LAS VEGAS – The Giants have long been viewed as one of the primary threats to the Yankees when it comes to signing Aaron Judge this offseason.
Without specifically mentioning the name of the Yankees slugger, San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi made it clear on Wednesday that money will not be an issue as he attacks the free-agent market.
“I don’t think from a financial standpoint there’s nobody that would be out of our capability to kind of meet what we expect the contract demands will be,” Zaidi said at the General Managers Meetings. “Then it’ll just be a question of whether there’s mutual interest and how we put together the best possible team.”
Zaidi said that while there is “no explicit ceiling” on what the Giants might spend this offseason, “that doesn’t mean we have just a completely blank check.” The Giants are expected to be one of the most active teams in free agency this winter, as they have a number of areas to address and tremendous financial flexibility with the payroll.
“At some point, it’s going to become a factor,” Zaidi said of free-agent prices. “As we’re evaluating multiple players, we’re going to be thinking about at some point it’s going to be more difficult to add payroll. But we’re not there right now.”
The Padres have some work to do this offseason when it comes to free agency and the trade market, but GM AJ Preller knows there are two internal issues that might come up, as well – namely, extension conversations with both Juan Soto and Yu Darvish.
Having traded six players for Soto and Josh Bell in August, Preller plans to sit down with Soto and agent Scott Boras “at the right time” in order to “get a sense of what’s important to them.”
“Part of that is probably financial,” Preller said. “A big part of that is what he’s looking to do from a contract situation and where that takes us. We’ll sit down and have those conversations, see where it goes.”
Boras said Wednesday he expects the Padres to engage with him in contract talks for Soto at some point.
“I don’t think it’s a question of ‘if’ they’ll do that,” Boras said. “I think the question is how they do that. I’m sure before they traded for him, they had a lot of that in mind.”
Soto hit six home runs with 16 RBIs and a .778 OPS in 52 games for the Padres, but Preller believes 2023 will be a better year for the 24-year-old, who will be more settled in and have a chance to experience a full, normal season in San Diego.
“I think the atmosphere that we saw in Petco in the playoffs, that’s the atmosphere that he wants to play in,” Preller said. “I think the biggest thing with Juan is just the excitement and the anticipation of having him for a full season and not having to make that adjustment.”
Darvish had a solid 2022 season, going 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA in 194 2/3 innings. The 36-year-old has one year and $18 million remaining on his contract, and while the Padres are expected to pursue rotation help this offseason, both Darvish and Blake Snell are set to become free agents next year. Locking up Darvish to an extension for another two years could help stabilize the rotation for the near future.
“There’s interest in him being in San Diego for an extended period of time,” Preller said. “It’s getting to see what he’s interested in, what he wants. I think he enjoyed San Diego. He has family there, he’s enjoyed being there, and I think he enjoys the team. We’ll continue having conversations in the offseason. The biggest thing with Yu is he understands how much we value him. He had a great year. I think the interest is mutual.”
Will signs impact signing?
With Trea Turner on the free-agent market, the Dodgers could be looking for a new shortstop this offseason. The position is stacked beyond Turner, as Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts and Dansby Swanson are also free agents.
Baseball-wise, Correa would be a logical candidate in Los Angeles, but given the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal and the feelings it has left on the Dodgers fan base, would Correa be a good fit?
“I think it’s taking into account the talent level, kind of figuring out where the market is on what the contract will ultimately look like, and do we feel like that’s a fit for us?” Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said. “From the talent-level piece, we’ll try to stay objective with the talent level, and then the other stuff we’ll take on as it becomes more real or not. Then we’ll start to sift through what is what.”
A source suggested that the Dodgers are highly unlikely to pursue Correa, however, as the Astros scandal made him hugely unpopular with the fans in LA
Thursday afternoon is the deadline for teams to extend qualifying offers to their free agents, and while many clubs are still weighing their options on the matter, some have already made their intentions known.
Players accepting a qualifying offer are locked in for a one-year, $19.65 million contract for the 2023 season. Players rejecting the offer remain free agents, able to sign with any of the 30 clubs. Should the player sign with a new team, his former team then receives Draft-pick compensation.
The Dodgers might wind up making a qualifying offer to Tyler Anderson, while the Rangers were mulling the same for Martín Pérez. Given the dearth of high-end starting pitching on this year’s free-agent market, the price for rotation help might be steep.
One free agent who will not be receiving a qualifying offer is Mariners outfielder Mitch Haniger, who had a big season in 2021 but only played 57 games in 2022 due to injuries.
Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said his goal is to bring Haniger back, although “it remains to be seen if that’s a reality” once free agency begins on Thursday.
“He likes our team; he likes where we are, he likes how our situation has evolved,” Dipoto said. “I think he appreciates playing in Seattle. All of those things I think give us some type of advantage, but at the end of the day, free agency is a bit of a crapshoot.
“We have a lot of needs that we would like to fill and we’d like to have as much flexibility in doing that as we can. That would be a sizeable one-year commitment; we would prefer to work out something that makes a little bit more sense for us and hopefully for Mitch, too.”
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