Blake Snell and Corbin Burnes' comments reveal sad truth about SF Giants

In the past week or so, Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell and Diamondbacks pitcher Corbin Burnes have spoken about the relative lack of interest they received from the SF Giants in free agency. This reveals a sad truth about the Giants.

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle did some great reporting, getting both Burnes and Snell to speak about their experiences with the Giants in free agency.

In her article about Burnes (subscription required), she quotes him as saying, "We had some teams that were aggressive. The Giants weren’t one of them. They were just kind of slow, dragging their feet."

The article on Snell (subscription required) also did not reflect the best on the Giants with the lefty saying, "The Giants didn’t even talk to me. It was surprising — I thought they really liked me.”

Snell and Burnes comments reveal sad truth about SF Giants

Really, these comments are emblematic of something that was reported on early during the offseason about the Giants ownership group's desire to cut payroll and not exceed the luxury tax threshold.

Giants beat reporter Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic wrote in a recent mailbag article (subscription required), "As we reported in November, the Giants weren’t going to support a payroll that would budget two major free agents at market rates. So a $300 million deal was out of the question for them."

In essence, ownership was willing to let newly minted president of baseball operations Buster Posey spend a little bit as evidenced by them allowing Posey to sign shortstop Willy Adames to the richest contract in franchise history, but they drew a line in the sand that Posey was not allowed to cross.

That is what prevented the Giants from making a serious run at Snell or Burnes. Instead, the Giants opted for a much more affordable one-year contract with veteran Justin Verlander.

This approach may prove prudent. Giving exorbitant deals to pitchers on the wrong side of 30 has a way of coming back to bite one in the rear, so opting for a less aggressive (some would say cheaper) approach could have some benefits.

Nonetheless, it can be discouraging when reminded of the ownership group's reluctance to spend whatever it takes especially compared to what the Evil Empire down south has been doing.

Yet, this is the reality of what the Giants are able to do under this current ownership group. Despite the self-imposed payroll cuts, the Giants still have a solid roster that may be capable of surprising some people in 2024 as evidenced by their solid start in spring training.

The Giants are going to see a lot of Burnes and Snell over the next several years, and the best way to prove that they were right not to sign them will be by lighting them up whenever they face them.