San Francisco Giants Need to Learn from Mark Melancon Signing

With free agency in full swing for Major League Baseball, the San Francisco Giants need to keep the signing of Mark Melancon in mind.

A couple of offseasons ago the San Francisco Giants signed reliever Mark Melancon to a four-year, $62 million deal.

The deal paid him $9 million in 2017, a whopping $20 million in 2018, and $14 million over the next two seasons.

At the time the deal seemed like a no-brainer for the San Francisco Giants as they desperately needed bullpen help and Melancon had just posted a 1.64 ERA in 71.1 innings pitched with 47 saves between Pittsburgh and Washington.

However, in his two seasons with the Giants he has a 3.78 ERA in 69 innings pitched with 14 saves.

That is certainly not the type of production the Giants were hoping for when they signed the then 32-year-old reliever.

I am one who is never in favor of giving big money to relievers.

For one, you can typically find a great reliever in your farm system. A young arm that maybe won’t cut it as a starter in the big leagues, suddenly you put him in a bullpen role and his stuff is electric. We see it almost every year.

Second, relievers are unreliable from year-to-year. There are very few relief pitchers that are dominant for a four-year stretch. The lifespan of a great reliever seems to be really short, and it doesn’t help that the Giants signed Melancon for the back-end of his career.

I’m not saying it is a bad idea to every sign a free agent reliever. In fact, the San Francisco Giants need to sign a couple of relievers this offseason.

But I am completely opposed to giving big years and dollars to the top relievers. I would much rather that money be allocated to a bat or starting pitcher in the offseason.

Every year a reliever is going to emerge that contenders can trade for at the trade deadline for peanuts. It’s so much easier to build a bullpen during the season than in the offseason.

Hopefully the San Francisco Giants will learn from their mistake of signing Melancon and avoid the top free agent relievers this offseason.