2017 FanSided Winter Meetings Sim: San Francisco Giants Results

The 2017 FanSided Winter Meetings are officially over and boy was that a wild 72 hours. The San Francisco Giants certainly have undergone a massive makeover in this simulation.

The San Francisco Giants were represented to the best of my abilities in this simulation. As stated in our article introducing the concept of this simulation, there were specific rules we had to follow. Everything had to be done with the current 40 man roster as the resting point. We also could add no more than the 15% to last year’s opening day total. There was a super-agent to handle all free agent deals, and a commissioner to handle all trades and corresponding roster moves.

As mentioned in the intro article as well, acquiring Giancarlo Stanton was virtually impossible, mainly because the Marlins real GM and the Marlins GM for the sim didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye on what package works to acquire Stanton. The GM for the sim was more interested in the prospect packages than he was the money. From reports now, it’s pretty clear the Marlins value the salary relief the most. So Stanton was not an option. Otherwise I would’ve made the two trades (one to free salary, one to acquire Stanton) and called it good and done with. So here we are.

The first official move I made was actually to give Madison Bumgarner a massive (well deserved) contract extension. The deal agreed upon was a 7 year, $220.5 million dollar contract starting in the 2019 season. It also comes with a team option for the 8th year, at $25 million with a $4 million buyout.

That way he counts for $12 million in 2018, and we can add salary this year since a lot was coming off the back end after 2018. That was the easy move. Here are more moves that ended up happening.

Big Trade Number One

If I wanted to make a lot of moves to shore up all of the deficiencies the team had, I first had to clear salary. The Rangers stepped up to the plate and were willing to not have to enter the sweepstakes for Yu Darvish and Wade Davis. So what did the Giants get in return? Well, Alex Claudio immediately steps in and helps fix the Giants issue of no lefty relievers in the bullpen. The Giants are down a closer sure, but Sam Dyson costs significantly less, and did an admirable job in that role when Melancon went down. My money would be on Sam Dyson to get back to himself.

Claudio pitched 80 innings, but wasn’t used as a closer until the latter part of the season. In 160 innings at the big league level, he’s never posted above a 3.00 ERA, has a career WHIP of 1.152 and a career K/BB ratio of 3.34/1. Claudio gets the job done and would be a great addition to the Giants pen.

Yohander Mendez was the prime prospect in this deal. He’s the Rangers number four prospect according to MLBPipeline, and the number 10 LHP prospect overall. The 22 year old is about ready to hit the big leagues and brings a nasty fastball/changeup combo with solid offerings of a slider and curveball. He’s 6’5″, lanky and has a whole lot of promise in him. The Giants would do well to add some legitimacy to their pitching prospects, and Mendez does that while potentially contributing at the back end of the rotation in 2018.

The remaining prospects added were Pedro Gonzales, a toolsy young outfielder who was originally an international signing by the Rockies. He was acquired by the Rangers in the Lucroy trade. The 20 year old outfielder stands at 6’5″ and put up really good numbers with the Rockies’ Short-A team in Grand Junction, Colorado. He played in only six games with the Indians organization.

Josh Altmann was a late round pick out of an NAIA school named Olivet Nazarene University in the 2015 draft. That’s the same school where Ben Zobrist came from. Altmann, like Zobrist, can play almost every position except the battery positions, and has a decent bat. If he can find consistent success at the plate, he could very well be another Zobrist.

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.

MORE TRADES!

I was looking at landing another outfielder. Like I said, the more big bats the better. So I thought I’d inquire about another bat, Corey Dickerson. I also thought it would be nice to bolster the bullpen a bit, so I also inquired with the Rays about Jose Alvarado. Another lefty reliever that is young, but had a fantastic year in 2017. The asking price back from them was Panik, Slater, and Strickland for the two. But I asked about what it would take to land Odorizzi as part of the package, and I was able to only add Kelvin Beltre in order to land the three. Deal done.

I know what you’re thinking. “Why trade Joe Panik?!” Well, the Giants do have Christian Arroyo and he probably profiles better as a second baseman than third (he does, I promise), and with the addition of Dickerson, he’d likely get no playing time. His stock is sky high, so we could turn him into a legit young pitcher in Odorizzi and Corey Dickerson. Two proven players who have a much higher ceiling together than Slater does.

Again, this is a simulation for a reason. So don’t go crazy. It’s fake. I tried to make the team better in almost every single place. These last two trades tried to get better bang for the buck at these respective positions. So here we go. First up, after losing Panik, I was still bullish on just throwing Arroyo out there to the wolves at second base. So I found someone who wanted a 1B, and was offering their 2B. Enter Jason Kipnis. Brandon Belt‘s contract is quite large for a guy who is really good when he plays, but is just so inconsistently healthy, and frankly quite streaky. So the Indians and I swapped Jason Kipnis and Brandon Belt.

After that, we needed a 1B, because Chris Shaw quite frankly isn’t able to step right in. For some reason the A’s GM got Matt Adams in a trade with the Atlanta Braves. So with the starting rotation a little overboard on the 40 man roster, and the A’s the perfect place for a struggling pitcher to get back on his feet with little pressure, Matt Moore got shipped to the A’s with some cash. I was one of those annoyed at the fact they picked up Moore’s option. With Odorizzi and Chacin in the rotation now, it feels a little better set up for the long term.