SAN FRANCISCO -- On Friday afternoon, the Giants announced the list of players and team officials available to fans at FanFest. It was pretty standard, with most players set to attend but a few big names -- notably Madison Bumgarner, who has skipped in the past -- waiting until spring training to come out of offseason hibernation mode.
There was one big difference from previous years, though. There's no marquee addition for the team to introduce, at least not yet. There will be no autograph line for a Johnny Cueto or Mark Melancon or Andrew McCutchen or Evan Longoria. It has been a quiet offseason. As fans wait for further additions, let's get to a few more questions from Twitter ...
"So did the Giants make a run at Pollock, or if not, why not? It appears we could use an OFer." - @Danny_Shamoon
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As I wrote the other day, Austin Slater — with just 352 plate appearances — currently stands as the most experienced of the outfielders on the Giants roster. So yes, they could use another one or two players in the mix, and that’ll be the focus before pitchers and catchers report in about two weeks. And yes, Pollock — at about $12 million a year — would have been a nice addition.
But … he was given a qualifying offer, and the Giants are in no position to be giving up draft picks and international bonus money to sign anyone. There was surely a price point where Farhan Zaidi would have said, “Screw it, let’s take the player anyway,” but I’ll bet it wasn’t anywhere close to $60 million, and I never heard them really connected to Pollock in any way. He’s good, but if you’re trying to quietly rebuild, he’s not the player you tear up that strategy for.
"So is Buster Posey gonna give advice to Bart?" - @NicholasVietMar
This was in response to the news that Joey Bart, the top catching prospect in the minors, will be in big league camp this spring. Bart is ticketed for High-A San Jose, but he has a fascinating opportunity. With Posey still rehabbing, Aramis Garcia is currently the only catcher on the 40-man roster. Bart should get plenty of time catching veterans like Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Jeff Samardzija, Derek Holland, etc. in bullpen sessions. It’s also easy to see him getting quite a few at-bats before Posey gets up to speed. The Giants don’t have much going for them in terms of headlines right now; having Bart as one of the highlights of spring training would be a boost.
San Francisco Giants
As for the actual question, yes, he will spend plenty of time with Posey. One cool thing that we see every spring is Posey taking young catchers under his wing. He’s done it since he was pretty young himself, with everyone from Tommy Joseph to Andrew Susac to Garcia (if you go on my Instagram page, there’s a story from last spring called “Posey’s routine" and you can see some photos of him teaching young catchers.). Bart will benefit simply from being next to Posey during drills every morning.
“We’re about a month out from spring training, when do you think Harper/Machado saga plays out?” — @giantsfan94
I honestly have no idea, and I don’t think anyone could give you a real answer except the players themselves. At the Winter Meetings, everyone expected this to drag out, but I think most assumed it would be done in some respect by the end of January. Now, it seems neither is close to signing. People I’ve checked with recently expect a lot of action after teams report to camp, with some players waiting this out into March in hopes that an opportunity opens up. Remember, J.D. Martinez didn’t sign until Feb. 19 last year.
It’s a weird system, and one I hope they change. We certainly could use a deadline of some sort. The NFL and NBA have free agency flurries, and for some reason MLB is cool with months of speculation. I don’t see how it’s good for the sport when all of the discussion in January is centered around how slow the market is, but here we are.
“Is Henry Ramos different than Heliot Ramos.” — A TON of people on Twitter.
Yes, Henry is Heliot’s older brother, and he’s the one who will be in big league camp. Henry is one of several players with Dodgers ties who have followed Zaidi to San Francisco, and he’s coming off a decent year. He hit .297/.352/.465 in Triple-A, although he was old for the level at 26. The key here is that Ramos has played all three outfield spots, which at the moment means he has a decent shot to take that Gorkys Hernandez spot.
“I see a few others have asked this, but any word on Hundley. He seemed to be pretty solid. Is he too expensive, or was his offense just not quite good enough? - “@DannyPifer
Nick Hundley being out there still has very little to do with Hundley the player. He would not be all that expensive after making $2.5 million last year, and his offense was certainly a big boost from the backup spot. But Zaidi has talked repeatedly about finding a versatile backup option, and Hundley is a catcher and only a catcher. It seems a little late in the game to find that ideal fit, so perhaps they circle back to Hundley at some point. It would be awfully risky to not add a veteran given what Posey is coming back from.
"Cueto will be at the 12 months out mark around Aug. 1. Do they envision getting him back on the mound for games before season’s end at this point?" - @rog61
Johnny Cueto's rehab is going very well, according to people who have spoken to him recently, and he's fully on track. The Giants expect him to be pitching in rehab games in August and make his big league return by September 1, and that will be the plan regardless of how the team is playing. If they're still in it, Cueto could be a nice boost. If they're out of it, he'll come back for at least three September starts so that this long rehab process is fully behind him next offseason and he can focus on having a normal 2020. You never quite know how a pitcher is doing until he actually starts playing catch, but there's a lot of optimisim within the organization regarding Cueto.