San Francisco Giants avoid arbitration with all five eligible

The San Francisco Giants have a good history of avoiding the ever awkward salary arbitration hearings. Today, they continued that trend by agreeing to arbitration avoiding deals with all five of their arbitration eligible players.

Joe Panik headlined the 2018 class of San Francisco Giants who were up for arbitration. It was his first year eligible. According to Devan Fink at Beyond the Boxscore, the Giants and Panik settled with a one year deal at $3.45 million.

Panik came off an OK 2018 season. He started off slow, got hot, then got slow again. Panik has yet to return to his 2015 all-star form at the plate, while his glove

Panik’s deal is roughly $1.55 million below MLB Trade Rumor’s projection of $5million. COTS projected their Arbitration number to be around $15 million committed for the whole group, but the Giants official total committed was $13.45 million.

More from Around the Foghorn

• Atlanta claims SF Giants C Chadwick Tromp off waivers
• SF Giants: Could Johnny Cueto help down the stretch?
• SF Giants: Does Thairo Estrada have a role in 2022?
• SF Giants activate Alex Wood, option Sammy Long, and DFA Chadwick Tromp
• SF Giants: Hard-throwing reliever could be key in playoffs

The other players eligible for arbitration were all relievers. Sam Dyson, Corey Gearrin, Hunter Strickland, and Will Smith all received $2.5 million each according to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Smith didn’t pitch in 2017 thanks to Tommy John Surgery. Dyson pitched very well after changing scenes from Texas to San Francisco. Gearrin was arguably the Giants’ best reliever, and Strickland was good at angering Bryce Harper.

This now gives the Giants a very clear picture of how much money they’ll have going into this final stretch of free agency.

Next: Could Lorenzo Cain fall into the Giant's lap?

According to Shea’s article, they have roughly $15 million left to spend before they hit the Luxury Tax line. If they want to do multiple moves, It’s become clear that they’ll need to blow past that line a little bit. Time will tell what they do, but it might be worth it for them to go past just for this year.