San Francisco Giants News & Notes: Stanton, Ohtani, and More

Friday was a busy day in news regarding the San Francisco Giants, with updates on their pursuit of a slugger, a young star, the coaching staff, and more.

Friday was a busy day for the San Francisco Giants, as there was plenty of news to go around. The Giancarlo Stanton saga continues, with all the market centered on him, but there still hasn’t been much movement. Meanwhile, a Giants’ coach is staying put, they’ve made their pitch for one of the biggest names on the market, and contracts have been extended to current Giants.

Starting with Stanton, the Giants are, of course, not the only team chasing him. The St. Louis Cardinals are very much still of the thick of the Great Giancarlo Chase, and team representatives met with the slugger’s representatives a day after Stanton’s group did the same with Brian Sabean and Bruce Bochy.

The Marlins have narrowed their focus on trade pieces for a potential deal with the Giants, though. According to Clark Spencer, Marlins’ beat writer for the Miami Herald, the team is focusing on “some combination” of pitcher Tyler Beede, first baseman/left fielder Chris Shaw, catcher Aramis Garcia, and outfielder Heliot Ramos as the prospects of choice. Spencer also indicated that big league second baseman Joe Panik could still be included, as has been rumored before.

On the free agent market, the Giants made their pitch to Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, who is officially on the market. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Hank Schulman noted that in the video that came as part of their presentation to the pitcher/slugger, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy greeted Ohtani in Japanese.

Ohtani has been quite vague in what he’s looking for in a major league team, and it doesn’t really seem like any of the 30 teams are on Ohtani’s wishlist or not. Teams have until the clocks strikes midnight and the calendars turn to December 23rd to negotiate with the 23-year-old.

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If either Stanton or Ohtani become Giants, their coaching staff is set in stone for the 2018 season. Former hitting coach, and new bench coach, Hensley Meulens was one of two finalists for the New York Yankees’ vacant managerial job, but he wasn’t picked by the team to be Joe Girardi‘s successor.

Instead, the Yankees went with former Bronx Bomber Aaron Bone, who played with the team in 2003 (his only All-Star season as a big leaguer), and famously hit the walk-off home run to beat the Boston Red Sox in NLCS game seven. He retired following the 2009 season and joined ESPN as an analyst, where he had been since.

Meulens has the résumé that would seemingly make him a good big league manager. He’s been with the Giants’ big league staff since 2010 and has earned three World Series rings, and though he has experience as an MLB manager, he does have other managerial experience. He’s coached in the Arizona Fall League, Hawaii Winter Baseball, and in the Olympics, and has served as manager for the Netherlands in the last two World Baseball Classics. He led the Dutch team to a surprising fourth-place in the 2017 WBC.

Finally, there were no surprises on Friday as the deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players hit. Panik, left-hander Will Smith, and right-handers Hunter Strickland, Sam Dyson, and Cory Gearrin make up the team’s five arbitration-eligible players, and all were extended offers.

However, there was one casualty of the day. Right-handed swingman Albert Suarez, who has appeared in the major leagues with San Francisco in two straight seasons, was not tendered a contract. Though he wasn’t yet eligible for arbitration, the team opened up a spot on the 40-man roster by not tendering him a deal. That makes life a bit easier down the road if the team signs a player to a major league contract.

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Henry Schulman tweeted that Suarez had re-signed with the Giants to a minor league, but deleted the tweet a bit later. Suarez might want to see what he can get on the market, or a deal just might not be officially agreed upon yet. You be the judge.

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