2017 FanSided Winter Meetings Sim: San Francisco Giants Results

Free Agent Acquisitions

With the Giants Projected $187 million payroll getting cut down to roughly 148 million, there was plenty of room for me to do some damage in the free agent market. The money was better spent spread around than on one big piece. So here are the free agent signings I ended up making:

CF Austin Jackson, 3 years/$30 million 

The Giants needed center field help, and Austin Jackson can provide that. A three year deal was critical, mainly because that gives Steven Duggar ample time to either hit the big leagues, or don’t. If Duggar doesn’t hit the big leagues by then, the San Francisco Giants have the following options available in the 2021 offseason: Mike Trout, Kevin Pillar, Jackie Bradley Jr., Joc Pederson, Michael Taylor, Jake Marisnick, and Randal Grichuck.

3B Todd Frazier, 4 years/$56million

I would have liked to pay less for Todd Frazier, but in order to beat the competition, $14 million had to do the trick. Because of the inability to get Giancarlo Stanton, it was crucial to upgrade the power hitting ability in as many of the areas as possible. Todd Frazier is the perfect 7  or 8 hitter. He doesn’t hit for average, but when he does, it goes boom. If you keep players with a high enough OBP in front of him, then you can end up driving a whole lot of runs out of that spot in the lineup. One thing that stuck out with Frazier is he’s the best 3B available defensively. I could’ve gone for a cheap one year option, in order to hold out and get Nolan Arenado next year, but none were of enough quality to get me through the year. Saving a few million a year helped me in other places.

OF Carlos Gonzalez, 4 years/$40 million

Carlos Gonzalez has to have a few years left in him. He’s one of the best outfielders in baseball when he’s rolling and he has always killed the Giants in the past. Keeping him away from NL Rivals like the Cardinals and Rockies was important. CarGo’s ability to bounce back from bad seasons was taken into account. The fact that he can also play a good defensive game is big too. A few years left in him, at $10 million a year is pretty nice. He had a rough 2017, but he’s too good to collapse like that for long.

RHP Jhoulys Chacin, 4 years/$28 million

Another Giant killer in the past, Jhoulys Chacin, was an initial pickup to help load at least one solid major league arm back onto the roster. He has a career ERA under 4, and had his best season since 2013 last season. His time with the Diamondbacks, Angels, and Padres was plagued by injuries until last year. While his K/BB ratio could be a bit better, he’s a solid get at $7million AAV. Spotrac.com has his Market Value nearly $5million higher than that.

It must be considered, that at the time of making this signing, I was anticipating a back end rotation behind Cueto of, Moore and whoever steps up. I didn’t see the type of deal developing that did happen, but we’ll get to those deals in a bit. The last few free agent deals of course need to be announced.

C Chris Iannetta, 2 Years/$4 million 

Look, I wanted to keep Hundley around, but things happened and I got forced to move on. Apparently the Blue Jays really wanted Nick Hundley. Not sure why, but they do. Jonathon Lucroy and the other top catchers on the market are more of first choice options, the Giants needed someone to accept being a backup to Buster Posey, not be the everyday guy. Iannetta is a veteran, who hit about as good, if not better than Hundley last year. He’d be good for 40-50 games a season.