The San Francisco Giants ended their season in their 34th total blown save of 2016. A lot of their (really bad) bullpen in 2016 is walking this offseason. Coincidentally, three of the best closers are hitting the market, in a weak free agency class. The rumors on the Giants are flying around now, and here is the biggest.
The San Francisco Giants need a closer. Mark Melancon is a closer. Mark Melancon, meet the Giants. Giants, meet Mark Melancon. Well, that happened within the first 48 hours of free agency. And Melancon had high praise for the Giants organization afterwords.
The MLB Collective Bargaining Agreement put a hold on many negotiations for everyone around the league, especially the significant free agents. Now, that it’s in place, the Giants know where they stand financially. The Giants have enough room to get this deal done. It remains to be seen if they can do any others, or add to their payroll significantly. It looks like Melancon may be the only Giants signing, based upon the money involved.
According to Ken Rosenthal, The Giants have the strongest offer for Melancon, which is believed to be roughly 4yrs/$60 Million. That’s $15M/yr AAV for a closer. A little more than Pabelbon, and significantly more than Mariano Rivera or Trevor Hoffman ever sniffed. Still, welcome to the current market.
More sources have the San Francisco Giants and Melancon closer than “the strongest offer.” It sounds like it might be a matter of pen and paper.
Now, take Shapiro with a grain of salt. A radio guy from Denver, most likely, doesn’t have a source. Taking a look at earlier tweets, he’s just salty the Rockies didn’t sign him. I wouldn’t quote him as an official source.
Now, another wrinkle into this is the fact that Jon Heyman believes it’s just the Giants and Nationals in the running for Melancon.
The biggest kicker here is the Washington Post’s Jorge Castillo Claiming that the Nationals are out of the running for Melancon.
And last but not least, as I’m writing this, Rosenthal tweets this:
So with the Nationals out, and the Giants still with the best offer on the table, it seems like it’s all but the pen and paper. The Giants are going to spend a lot of money for a closer. The Giants though, absolutely need this closer.
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