Giants: Remembering the 2012-13 MLB offseason transactions

With the 2019-20 MLB offseason right around the corner, let’s take a look back at how the San Francisco Giants fared in recent offseasons. Next up, the 2012-13 offseason.

A busy offseason awaits for the San Francisco Giants as they embark on the next step in the rebuilding process under team president Farhan Zaidi.

Before things kick into high gear, we’re taking a look back at offseasons past.

We’ve already looked back on the 2009-10 offseason, 2010-11 offseason and 2011-12 offseason, so we’re on to the winter leading up to the 2013 campaign.

After winning a second World Series title in three years, the team’s focus during the 2012-13 offseason was on re-upping with several core pieces.

Here’s a closer look at all of the notable moves the team made that winter:

Notable Free Agency Departures

• OF Melky Cabrera
• RP Clay Hensley
• 1B/OF Aubrey Huff
• RP Guillermo Mota
• RP Brad Penny
• 2B Freddy Sanchez
• IF Ryan Theriot
• RP Brian Wilson

The most notable free agent in this group was Melky Cabrera, who hit .346/.390/.516 with 46 extra-base hits before he was hit with a PED suspension that kept him out of action during the team’s postseason run. He wound up inking a two-year, $16 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Clay Hensley (60 G, 4.62 ERA), Guillermo Mota (26 G, 5.23 ERA)  and Brad Penny (22 G, 6.11 ERA) all posted mediocre numbers out of the bullpen, while Ryan Theriot (476 PA, 83 OPS+) lost his job to Marco Scutaro at midseason.

Meanwhile, injuries cut into the production of Aubrey Huff (95 PA, .192 BA, 77 OPS+) and Brian Wilson (2 G, 9.00 ERA) after they served as key contributors during the team’s 2010 title run.

Notable Free Agency Additions

• OF Angel Pagan (4 years, $40 million)—re-signed
• 2B Marco Scutaro (3 years, $20 million)—re-signed
• RP Jeremy Affeldt (3 years, $18 million)—re-signed
• OF Andres Torres (1 year, $2 million)
• RP Chad Gaudin (MiLB deal)

The Giants spent big to bring back table-setters Angel Pagan (154 G, 120 OPS+, 29 SB, 95 R) and Marco Scutaro (61 G, 144 OPS+, .362 BA, 20 XBH) after they played a pivotal role in the team’s offensive attack during the 2012 season.

In hindsight, the Giants probably would have been better served to let someone else pay for that 2012 performance, but at the time re-upping with both of them made perfect sense.

On the other hand, Jeremy Affeldt (67 G, 16 HLD, 2.70 ERA) proved well worth the three-year deal he signed.

Over the life of that deal, he posted a 3.69 ERA with 38 in 153 appearances, and he worked 11.2 scoreless innings with two wins and three holds in 11 appearances during the 2014 postseason.

The reunion with Andres Torres (300 PA, 84 OPS+) didn’t bear much fruit, while Chad Gaudin (30 G, 3.06 ERA) made good on a minor league deal in what would be the final MLB season of his career.

Notable Trades

• None

No significant trades were made during the 2012-13 offseason, though the Giants did claim reliever Hunter Strickland off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the beginning of April.

Despite doing their best to keep the core intact, the San Francisco Giants finished a disappointing 76-86 during the 2013 season, leaving them a distant third in the NL West standings. Up next, we’ll take a look at the moves they made before a bounce-back season in 2014.