Giants aim for late wins in rough offseason Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports 7:57 p.m. EST December 22, 2014 122214-sabean-file (Photo: Ed Szczepanski, USA TODAY Sports) 10 CONNECT 20 TWEET LINKEDIN COMMENT EMAIL MORE SAN FRANCISCO – After getting his first taste of the free agent market, reliever Sergio Romo gushed about the chance to come back to the San Francisco Giants on a two-year, $15 million contract. Man, do you realize how lucky and blessed you really are? Romo recalled telling teammates after the October parade celebrating the Giants third World Series in five years. Maybe that message is not getting across to other players. Despite enjoying the most glorious spell in the franchises history – in New York or San Francisco – the Giants have endured a disappointing, puzzling offseason. USA TODAY Hot stove: MLB free agent tracker As an organization that takes pride in retaining its own talent, the Giants were crestfallen when homegrown third baseman Pablo Sandoval spurned their offer of five years and $95 million for a similar deal with the Boston Red Sox. Then marquee free agent Jon Lester turned them down to cast his lot with the Chicago Cubs – who have not won a championship in more than a century – even though the years and money were in the same range. San Franciscos next target, right-hander James Shields, remains unsigned, apparently not swayed by the prospect of performing at pitching-friendly AT&T Park for the club that beat him twice in the World Series. And power-hitting Cuban outfielder Yasmany Tomas, whom the Giants pursued, instead chose the Arizona Diamondbacks offer of six years and $68.5 million. USA TODAY Baseball impact of USA-Cuba thaw may take years Clearly, three championship rings and a full house every night dont hold the appeal they once did. To which general manager Brian Sabean says, hey, their loss. Our situations unique, Sabean said in a conference call. Its not a star system. Everybodys a link in the chain, and weve had success doing it that way. In my mind, if they havent signed here, theyve missed out or theyre going to miss out. The Giants will miss the star power and game-breaking potential of the popular Sandoval, especially in the postseason. In his stead, they traded two pitching prospects to the Miami Marlins for Casey McGehee, a Northern California native who in some ways outperformed Sandoval last season. Resurrecting his career in the majors after a season in Japan, McGehee batted .287 with four homers, 76 RBI and a .712 OPS in 160 games. Sandoval hit .279 with 16 homers, 73 RBI and a .739 OPS in 157 games while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense. The addition of McGehee settles the starting infield, with Brandon Belt at first, Joe Panik at second and Brandon Crawford at shortstop. The Giants were hoping to get some utility work out of Marco Scutaro, who had only 13 plate appearances in 2014 because of back woes, but Sabean said he underwent back-fusion surgery on Friday and will need 4-6 months to recover. At 39, Scutaros career may be over. USA TODAY Giants acquire Casey McGehee from Marlins With the free-agent departure of Michael Morse, whom the Giants didnt try hard to retain, left field is in flux. The current candidates to share time at the position are Gregor Blanco, NLCS hero Travis Ishikawa and Juan Perez, although Sabean said, Were still looking to deepen our lineup to get more offense. The biggest question mark, however, remains the rotation, the backbone of the first two championship teams. Even with the return of Jake Peavy expected to be announced Tuesday – he has agreed to a two-year, $24 million contract – there are doubts that San Franciscos pitching can match up with the staffs of division rivals like the Los Angeles Dodgers or the much-improved San Diego Padres. Madison Bumgarner has established himself as an elite starter, but Matt Cain is coming off the worst record of his career – one cut short by elbow surgery – Tim Lincecum hasnt logged an ERA below 4.35 since 2011 and both Peavy and Tim Hudson carry lots of mileage. Thats why adding a second ace in Lester was so alluring, and why Shields might still make sense at the right price. Perhaps he should consult with Romo, who was thrilled with the notion of rejoining Santiago Casilla, Jeremy Affeldt and Javier Lopez in San Franciscos solid bullpen. All four participated in the three championship runs and know how special a time this has been. Romo, who returned to his old setup role in midseason, said he had chances to get a closer job elsewhere but opted to return to the place that has been home for seven seasons. You have to go to a place where youre happy and youre excited to go to work every day, he said.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 04:00:24 +0000