San Francisco Giants: Get creative and pursue Max Scherzer

Baseball Insider’s Jon Heyman posted a provocative article November 11th, on Max Scherzer, that could not help but pique San Francisco Giants fans’ interest, and get them collectively salivating at the thought of adding the 30-year-old right-handed stater to the rotation. Fairy tales can come true, that old expression goes, but there’s nothing wrong with hoping, even though the deck would appear to be stacked against the Orange and Black.

Scherzer is the best of the free agent batch, which includes Jon Lester and James Shields. Not only is Scherzer younger, his wear and tear is considerably less than the other two, and the idea of him taking his 18-5 record from 2014, and pitching at AT&T Park, in 2015, is a tantalizing one indeed.

Is it just a pipe dream? Reportedly, by not signing Pablo Sandoval, and trying to stay within a 149 million dollar cap, management would have 127 million dollars headed to twelve Giants, with 22 million left over for the remaining thirteen players, eight of whom are eligible for arbitration. With Bruce Bochy’s announcement that Yusmeiro Petit will remain in the long relief roll, the Giants will need a fifth starter. It does not take a math wizard to deduct that there is no room in the budget for Max Scherzer, or really, any number five starter who would command a hefty contract.

Brian Sabean has been a wizard for the Giants for seventeen seasons now. Is there room in his hat for one more rabbit, one named Max?  Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

But the team does require five starters-says so in the manual. I have never been one to suggest unreasonable courses of action for either Brian Sabean or Bruce Bochy, because there is just too much, about which I know nothing, including how the Giants’ brass goes about setting payroll caps and other money matters.

What I do know is that the 149 million dollar ceiling was 2014’s cap, established before the successful run to the World Series title, the third in five years. The Giants have always built the foundation of the team’s success with excellent pitching, and Max Scherzer would be a stellar cornerstone of that foundation.

One thing I know: It takes bling to make rings.

I do know that teams that play in all of those playoff games, derive added income from sources such as television revenue, ticket sales, merchandizing and all of the embellishments that accompany success.

And I do know that it takes money to make money. With the San Francisco Giants being operated by the same corps of engineers that brought fans Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan, and Jake Peavy, and signed stars Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Hunter Pence and Matt Cain to long-term contracts, I know anything is possible.

Max Scherzer is attracting very little attention, suggests Heyman, because maybe he is simply too good, and that has kept clubs at bay, knowing the price of poker will start high. Again, I do not know which hoops must be jumped though in order to accomplish the feat of landing Scherzer, I only know that there should be plenty of headspace to allow the Giants to leap through those hoops.

It’s funny how jumping though big hoops, leads to the acquisition of small hoops, otherwise known as World Series rings.