SF Giants set to receive small bump in financial flexibility in 2025

This nugget is not necessarily unique to the SF Giants. However, the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) threshold will increase from $237 million in 2024 to $241 million in 2025.

SF Giants set to receive small bump in financial flexibility in 2025

This was negotiated in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that saw a pretty nice increase in the CBT threshold. The 2024 season will mark the fourth year of this CBA. In the final year, the CBT threshold will increase to $244 million.

$4 million sounds like a relatively small increase in baseball terms. However, it could become a meaningful amount for a team like the Giants. It should be noted that the CBT threshold applies to all teams, but in theory, it is really only applicable to the big-market clubs.

Teams like the Tampa Bay Rays and Colorado Rockies will rarely approach a number even remotely close to the CBT threshold. According to Cot's, the Rays committed $104.2 million against the CBT cap in 2024.

On the other hand, the Giants committed $250.8 million against the CBT cap last season. They will pay a penalty on the overage. However, this could have a downstream effect on the organization if they sign a player who rejects a qualifying offer. The penalty for doing so becomes stiffer

The Giants only have a few contracts coming off of the books this winter. Michael Conforto, Mark Canha, and Curt Casali lead the group of unrestricted free agents. Of course, Blake Snell will opt out of the remainder of his two-year, $62 million pact.

His contract carried a cap hit of $31 million in 2024, so that is a sizable contract coming off of the books. Conforto's cap hit of $18 million will create some flexibility as well. The Giants also manufactured even more flexibility by shipping Jorge Soler to the Atlanta Braves in the first year of a three-year, $42 million contract.

There is no word yet as to what the Giants' budget will be set at in 2025. Teams often do not like to be repeat offenders of the CBT threshold as the penalties increase if it occurs in successive seasons.

However, with Buster Posey heading the front office, the Giants will likely continue to be aggressive in free agency. They hope to have more success with some of the top names than they did in recent offseasons. Regardless, the Giants should have just a little more payroll flexibility in 2025 thanks to the CBA. Whether they use it or not remains to be seen.