Confort’ zone Giants satisfied with free agency Plan B
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — I am sitting in the GM’s box at Scottsdale Stadium with Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi while his club is hosting the Brewers. We are discussing the implications of an offseason in which the fans expected Paris and received Peoria — notably that the Giants pushed near the goal line on $300 million-plus contracts with Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. Yet signed neither and, instead, took their payroll to more than $200 million for luxury-tax purposes without adding the star power anticipated to keep up with the Dodgers and Padres, or juice a home attendance that had bled nearly 1 million fans in the past eight years. So I asked Zaidi to play a game. We are having an expansion draft from his roster to try to win in 2023, and if I take the obvious first pick, ace Logan Webb, who would he take second? As he mulls the question, two pitches into the bottom of the first, the Giants’ leadoff hitter pulls a homer beyond the right-field wall off Brewers starter Freddy Peralta. It is like a Movie of the Week moment, because simultaneously, Zaidi is saying: “I was just about to say, I think it might be that guy.” That guy is Michael Conforto. And this is not an insignificant day for the former Met. The homer was his third in three games, each off a fastball, providing the lefty with a growing belief that he is working behind the in-between curve and heater indecision he felt wrecked his 2021 offensively. But also on this Thursday, Conforto is playing his first game in the field since Oct. 3, 2021, for the Mets. He was so excited he was fully uniformed 75 minutes before first pitch. Conforto did not play at all last year, mainly due to needing shoulder surgery after rejecting the Mets’ qualifying offer and initial bids from other clubs prior to the lockout.
He could have hooked on with the eventual-champion Astros for the stretch run as a hitter, only on a twoyear, $30 million pact. He decided to just keep rehabbing toward being a full player. The Giants had pursued him early in free agency the previous year and just picked up again. Zaidi said the goal was to add two outfielders, whether they signed Judge or Brandon Nimmo, so Conforto became No. 2 after San Francisco had agreed with Mitch Haniger.
“Before we signed him, we went and saw him multiple times, and the last time we saw him, he took batting practice and was throwing great,” Zaidi said. “Our trainer and hitting coach were there. He was hitting balls 105 mph without the benefit of [pitcher] velocity behind it.”
Conforto received a two-year, $36 million contract. But he can opt out after Year 1, which he will if he has a good season. If Conforto picks up the second year, it probably means he was not healthy or not good in 2023.
“I am sympathetic to the view of people who wonder how he gets this kind of contract after not playing last year,” Zaidi said. “I’m just so confident how good he’s going to be this year. People are forgetting how good of a player he was when he was 100 percent healthy. This was a guy on his way to getting a nine-figure contract, and he still may get it. For us, feeling like he was 100 percent healthy and knowing sort of what his upside is in terms of value and production, we thought it was a bargain.”
But that a player with not insignificant health risks would be the second pick in my mock draft defines the current state of the Giants. They need Conforto and the oft-injured Haniger to be healthy, productive and playing the corner-outfield spots near daily. They need a group of No. 4-ish starters behind Webb to pitch well, and a prospect like lefty starter Kyle Harrison and third baseman Casey Schmitt to offer some impact, and for a bunch of Thairo Estrada/Wilmer Flores interchangeable parts to bring depth.
And even if that all happened, would the Giants close what was a substantial gap between them and the Dodgers and Padres last year while holding off the fast-rising Diamondbacks? How much different would this all feel if Judge had not decided he preferred to stay a Yankee and the Giants had not flunked Correa due to concerns about his lower right left after reaching a 13-year, $350 million agreement?
Zaidi cites how competitive and uncertain free agency is and the comfort in what San Francisco did instead (Conforto, Haniger, Sean Manaea, Ross Stripling, Taylor Rogers). Still, it all plays like a Plan B, like a consolation prize. You didn’t get Judge or Correa, but here is your lovely Conforto parting gift.
“I don’t necessarily know what would have happened if they brought in one of those guys,” Conforto said. “There is no sense now in dealing with [what might have been]. I am here now. And I really like this team.”
The team will be easier to like as a contender if Conforto, who turned 30 on March 1, plays so well that he returns to free agency next offseason after being the second-best Giant of 2023.