gr. Yeah. All right. Well, with that, we have mailbag questions here on this fabulous Monday. Before we get to those, Giants talk is presented by Mancini Sleepworld. Mancini Sleepworld’s Black Friday sale is on. We’re talking bedding bundles packed with pillows, sheets, and more, plus recliners for less than $300. Don’t sleep on this. Visit your local Mancini Sleepworld or visit sleepworld.com. Uh, Alex, are you a big Black Friday guy? I have not been. We kind of ended up in Black Friday, like went to take the kids somewhere and then all of a sudden I was like, we’re at Target. Um, so I think I got bamboozled. Yeah, I saw I think it was a podcast listener on Sunday. I saw him at HomeGoods while I was watching uh Red Zone sitting in the furniture corner of HomeGoods as my wife shopped. He was like, “How’s it going?” And I’m like, “I’m at HomeGoods on a Sunday.” Like, “How do you think it’s going?” Not good listener. A very nice guy. So, shout out to that guy. Good. Um, okay. Mailbag questions. First one is not a question, more a note. We talked about the rule five draft in the last episode. That feels like a month ago. Um, and Michael says, “I Chicago White Sox reliever Shane Smith made the all-star team this year after being picked in the rule five.” That’s pretty cool. Yeah, we totally missed it. We We are open about the White Socks are a blind spot for us. I do not have the mental bandwidth to focus any of my energy on the Chicago White Socks. Yeah, we’re I know that they have the Pope now or something and that’s basically it. They are off. I think we generally choose maybe we’ll do this at some point. There’s like 25 and a half teams we follow. Yeah. It’s like there’s a few that we just go like no, we’ll see you next year. Yeah. And I feel bad because the A’s are swiftly approaching that category for being our longtime rivals and half my friends were A’s fans. I do still watch a lot of A’s. They’re okay. you know, especially like those day games they have on that are on in the Bay Area where you just um Yeah, the White Socks are a blind spot for us. So, yeah. All right. And even I do this for a living. I’m just that is like one where you’re like, am I gonna worry about the White Socks today or am I just going to read another Dodger story and maybe learn more about the team we see 14 times? If we weren’t in the NL, the Rockies would be Oh, yeah. bucket. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s the thing. I spend way too much time like reading about the Rocky’s front office, so I don’t have time for Shane Smith. Um I think he was he had an okay first half. He was like the the every team needs an all-star. Oh, he was the who can we scrape off this White Socks roster to Yeah. So kind of squint and you can you can look at the stats maybe and say he’s an all-star. Yeah, I think he had like a 4.2 RA or something at at the dead at the break. Um but good call, Michael. We we missed on that one. Yeah. All right. Question from Henry. Henry says, “I was wondering if you think that cease signing in the Sunny Gray trade will motivate the Giants to move sooner so as not to be left with the free agent or trade ship leftovers.” Uh what do you think, Alex? We’re We came out of the gun hot here. Um it’s December one now. Are the Giants in like make the moves now mode? The leftovers. Who’s who gets to be called a leftover? Yeah. Ouch. No, I don’t think it’s, you know, teams are very good about knowing when things are coming off the board and and how far they can go. And um again, like that sees 210 million, like that’s just not happening for the Giants. So, I think you you cross them off your whiteboard pretty early. Um, so I I I think there’s there’s still there’s plenty of guys out there and we’ve reached, you know, Monday, December 1st, as you said. Uh, we’re past Black Friday. This is this is the week where stuff starts to ramp up going into the winter meetings. So, they have a pretty good idea. The last month, the hard part about podcasting the last month is just knowing that most of it is just setting groundwork for December. Yeah. And early January. And so they’ve been there’s plenty of guys out there and there’s I don’t think they’re going to get get left behind here. So the winter meetings is really the place where you kind of look around and maybe like three guys sign in an hour like sometimes and you go, “Oh, it’s all happening. Let’s make some more calls.” But they’re okay timing wise right now. Yeah. All right. Juan asks, “Alex likes to say that Schmidt should be given the second base job, but why not wait and see how Fitz comes into camp? For their MLB career, Fitzgerald has been the better hitter and has been the better defender at second. I really attribute Fitz’s collapse to his left left rib fracture before going into the IIL. He had a 773 OPS with a 22.2K rate and after had a 0506 OPS with a 32.7K rate. It’s a great question. Um I think remember it was slow at the start of last year too and then he went nuts for like a week and like oh he’s back so and then it just yeah he gets hurt and some other he just never made it back. Um it’s one reason why I’m fine with second base as is because I I think you have multiple guys here who you have some some real upside potentially. I mean I the Fitzgerald Barry Bonds run is never happening again but we’ve also seen like he’s maybe it might it might don’t I’m kind of banking on that happening Alex you want you want another July August yes whatever it was but we’ve also like that’s also it’s fluky but it’s also like that’s big league power like we’ve seen there’s there’s something there and he stands out I talk about Elliot a lot as like a guy that I’ I’d love to see this new coaching staff get their hands on him and maybe a different set of eyes on this guy and and say what else can we get out of him like Fitzgerald’s similar like it’s it’s a guy who’s his best skill is is base running and they they haven’t found a way to use it and they haven’t found a way to get like get him in the right frame of mind to be good at it um and also just to send him more often and and they talk about it constantly and yeah maybe he’s a I it’s one of those I think we’ve talked about this like who are going to be the guys where Tony gets into camp and goes like I just kind of love this guy like I um maybe he’s one of them but I I don’t I think Casey Schmidt comes in as a second baseman currently as is but it is a good point that we should not forget Tyler Fitzgerald who had who’s not too far removed from pretty incredible big league success and you know still fully under team control and um yeah maybe comes in healthy next year and there’s a different look for him. That’s where I just I kind of think second base like you have multiple guys who one of them maybe breaks through and you also have Christian cost who was just solid across the board. So that’s where I just don’t really worry about second base too much. Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of fans sending us trade or signing options for second base, ideas for second base, and I think the odds that one of those two guys having a great year, you know, slotting into that spot well is too high to dedicate any of those resources to second. Yeah. I mean, these are all pre-ARP guys. Like, I’m just it’s if you can get a third of what that run out of Tyler for like a month, like, yeah, you’ve made up the contract. So yeah. Uh, next question is from Reed. Reed says, “Do either of you two or the Giants think that Jung-ho Lee can be a solid defensive outfielder and center next year or even beyond? My reporting, I teach community college in the Bay Area. Three of my calculus students are here from Korea to play baseball for our team, which is a competitive squad. One of them last week told me that he’s confident Jungle will be better defensively next year. Apparently, based on Korean interviews, the travel and specifically all of the time zone changes really hit Jung-H. It was something that he never experienced and it really affected him. Therefore, my student is confident that Jung Lee will come in prepared and do better next season. Um, he also cited his good defensive work while playing in Korea. I think he’ll be better. Um, you know, it is one thing that just stood out during the season. It stood out in end of season interviews. I think it stood out every time Buster has talked about again Buster Posie not only has talked about um needs for this team is is uh outfield defense and it’s like a real point of emphasis and we’ll see you know at some point they figure to name a full coaching staff and let us know a little bit more about who’s doing each job but we’ll see who’s in charge of that. Um, but yeah, I think he there’s it’s going to be a real point of emphasis. And you watch him like a lot of his issues were communication issues and pulling up on balls and, you know, balls dropping between outfielders and um, and the other thing I think to the point here, like he pretty clearly wore down early in the year and yeah, and they they used him a lot, they played him a lot. He plays kind of a a little bit more physical brand than some of the other guys on the field and he lost like 12 pounds over the course of the year which he does not have to lose. So he talked to us at the end of the year um and he’s yeah that was like the main takeaway for him was just the physicality of it and the losing the weight and I think you saw at the end of the year like Bob Melvin at times was going like every time they had a chance to give him an off day he would do it because it seemed like he’d come back and get three hits. So yeah, uh I I think they’ll have a better plan for him. And one thing about this configuration with the outfielders they have picked up who are all basically potential center fielders is like you you can have a better plan for him. You if like if Justin Dean’s on the roster, you can find more selective days for Jung who to get get time off. Uh, so I there’s no reason, this goes back to like what we talk about with Elliot all the time, like you see their physical skills and what their backgrounds. There’s no reason that they should have been near the bottom last year. Yeah. Defensively. He’s not going to win a gold glove, but like should be fine out there. I think he should be slightly above average out there. Yeah. As long as that just becomes something we don’t have to worry about, we don’t have to podcast about, um, that would be a dream. um outfield defense, athleticism, base running every year. I don’t understand with a different group of guys, different coaching staffs, everything. How we have the same conversation every year. Fix this. What is happening? Like, we don’t even care if they win 77 games this year. Just just play better outfield defense. Steal some bases. Yeah, come on. All right. From Keith, do the Giants have any thoughts of trying Eldridge in the outfield again? He has a strong arm and some athleticism. Tough to move him after ramping at first, but it is an area of need. Devers will be at first a lot and DH isn’t a great spot for a young developing player. I don’t think it’s the move next year. I think, you know, it’s interesting that last thing DH isn’t a great spot. That is the first thing I thought of too. And then you start talking to more people and you start doing more research and things have changed to the point where he was a DH in high school. like he’s he’s used to this. It’s the NL is just in my blood too much. This hurts me to hear. Yeah, it’s so this is just I think we have to maybe get more used to this. Yeah. Now, having said that, they don’t want him to just be a full-time DH. Uh but I I do think I think the focus next year is making sure he’s ready at the plate and not like they’ve thrown first base at him. There’s a lot being thrown at him there. Um there’s a lot being thrown at him at the plate at his age. I I would not want to like throw one more thing on there and be like, “Hey, can you play left field occasionally?” But I don’t think that’s long-term off the table. I think there’s some people who would be curious to see what it looks like if he tried it again. They tried it right out of high school in right field. It didn’t go great. I I wouldn’t be shocked if down the line they’re like, “Let’s see what left field looks like.” um just because yeah, it is not a great roster construction, but for 2026, I think it’s fully doable to have those two guys in first base, DH, um and go from there. Yeah. Were you uh covering the Giants when Brandon Belt had his first outfield appearance? Yeah, I was I I wasn’t the beat writer in 2011, but I covered a lot of Brandon Belt in the outfield because that’s the first thing I think of. You’ve got this this massive tall lanky first baseman. Put him out there. We are absolutely going to have a baby giraffe moment in the first popup. And one of my favorite quotes from my book was when he he made he said he made like three great plays and he’s standing out in left field going I think I might be the best left fielder in best outer in the majors or something like that. So um it look I’ve covered Travis Chicago in left field. I’ve covered Brandon Belt in the outfield. Um it’s it’s it’s doable. It’s just I wouldn’t want to do that next year. I’ I’d want to be like, let’s get your feet wet. Let’s see how this deers and Elder thing goes at first and first and DH. Um, and let’s see what the bat looks like and then revisit down the line and and see where we need positional help. All right, one more question from Scott. Scott says, “Baseball America has three outfielders in their 2026 top 10 Giants prospects. Given the inability of Giants outfield prospects sticking in the majors minus Ramos and Reynolds, what’s the likelihood of seeing one of the three outfield prospects making the 2026 opening day roster? I saw Dakota Jordan a couple of times in San Jose last season. He looks like a player. We like Dakota Dakota. We’re think he’s a very good prospect. Um, do we know who off the top of our head who the three Well, yeah. I guess Dakota Jordan would be one of them. Bo Davidson and Arius. Um he’s pretty far away. So I I don’t think if we’re talking opening day here. No. Yeah. This isn’t like talking by the end of the year. We’re talking the question is opening day in an already crowded outfield situation. Well, there’s there’s an avenue for someone to come through, but no. I I think um not opening day and I’d even be a little surprised if it all in 26. Mhm. If just because they under Buster, under Randy Win, they they’ve been very deliberate about about uh these moves and and you know, they’ve kind of looked at it and gone this wasn’t maybe great rushing some guys like me heads, you know, all about this. Oh, yeah. So, I I think they’re going to be very slow and moving guys. Now, having said that, there’s always there’s always like the caveat that if someone wants to go nuts in double A and get that call up in May and go nuts there, sure, there’s a spot for you. But I think they’re going to be very slow. Um, and Arius in particular is pretty far away. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, there’s our mailbag questions. Alex, this is kind of our pseudo Thanksgiving episode considering we took uh last week down to one episode for the holiday. So, I just want to toss out a a quick uh we’re grateful for all of our listeners, all of the Giants fans who have been here on the podcast with us for uh the past how many years is it now that I’ve been doing this with you? At least five, four, was it? It wasn’t the co year. It was 21. 21. Wow. We started out with a bang, man. I think we really like we’re like we really hit on something here. We got it all figured out. Has not worked out. Um no, very appreciative. I I ran into multiple podcast listeners just being around over the last week and being out and about with the family. So, always fun. Um yeah, I that’s what I got. I think if you leave us reviews, leave us strong reviews places. That’s all we need. It’s a very easy just hit the five stars somewhere. That’s all we Absolutely. on the podcast, on the book. Um, good readads people, you guys are harsh, but if you’re there, Alex, I found out where I listen to my podcast now does comments. So, it’s like, “Oh, look, Spotify. I’m checking out comments from our our listeners.” Don’t ever want to read the comments. I just I think someone when my book came out, I think I was like a right away some I don’t know who this was. Someone very mean just hit it with one star just to drop it on Amazon. I was talking to a J person about that and they’re like, you know, you actually over time you probably want to be at like 4.8 4.9 so it doesn’t look like it’s like totally Oh yeah. So I think that’s our sweet spot. Everything we have if you let’s get us into that 4.8 4.9 range. Okay. So yeah, which we’re Yeah. So no more ones. Just we need some fives to get up to. But yeah, we’re very thankful. Um, this was our Thanksgiving episode a little bit and very appreciative and Giant Stock is doing well and allows us to keep doing this. Want to want to throw out another thank you to our uh producer and editor Pablo. Um, to our producer Ryan and everyone else behind the scenes who makes Giants Talk possible. Um, we have a lot of fun here and yeah, we we’ve we started out with a bang in the coal era of Giants Talk with 2021. I am ready for more seasons like that in our I was about to sound like you were about to say goodbye. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is my where I announce I’m done. You’re retired. I got poached by the Dodgers. Yeah. Uh it’s happened. Um, no. I think one one thing too this week we’re going to our plan this week is to have one official Monday pod and just we’re on emergency pod watch for the next like three weeks. So, we’ll no official Thursday pod this week unless something happens that we have to come back for. And we kind of want to, you know, leave that leave that space open now because we’re into the into the time when people start to sign and emergency season is almost here. Yes. Um but also we are going to do our our season and review show for uh podcast and TV. Um so if you have any ideas for categories um or any mailbag questions, as always uh send them our way. That’s I think categories. Let’s put put some pressure on us. Pick best oak. So yeah, world is ready. So season in review category, send them to us. Give us reviews wherever you listen to your podcast. Go by Alex’s book and leave leave him the most glowing review on Goodreads you’ve ever written. They’re harsh. And yeah, have a great rest of your offseason.

“Giants Talk” hosts Cole Kuiper and Alex Pavlovic offer updates on Tatsuya Imai and on San Francisco’s latest free-agent signings. Plus, a look at major deals around MLB so far.

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