SF Giants chairman Greg Johnson defends controversial offseason acquisition

The SF Giants caught a lot of flak from the fanbase in the offseason for acquiring the historic Curran Theatre rather than a top-shelf free agent. Giants chairman Greg Johnson defended the decision to buy the theater in a recent interview with Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.

Here is what Johnson had to say when asked about fans who may have been upset about the theater purchase:

"For us, it was an asset that fits in nicely with Giants Enterprises. We haven’t had the ability to have (events at) smaller venues. It’s additive in income that supports the payroll long term. Buying an asset doesn’t mean you just spent and lost that money. Hopefully we’ll have real income there, and that just helps the franchise."

SF Giants chairman defends Curran Theatre purchase

Basically, his point is that acquiring the theater will help support payroll in the long term. Maybe he's right. Perhaps however the Giants choose to use the theater and the events that are held there will provide some meaningful money to the franchise.

That is all well and good, but what it misses is the message and the timing of the theater purchase. News of the Giants acquiring the historic theater came about a week before Christmas last year. The Los Angeles Dodgers had already signed closer Edwín Díaz, they would sign Kyle Tucker a month later, and a lot of other big free agents were already off the board.

The Giants had yet to really do much of anything at that point as their two most interesting signings of the offseason, Luis Arraez and Harrison Bader, did not happen until 2026.

It's also important to keep in mind that the theater purchase came after Johnson basically shut down any notion that the Giants would go after one of the top free agent starting pitchers on the market.

The message seemed to yet again be: winning is secondary to making money.

To Johnson's credit, in both part one and part two of his interview with Baggarly, he did emphasize that on-the-field results are the main focus of the ownership group.

Yet, when starting pitcher Tyler Mahle gives up five runs in five innings of work like he did on Friday night, one cannot help but wonder how different the team would be if ownership supported the pursuit of an elite starter rather than shopping in the discount aisle.

Maybe Johnson is right that the theater will add a few million dollars to the payroll, but if the team is not willing to go after big free agents then what is the point?