Giants' Sabean prepared to make 'painful decisions' this offseason
San Francisco Giants executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean is preparing fans for a potential roller coaster offseason.
"There are going to be some painful decisions," Sabean told Tim Kawakami, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. "To do what we need to do to be competitive to start the year and hopefully have that roll into also making some moves at the deadline, we're going to have to make some tough choices and may have to move some payroll, which means moving some people that we perhaps under normal circumstances would not."
The Giants are coming off their second-worst season in franchise history despite owning one of the highest payrolls in the majors. Two of the biggest reasons for last season's failures can be attributed to injuries, and a severe lack of power in the lineup. In order to address that, the Giants have been heavily linked to Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton.
San Francisco has a projected payroll of $187 million for next season, according to Cots Baseball. Sabean would need to get creative in order to move any of his high-priced veterans.
| Player | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buster Posey | $22.1M | $22.1M | $22.1M |
| Johnny Cueto | $21M | $21M | $21M |
| Mark Melancon | $20M | $14M | $14M |
| Jeff Samardzija | $19.8M | $19.8M | $19.8M |
| Hunter Pence | $18.5M | FA | |
| Brandon Belt | $17.2M | $17.2M | $17.2M |
| Brandon Crawford | $15.2M | $15.2M | $15.2M |
Giants general manager Bobby Evans has said the outfield will be the club's focal point this offseason, and in addition to Stanton, the Giants reportedly have interest in Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Boston Red Sox, and Billy Hamilton of the Cincinnati Reds.
"Our outfield defense really struggled this year," Evans told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. "When you play in a big ballpark, if we don't protect our pitching with better defense out there, we’re going to pay the price."