The Tim Lincecum Showcase Showdown looks to finally be over, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have bid closest to his actual retail price without going over. They get Lincecum, a set of kitchen appliances, and a new TV.
Actually, they only get Lincecum, but that’s enough of a prize for the pitching-starved Angels. According to Yahoo Sports, Lincecum and Anaheim are closing in on a one-year deal that will bring the two-time Cy Young winner to Orange County.
Sources: Tim Lincecum closing in on a deal with the Angels. Giants and White Sox are out.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 16, 2016
For the Angels, the move makes a lot of sense. It’s likely going to be a major league deal for reasonable dollars, one that will be relatively low-risk in the grand scheme of things. They have an immediate place for Lincecum in a rotation that was thin even before it lost Garrett Richards. They recently traded for Jhoulys Chacin, but he’s hardly a world beater.
Once it's finalized, Tim Lincecum's contract with the Angels will be a major league deal. Guaranteed dollars still unclear at this point.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 16, 2016
Once Lincecum shows he’s ready to pitch, there should be ample opportunity for him to make up to 20 starts the rest of the way. And even though the Angels haven’t been very good so far, they’re still just 5.5 games out of first place in the AL West. A stable pitching staff might go a long way in bridging the gap in the standings.
The move is probably the best one Lincecum could hope to make, too. The Angels view him as a starter, a belief the San Francisco Giants didn’t share and likely the reason he didn’t come back to the Bay Area. He gets a chance to reestablish his value playing in a pitcher’s park with a good defense and a dangerous lineup behind him; plus, he’s in a market where he likely won’t face the kind of scrutiny he would have faced had he signed with, say, the White Sox.
And with the free agent starting pitching market looking like the weakest it’s been in years this winter, a good run in Anaheim could propel Lincecum to the top of the free agent starter list and net him a nice contract in the offseason.
While it may be a win for Lincecum, it’s going to be awfully weird for Giants fans to see him in another uniform. He leaves behind a lasting legacy as one of the two best starting pitchers in San Francisco history (with Juan Marichal), along with his two Cy Young awards and three championship rings.
Lincecum embodied a culture change for the Giants as they moved away from the Barry Bonds era. He was the poster child, the homegrown player who set the rest of the league on fire and helped usher in the best run of success in Giants history. But there was simply no place for him in the starting rotation, and he didn’t see himself as a reliever. It’s a divorce, but an amicable one.
Now he’ll try to rebuild his reputation in a rotation that’s begging for someone to step up and lead it, for a team that’s on the precipice of contention. If he’s successful, he can also position himself as the most appealing option for pitching-hungry teams this winter. He has a lot to prove.
And hey, the Giants are going to have an opening in their starting rotation next year. Stranger things have happened.
