Good morning, baseball fans!
As was expected by pretty much everyone, Carlos Rodón has opted out of the second year of his contract with the San Francisco Giants. The Giants have become something of a pitch-whisperer for struggling pitchers with ace potential, but have not shown a commitment to bringing them back once they achieve it.
As we saw last year, the Giants never made an offer to Kevin Gausman, who ultimately signed with the Toronto Blue Jays.
This year, we saw an absolutely dominant season from Rodón that featured an All Star appearance and no significant injuries, which was exactly what the Giants were hoping to get from him.
But they also knew that the likelihood of him not opting out after that was basically zero. This is his time to make the big money and he absolutely deserves it. And with Scott Boras as his agent, and no lock-out impeding free agency this year, he’s definitely going to get paid.
Just, maybe not by the Giants.
Per a report from Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, Farhan Zaidi said:
“I’m sure we’re going to be talking to Scott Boras about bringing him back and the feedback from Carlos and from Scott is that he enjoyed being here, he enjoyed pitching in our park, and I would say there’s mutual interest and we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
Now, Zaidi might have said this exact thing earlier this season about Rodón (which is probably true!) but it also feels exactly like what he said about Kevin Gausman last year. And Kris Bryant. So my expectations aren’t high.
Rodón is going to be a top-tier pitching target. At 29 years old, he’ll be younger than the other big names like Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander, so he’s in for some big money, and he deserves it. But the Giants haven’t really shown an interest in spending big money.
But I’m hopeful that might change this year.
The Giants absolutely can afford to bring back Rodón, even while pursuing high-end offensive free agents. They are not one-Aaron Judge away from being a playoff team and I would like to think they know that.
Also, just in terms of games being fun to watch, having a guy like Rodón in the rotation made his starts appointment viewing/ticket buying in a season that people often felt like fast forwarding through. That’s not something to ignore if you’re looking to put butts in seats after attendance has declined.
That said, they seem to be high on their own fumes when it comes to risks v. rewards, so they may decide to try to find another diamond in the rough. Having not learned their lesson about how lightning works.
Either way, for the record, I personally would love to see Carlos Rodón in a Giants uniform next year.
SF Giants News: Carlos Rodón opts out, enters free agency - McCovey Chronicles
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