Crawford never thought about leaving Giants, gets extension

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Brandon Crawford will remain a member of the San Francisco Giants for at least two more seasons after agreeing to a two-year contract extension on Friday.

It was a long time coming -- even before Crawford's professional career started. This was a dream in the making for the Bay Area native.

“As a kid, I always dreamt about wearing the Giants uniform,” Crawford told reporters on Friday. “I never thought about playing anywhere else. It’s hard to believe that I lasted this long here with the Giants. Just excited to add a couple more years.”

The two-year contract is worth $32 million with a base salary of $16 million in 2022 and 2023. 

Crawford said the length of the contract was what he, and the front office were comfortable with, but the discussions of extending him were a top priority for the Giants and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. 

Zaidi said this season, especially with Crawford’s success, played a role in the extension.

“I think you see it on a day-in and day-out,” Zaidi told reporters. “This is how important he’s been to our team, in the lineup, out on the field, not just in his own defense, but how he elevates the entire infield with just his consistency and elegant play. So yeah, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing shortstop for the San Francisco Giants.”

The decision was easy for the front office, but the talks had been occurring for a little while.

“Well, it started about a month ago when after two years of snubs, Craw finally let me in his fantasy football league, and here we are today talking about an extension,” Zaidi said as Crawford and manager Gabe Kapler laughed.

Crawford was drafted by the Giants in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft, and he has spent the last 11 seasons as the team's shortstop. 

“We’ve talked some about even when we met with you guys around the trade deadline, while were looking outside for help in ways to boost the team and were able to do that to some extent, big story for us has been how successful this team has already been and wanting to keep this group together. They’ve accomplished a lot, we’re going to continue to have these conversations and obviously, Craw was a huge part of that plan, and thrilled to have him and other conversations will continue.”

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As far as after those two years, Crawford wasn’t revealing too much. He did say playing through age 36 sounds pretty great right about now, however.

“We’ll see,” Crawford said. “I think I’m happy with the two right now and we’ll go from there.”

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