Why Giants didn’t get Stanton.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. » Even as he donned the pinstripes for the first time, slugger Giancarlo Stanton took one last swing on behalf of the Giants-Dodgers rivalry.
The newest Yankees outfielder acknowledged Monday that growing up a Dodgers fan played at least a small role in his reluctance to wave his no-trade clause and come to San Francisco.
“I’d say a little bit,’’ Stanton said here, at an introductory press conference to help kick off the winter meetings. “I wouldn’t base a decision off that, but I also wouldn’t want to go to the team that (the Dodgers) disliked the most.
“And I wasn’t sure if they were going to beat that team, either.”
Stanton, 28, grew up in Sherman Oaks. And before the Yankees reeled him in with a trade last week, it was believed that Stanton was trying to push for a trade to his hometown Dodgers.
The power-starved Giants sure wanted him. They worked out a trade with the Marlins contingent on Stanton waiving his no-trade clause. That’s
where things stalled, even if — as his agent Joel Wolfe noted Monday — Stanton never officially told the Giants no.
The sticking point, Stanton said Monday, is that he wanted to win immediately. And even after meeting officials from the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, who also had a contingent trade agreement in place, Stanton wasn’t sure those teams were instant World Series contenders.
Had the Giants been ready-made heavyweights, Stanton said, he might have looked past his Dodger Blue roots: “If they were in the right position that I wanted,’’ he said, “I would have done it.”
That version of events didn’t exactly fly with Brian Sabean. The Giants executive vice president said that, during their meeting with Stanton and his agent, “we weren’t really put back by his scratching his head over why we lost 98 games.”
Sabean continued: “He did come to the big leagues in 2010 and watched us win the World Series in ‘10, ‘12 and ‘14, so he knows how we
do business. But as things flushed out — I’m just talking for me personally — it’s apparent that us and St. Louis were fallbacks, which perhaps wasn’t presented as accurate up front by the agent as we were going through the process. That’s my only angst after the fact.
In any event, the Yankees pounced and got the National League MVP for Starlin Castro and prospects. The new ownership group in Miami was eager to rid themselves of the remaining 10 years and $295 million on Stanton’s contract.
Interestingly, Wolfe said Monday that Stanton’s real turning point in wanting to play for a contender came during the World Baseball Classic, where he listened to Giants cornerstones Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford talk about what it’s like to win the World Series.
“He spends his Octobers in Europe and doesn’t watch the postseason because it hurts too much to watch the playoffs,’’ Wolfe said.
Looking back on his meetings with the Giants and Cardinals this winter, Stanton said: “I really just wanted to learn what another organization is like. All I’ve experienced is the Marlins. And basically one way of going about things. I wanted to see how other organizations went about their business and how the city is.”
The Giants were eager to add Stanton after finishing a distant last in the majors with 128 home runs last season. The Pittsburgh Pirates were next lowest with 151. San Francisco also finished last in the majors in slugging (.380) and OPS (.689) en route to a 64-98 season. The Giants finished 40 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West.
Such a massive deficit is what kept Stanton from even thinking about coming to San Francisco.
The color of the uniform didn’t help, either.
“I will say that Giancarlo and I both grew up as Dodgers fans as kids,’’ Wolfe said. “And I see this with the other L.A. kids that we represent: It’s a little bit harder to get your head around being a Giant.
“And I can say I also represent Brandon Crawford, who grew up as a seasonticket holder Giant fan. He would have hard time going to the Dodgers. That still exists in baseball. It’s not all Xs and Os and dollars. These guys are still just kids ... and huge baseball fans.”