The San Francisco Giants went into the offseason with money to spend and holes to fill. It’s a combination with the potential to make it an exciting winter, and yesterday they spent some of that money.
Only it wasn’t on an ace starting pitcher like Zack Greinke or an outfielder like Jason Heyward. Instead, the Giants took care of one of their own: they signed Brandon Crawford, fresh off of a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award, to a six-year extension worth $75 million.
The deal makes sense for the Giants for a few reasons. For one, it buys out Crawford’s two remaining arbitration years and removes any potential bad feelings that might have arisen from a hearing. It also takes care of his first four free agent years, basically giving Crawford a four-year, $60 million contract starting in 2018. By the time that year rolls around with the way salaries are skyrocketing, that number may look like a relative bargain.
The move fits perfectly with the Giants MO: reward their own guys handsomely before trying to find players in free agency. It also locks up an important piece of their home-grown infield for a good chunk of time, and lets any free agent pitcher who may be considering San Francisco as a destination know that he’d have the best defensive shortstop in the National League behind him for the next six years at least.
Is there a chance the deal could backfire? Well, of course. It may be a small chance, but it’s still a chance. Crawford’s power came out of nowhere this season, as his 21 homers nearly matched his career total of 26 coming into 2015. It’ll be hard for him to sustain that kind of power, and the rest of Crawford’s offensive numbers aren’t terribly impressive. Plus the contract will take him into his mid-30s, so regression is to be expected.
That’s not too big of a deal to the Giants, though. Crawford isn’t in the lineup every day for his offense, he’s there because he anchors the infield defense. He regularly bats near the bottom of the lineup, so any offense the Giants get from him is a bonus. And though he may not always hit 20+ home runs, it’s not hard to imagine him regularly hitting 12 to 15 per year. That’s a big number for a guy in the lineup primarily for defense.
For the Giants, this was a no-brainer move. They have no one in the minors ready to take over at short, and their best middle infield prospects are probably best suited for second base. The Giants avoided a potentially ugly arbitration hearing, and they also don’t have to face the prospect of losing a home-grown All Star to free agency in a few years. They locked up a key contributor to two World Series championship teams at a very reasonable cost for the next six years. It was a smart, savvy move by a team that’s made a lot of them over the last few seasons.
They’re getting started on that even year thing a little early, it seems.
