Giants enter free agency without GM
The 30 major-league teams are ready to light the pilot on the Hot Stove season, which begins in earnest Saturday when they can sign free agents from other teams.
Then, come Tuesday when the general managers’ meetings begin near San Diego, trade talks will gather steam.
Where does that leave the Giants, who have not hired a head of baseball operations to set the club’s direction?
They will not have one in place ahead of the meetings, team officials say. Executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean said Friday that while he scouts the Arizona Fall League, vice president and assistant general manager Jeremy Shelley will lead the Giants’ contingent at the meetings.
Sabean also downplayed any concerns that the Giants are hindering their ability to build a
2019 team with their methodical search for their “next-gen GM.”
“There’s no pressure right now in the organization, or any fear of lost time in the process,” Sabean said. “There’s no rush for the business at hand. We’re going to take our time to put things in order, including our stance in free agency.”
If this winter is anything like last year’s, the market might not start to bustle until Christmas. And, if the Giants really do have interest in outfielder Bryce Harper, they know that agent Scott Boras’ biggest clients don’t sign early.
Two industry sources, who do not work for the Giants and would not go on the record to discuss another organization’s business, said Sabean’s assessments were correct. One said that Sabean was too savvy to let the Giants fall behind.
Sabean, Shelley and others in the front office surely have spoken to agents over the past five days, when — by rule — they could discuss every aspect of potential free-agent deals except the money.
Likewise, Shelley and Co. can meet with other teams during the meetings to gauge which players might be available in trade and which Giants those teams might covet.
Deals rarely get done at these meetings, which Sabean said are “in more cases clerical than substance.”
Also, if free agents are smart, they will show the Giants some patience. After all, they carry one of the fattest checkbooks.
The Giants have two of their own free agents they might want back, pitcher Derek Holland and catcher Nick Hundley. Both have said they want to return and expect to wait on the Giants, but second-tier players who get strong offers early often decide to grab them.
Several teams have checked on Holland, who, according to a source familiar with his thinking, nonetheless feels some loyalty to the Giants for the opportunity they provided him in 2018 and a kinship to their training staff that helped him throw a team-high 1711⁄3 innings, his most since 2013.
Meanwhile, the Giants continue to work through the normal mechanical processes of the offseason while they await their new head of baseball operations.
“I think this week will kind of answer some questions about the big picture,” Sabean said, “what kind of budget the organization will be working with, the appetite for free agency and to what degree, philosophically, before anyone comes in here.”
In other words, ownership must tell the baseball-operations department how much it has to spend even if the new hire decides that stepping back for a rebuild is more prudent.
“You have to be prepared for both,” Sabean said. Power arm: Sabean said the Giants have not decided whether to convert fire-throwing right-hander Melvin Adon to relief, but it needs to be considered, given the nature of bullpens now and the 24-year-old’s performance in the Fall League.
“Tremendous. He’s really been impressive,” Sabean said.
Adon throws 100 mph with a slider and has walked two and struck out 19 in 92⁄3 innings, demonstrating control he has lacked while slogging through the minors.
“What we’ve seen down here, he has been overpowering in short stints,” Sabean said. “He certainly has as big a fastball as you want to see and his breaking ball has come a long way.” Roster move: Reliever Pierce Johnson has been outrighted off the 40-man roster and will become a minor-league free agent. The roster stands at 35 players.