SF Giants confirm fanbase's worst fears with payroll decision for 2025

After exceeding the luxury tax for the first time since 2018 this season, it appears the Giants don’t plan on treading back into those waters in 2025. Per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, this decision would leave Posey and GM Zack Minasian with “limited resources to spend this offseason — perhaps $30-40 million."

This is bad news for fans that wanted the Giants to spend toe-to-toe with the Dodgers and reemerge from being an NL West afterthought. Such a spending forecast would most likely mean they only have the means to pursue a shortstop and starting pitcher this offseason, and may even have to shed salaries elsewhere on the roster to accomplish that. Mike Yastrzemski’s projected $9-10 million arb salary could be one such cost-cutting move they consider.

SF Giants reportedly plan to slash payroll in 2025

Team chairman Greg Johnson told Baggarly when questioned for comment:

“(The Giants) never have a set budget, just a fairly wide range. The end number depends on plenty of movement between trades and free agents. Our goal is to try to field the most competitive team. It’s way too early in the process to set a number. We want to make smart baseball decisions that balance the short term and long term.”

That sounds like a lot of political speak, but the common man’s interpretation of those remarks basically boils down to, “we’ll get a couple guys, but don’t expect Soto.”

Ha-Seong Kim appears to be a major target of Posey’s even though he’s anticipated to miss all of April, and they may shop in the tier of free agent SP below Snell and Corbin Burnes – think Luis Severino or Nathan Eovaldi. The middle-of-the-order bat they’d need to have a prayer of contending next year would unfortunately not appear to be a realistic expectation. Instead, it seems a reset to see what they have in guys like Marco Luciano and Bryce Eldridge later in the year (not to mention Jung-Hoo Lee) is what’s in the offing.

A lesser need than a big slugger, but certainly still worthy of attention, is the Giants’ backup catcher situation. Certainly no one is more aware of the importance of having good catchers than Buster Posey. Patrick Bailey is fresh off a Gold Glove award, but his numbers fell off a cliff in the second half for the second straight season once he wore down.

To keep him fresh, it would be best if he only played every two out of three games or so, meaning his backup would receive quite a bit of playing time. Curt Casali received the second-most reps of all Giants backstops this year, but he now finds himself a free agent.

The two best internal options for the backup role as of now are Tom Murphy and Blake Sabol. Zaidi signed Murphy to an ill-advised multi-year deal last offseason, so he’s under contract for $4 million in 2025 with a club option at the same figure for 2026 that comes with a $250K buyout. That alone figures to give him the inside track on the job, seeing as it’s probably not worth what limited resources the Giants have to try and upgrade from him – at least before Opening Day. Even though the start to his Giants tenure was abysmal, Murphy has historically been a bat-first catcher who hits lefties especially well (122 career wRC+ against LHP), so seemingly he could be at least an adequate platoon option with Bailey.

The payroll constraints will be just one of a multitude of challenges Posey and Minasian face in quickly turning around the beleaguered Giants franchise. Most of the changes we see will probably be tweaks made on the periphery and behind the scenes – an ironically familiar hallmark of the Farhan Zaidi era.