Span finds a home a long way from home
SEATTLE — “Every player wants to feel wanted,” said a man who was told in the harshest possible way that he was not wanted, twice in the span of five months.
Now, Denard Span plays for a team in a playoff position that did want him and thought he would make it better.
When the Giants visit Safeco Field on Tuesday night for the first of two games against the Mariners, chances are they will face Span, the 34-year-old outfielder they sent to Tampa Bay in November as a salary offset when they acquired Evan Longoria.
The Giants did not want Span anymore and the Rays didn’t want him, either, and told him as much. The situation was unsettling, but at least Span was home in Tampa, surrounded by family to help him and his wife, Anne, care for their 8-month-old son.
Span looked at the bright side until the Rays sucked the light
“All of a sudden (to) have your world flipped upside down for the second time in five months, it was difficult.” Denard Span, former Giants outfielder, now with Mariners
out of the room May 25 and traded him with reliever Alex Colome to Seattle, the farthest outpost from Span’s home that they could have picked. Another salary dump. Span was in shock when the Rays’ execs broke the news. He asked them, “You couldn’t find anything closer?”
“We were home. I was in Tampa,” Span said by phone during the All-Star break. “I wouldn’t say everything was all great, but being home and having support for my wife while I was on the road was unbelievable. It was a great experience.
“To have that for a glimpse and then all of a sudden have your world flipped upside down for the second time in five months, it was difficult.”
Until Span realized how he would fit in Seattle. He is more or less the everyday left fielder, not asked to play center or bat leadoff as he was with the Giants. He usually hits fifth through eighth.
In his first 38 games for Seattle leading into the All-Star break, Span hit .310 with an .842 OPS.
“Denard’s a really good player,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s why we signed him.
“I was happy for him when he was going to Tampa. He was going home. I knew his mom, a wonderful lady. I thought about him when he went to Seattle. At the same time, the team is doing really well and has a chance to get to the postseason, get to the World Series. I’m happy for him in that regard.”
The Mariners are feeling the heat generated by Oakland, but much of 2018 has been a magiccarpet ride for the team that has gone the longest without reaching the postseason, 16 years.
Their No. 1 starter, Felix Hernandez, has not been good. Second baseman Robinson Cano was busted for performance-enhancing drugs and suspended 80 games. Yet they were winning big.
Span got to feel that in San Francisco for his first halfseason with the Giants, in 2016, before a summer dive and early playoff exit. Span’s second and final season brought 98 losses.
The Giants thought they needed a better third baseman and dealt for Longoria. With Steven Duggar on the horizon, and the need to make revenueneutral deals to stay under the luxury-tax cap, the Giants had the Rays take Span and most of his $11 million salary in return for taking Christian Arroyo and two prospects.
Span said at the time and reiterated last week that he wanted to stay in San Francisco.
“I was motivated,” he said. “I wanted to rewrite the team’s wrongs. I can’t say my wrongs. As a team, we failed. Individually, I knew I could perform better. I was looking forward to getting that opportunity.”
He is getting his opportunity in Seattle after two teams decided they could do without him.
“Every player wants to feel wanted,” he said. “It was a different offseason for me, being traded from San Francisco to Tampa. I was just put in a situation where I was getting passed off here, passed off there and finally getting traded to a team that was in first place at the time.
“Even though I was moving across country, I quickly got excited and got motivated of that one factor, going to a team to help them win. It feels good, especially coming down the stretch, to be in the thick of things and playing for something. At this point in my career, this is what I want.”