Hours after we discussed the lunacy surrounding teams courting Marco Scutaro, the free agent middle infielder has agreed to return to the Giants on a three-year deal worth $20 million. This is a slight drop from the three years and $24 million Scutaro was rumored to have on the table from the Giants earlier tonight.
As opposed to a near 50% raise that Scutaro would have gotten from his previous three-year deal, Scutaro is "only" getting a raise of $3 million over the next three seasons, but it's still a decent chunk of change for a player's age 37-39 years. The Giants must be huge believers in his 61 game sample with them to close out the 2012 season (where he had a .366 BABIP, 69 points higher than his career mark).
With Scutaro's signing as well as Angel Pagan re-upping for four years with San Francisco on Monday and Jeremy Affeldt's three-year extension earlier this offseason, the Giants offseason appears to be close to finished. The only real question mark left for the defending World Champions comes in left field, a position that is becoming increasingly hard to fill this offseason with free agent outfielders dropping off the market like flies. Could a reunion with 2010 playoff hero Cody Ross be in the works, or will the Giants potentially hand the job to Gregor Blanco, who performed admirably in 2012 after Melky Cabrera was suspended? It's definitely an interesting situation for San Francisco, but I don't think the Giants are suddenly going to start making calls to Josh Hamilton or Michael Bourn.
