Don’t overthink it, Giants. He’s literally Juan Soto.
As someone who knows the San Francisco Giants have no chance of signing Juan Soto and who, just 11 months ago, advocated for the franchise to tank for a couple of years, I recognize how inconsistent — irrational, even — I’m about to sound.
It would be really, really, really dumb of Buster Posey and the Giants to stay out of the Juan Soto Sweepstakes. Just… impossibly dumb. If I sound alarmist, it’s because I see smoke!
The other day, Jayson Stark posted to social media the following:
Now, are these the same “team sources” that leaked to Andrew Baggarly the wet, stinky fart of a news item that the team will be lowering payroll in 2025? It’s possible. Maybe Buster Posey got so sick of Farhan Zaidi gassing up the fan base with his big plans and thinks it’s wiser to tamp down expectations to make any win over the next few months feel like a slayed dragon.
Also, despite my advice, the Giants haven’t tanked. For that reason, I am of the belief that the biggest sin the Giants could commit in front of their fans at large is act in a way that signals they are not trying.
Now, Stark’s reporting doesn’t foreclose the possibility that the Giants will get involved, and just last week, Buster Posey all but admitted that using his phone to schedule meetings and such bewildered him, so this could simply be the first headline in a longer story — Buster Posey is confused by phone, Buster Posey learns how to use phone, Buster Posey schedules meetings with phone — but that’s the rub: until new facts emerge, the implication of the headline is that the Giants aren’t trying.
If Buster Posey truly believes that he’s in the memory-making business, I’d like to remind him and the organization that **I** still remember when the Giants DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO MAKE AN OFFER TO VLADIMIR GUERRERO.
That was TWENTY (20) YEARS AGO.
Q: Did you ever make an offer for Vladimir Guerrero?
Sabean: In a word: No. If we had signed Guerrero or [Gary] Sheffield, we would have been without [Jim] Brower, [Scott] Eyre, [Matt] Herges, [Dustin] Hermanson, [Brett] Tomko, [A.J.] Pierzynski, [Pedro] Feliz, [J.T.] Snow, [Jeffrey] Hammonds, [Dustan] Mohr and [Michael] Tucker–obviously not being able to field a competitive team, especially from an experience standpoint, given our level of spending.
I feel like I don’t need to make much more of a case for Juan Soto than the one Brady did in this post the other day:
Soto is one of the greatest hitters you’ve ever seen, and he’s a full year younger than Tyler Fitzgerald. Don’t worry about the money. He’s worth it, and he’ll keep being worth it
The only thing I’ll add is that I think he’s as pure a hitter as we’ll see this decade and as the 2020s approach the 2030s, I think Juan Soto will approach Barry Bonds — in terms of pure hitting prowess (though, without the juice to… stave off Father Time).
Again, we all agree that the Giants have no shot — less than zero shot — so little of a chance of signing him that even a standard issue internet pedant wouldn’t bother to respond, “Well, technically, since he has not signed with a team the Giants do have a chance,” but that’s not the point. It would be incredibly dumb of a team that plays rich to act poor, and a team that says it wants to win choosing to walk the loser’s path.
Mr. Posey, sir, please consider, sir, that even if you try and fail, there’s still the hope of winning without him and making him regret turning you down. Spite is powerful! It’s nearly as powerful as the message sent to fans for not even bothering to try!
Now, might Buster Posey and Zack Minasian have some issues with Juan Soto that are worthy of a “don’t even bother” plan? Might one or both of them provide some version of that Brian Sabean quote a few months from now when somebody asks them about the player? Let’s explore some possibilities and see how dumb they sound, ranking them on a scale of Ruben Riveras (who famously committed one of the dumbest plays in the history of baseball)
Doesn’t fit the “culture”
What does this mean?
Maybe some fans don’t like his “antics” in the box, despite the results. Maybe he rubs some players the wrong way; after all, he’s been traded twice in the past few years! Hmm, maybe something’s up with the guy! Maybe Buster Posey doesn’t like a 26-year old who’s too full of himself. Soto isn’t humble enough?
That’s all just speculation, but frequently, a young player with brown skin who makes a lot of money and wants more tends to evoke a predictable pattern of criticisms. To wit, anyone ascribing clubhouse issues to him being traded really just ignores the whole business of baseball part of the equation.
How dumb does this sound?
4 RUBEN RIVERAS (OUT OF 5)
Pretty Problematic!! A great hitter doesn’t fit on the Giants? Yeah, no kidding! But seriously… the Giants don’t have a culture, that’s why they s***-canned their President of Baseball Operations. Soto has a championship, a track record, and age on his side. The Giants could probably stand to make the team around him and not the other way around. So, “culture” wouldn’t be *the* dumbest excuse for staying out of the chase, but it’s close to it.
Too expensive
What does this mean?
It’s the the Vlad Guerrero excuse redux — okay… but he’s an actual upgrade! And, unlike the Guerrero situation, the team doesn’t already have Barry Bonds on it. He would be that faux Bonds and the current roster would surround him. It’s a pretty solid roster already to surround someone like Juan Soto with, but $50 million a year for the next 12 years or whatever certainly does seem to be a stomach-turner, especially if the team needs to cut costs to keep dividends consistent. And there are draft pick considerations.
Maintaining profit margins and draft picks are arguments that will find the most purchase among fans. For one thing, a decent chunk — if not an outright majority — of fans think it’s a sin that baseball players make millions of dollars. There are also fans who don’t mind that players make millions of dollars, they just think it should be within reason — these are the fans who might be auditioning for front office roles. And for the rest — well, Buster Posey standing on a stage and pulling out his pockets to show that they’re empty while simultaneously sticking out his bottom lip (the universal symbol for “I’m broke!”) will be pretty convincing. Posey is the perfect messenger to deliver, well, news of any kind…
How dumb does this sound?
4 RUBEN RIVERAS (OUT OF 5)
If the Giants aren’t willing to spend on the best then they’re going to have a tough time convincing people that they are the best. To the point that lots of fans are committed to making no matter the current date or the context that the championship era wasn’t defined by the Giants having the best players or the best teams I say “So what?” What worked for the 2010s hasn’t worked for the 2020s. The Giants developed Will Clark and Robby Thompson in the 80s so they shouldn’t have targeted Barry Bonds in the 90s?
Soto would be the best hitter in the organization for quite some time. Because of his age, there is not really a scenario where the deal would look bad. So what if he can’t play the field (barring a miraculous development where he plays first base) — DH him or stick him in left for the next couple of seasons and trust that the offense will make up for those deficiencies. Nobody would blame the Giants if it didn’t work out somehow, and it would still fall upon whoever’s running the organization to draft and develop good talent anyway.
He doesn’t have the international appeal that Shohei Ohtani has, I’ll grant the team that, and so sticking a great hitter who isn’t quite as famous in what’s effectively a distant baseball outpost of irrelevance probably doesn’t actually make the revenue projections much more promising, but if the team uses money as an excuse to stay out of discussions, then just call them the A’s and be done with it.
The player wasn’t interested
What does this mean?
Either Juan Soto communicated to Scott Boras early in the process that he wouldn’t consider the team or they made their pitch and he turned them down.
How dumb does this sound?
If the Giants merely confirm a report from an outside source: 0 RUBEN RIVERAS OUT OF 5
If the Giants announce it themselves:
5 RUBEN RIVERAS (OUT OF 5)
The Giants took a lot of PR hits the past two offseasons that raised the question of whether or not San Francisco was a meaningful baseball destination for free agents. Buster Posey himself sort of stepped in it while giving an interview washing dishes, which all but confirmed that the SF Doom Loop was real and was killing their chances at signing even the B-tier free agents.
Now, I can buy that to an extent, but I also think it provides a perfect cover for the team when they simply offer less money. If they were to divulge that Soto’s camp communicated to them early on that he wouldn’t consider the Giants’ overtures, I would read that as spin to hide the team’s actual desire to simply not spend to the level needed to entice Juan Soto. If we get it from another reporter citing unnamed sources, I would take that to be a meaningful slam against the once-great Giants, but also more of a sign that the team is a bunch of sad boys who are gonna have to figure out how to win with stones and bubble gum rather than a cynical ploy to get fans to accept that their franchise is a laughingstock.
The team wants to avoid wasting time on one guy to focus on adding other players
What does this mean?
This is just a combination of the other two excuses. It’s something you hear a lot, particularly when it’s a Scott Boras client. Boras himself might even hold up some deals to focus on others. I don’t deny the relevance of this, and with Ha-Seong Kim being one of his clients, it’s very much something to keep in mind.
On the other hand, teams are capable of doing more than one thing at a time. A President of Baseball Operations probably needs to be able to juggle multiple negotiations and pursuits at once lest the team fall behind from a competitive standpoint.
Like last year, Scott Boras representatives most of the top free agents. Chances are, the Giants will be a stalking horse at some point this offseason. Buckle up and deal with it, I say.
How dumb does this sound?
5 RUBEN RIVERAS (OUT OF 5)
We don’t need to do management’s work for them. We don’t have to accept their statements at face value, if this winds up being the main reason why the Giants stayed out of a Soto pursuit.
The Giants need great players. Juan Soto is a great player. If the Giants are only committed when it’s convenient or cost effective, then it’s not greatness they seek — it’s a discount.