The San Francisco Giants have a lot of work to do this offseason. They must spend money to get back to being a highly competitive team. Giants chairman Greg Johnson spoke with The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly recently, and Johnson said that the SF Giants will do what it takes to put a "highly competitive" team on the field.
Johnson said the Giants would spend what it took. He used the numbers $175 million and $180 million, and said "or higher than that." While on the one hand it's not great to hear him point to exact numbers that aren't particularly high, it is nice to hear Johnson say the Giants will do whatever it takes. Now they must go into the offseason and prove it.
Locked On Giants estimates that the Giants will spend about $103 million on about 22 players when all the dust settles in terms of team and player options and arbitration raises. This means the SF Giants could re-sign Carlos Rodón for $22.5 million per year and still only have about a $125 million payroll. This leaves plenty of room for a marquee addition like Aaron Judge (likely to command about $35 million per year) or Trea Turner ($30+ million per year) and still come in below the numbers Johnson referenced. Another significant addition, perhaps Brandon Nimmo at $20 million per year, would push them up against those $175-180 million numbers.
Johnson also gave a vote of confidence to Giants' president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. While this season hasn't gone as hoped, Johnson still believes in Zaidi and the direction of the team. Ultimately, the first two seasons were destined to be losing ones regardless. In 2020 the Giants actually showed signs of real promise. They carried that into 2021 and won a franchise record 107 games. So in reality, there's only been one truly disappointing season under Zaidi, and it's this one. He more than deserves at least one more year, but there is now a lot of pressure on the team to have a big offseason.
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The best daily San Francisco Giants podcast. Whether the Giants are winning championships or retooling for another title run, Locked On Giants host Ben Kaspick—a lifelong Giants fan and former contributor for RotoGraphs and Beyond the Box Score—breaks down every game, rumor, and transaction in a way that's data-driven and rational but also simple, passionate, and accessible to all.
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