The St. Louis Cardinals are the latest club to lean into baseball’s new favorite gamble, locking up shortstop J.J.
Wetherholt on an eight-year, $112.5 million extension. And with every deal like that, the SF Giants start to look a little more like the team standing outside the clubhouse door.
Wetherholt’s season has made the move easy to understand. He’s hitting .265/.363/.408 with 13 home runs and 36 runs batted in, and he’s been strong enough defensively to sit as the current favorite to win the National League Rookie of the Year Award. He now joins a growing list of young players getting paid before they’ve even put much of a dent in MLB service time, alongside Rookie of the Year candidates Kevin McGonigle, Konnor Griffin, and Samuel Basallo, plus other prospects like Colt Emerson and Cooper Pratt.
The logic is simple enough: teams are buying out years of future free agency in hopes of keeping a young player from ever reaching the open market. It’s a strategy that naturally raises the question of whether the Giants would ever do the same with Bryce Eldridge.
So far, Eldridge is giving them plenty to think about. The 21-year-old has shown this year that he can be the player the Giants believed he could become. He’s hit a rough patch lately, but the big moments are already there, including his walk-off grand slam, and he has looked like he belongs at the major league level.
That kind of start invites a bigger conversation about a long-term deal in the neighborhood of eight years and $90-100 million. But the Giants’ financial picture complicates everything.
They already have major money committed to Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers, and the front office is still trying to move off those contracts. That makes another long-term commitment harder to imagine, especially when it would be tied to an infielder.
Eldridge is a different case from those veterans, though. He’s a rookie, and the hope is that his best seasons are still ahead of him. The Giants’ current contracts, by contrast, are tied to players who are expected to decline as the years go on.
For now, the more clubs that hand out these extensions, the more the speculation around Eldridge will keep building. Whether the Giants actually follow that path remains to be seen, and the sense here is that it probably won’t happen this season. But the league’s growing willingness to lock up young players early is making the question harder to ignore.
In Other News...
Giants Draft Peyton Bonds And Revive One Of Franchise History's Biggest Names
The Giants added a familiar name to their draft class when they took Peyton Bonds in the third round, a selection that instantly tied this years class to one of the franchises most recognizable family trees. The right-handed hitter and center fielder is the nephew of Barry Bonds and the grandson of Bobby Bonds, and his appeal goes beyond the surname, with athleticism and defensive ability making him an intriguing addition for a club that has long valued up-the-middle talent.
Bonds path to San Francisco included time at Campbell before a transfer to Rutgers, and his college season was interrupted by an April hamstring injury. Even so, he showed enough in limited action to keep his stock moving, and the Giants now have a player whose profile fits the modern game: a center fielder with a strong arm, plenty of athleticism and enough offensive upside to make the next step in his development worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Make Bullpen Move Fans Have Been Begging For
The Giants got a bullpen boost on the way back to health, reinstating Jason Foley from the 60-day injured list and lining him up for a second-half role. Foley has spent the year rehabbing after shoulder surgery, and his return gives San Francisco another arm to sort into a relief mix that has been under constant evaluation.
In a corresponding move, the club optioned right-hander Spencer Bivens to Triple-A, clearing the roster spot for Foleys activation. For a Giants team that has been looking for stability in the late innings, the next question is how quickly Foley can settle in and what kind of impact he can make once he is back on the mound. [Read more 🡒]
Willy Adames Is Raising A Bigger Giants Concern Than Fans Realized
Willy Adames first season in San Francisco has been more complicated than the Giants probably expected when they brought him in to stabilize the middle of the diamond. The shortstops offense has been uneven, with a .226 average, 15 homers and a strikeout rate that has climbed well above what the Giants want from a player in his role. Even more concerning is the way the production has come apart, because his swing decisions have slipped to career-worst levels while the power that made him such an appealing addition still shows up in flashes.
The bigger issue for the Giants is that this has not been confined to one side of the ball. Adames has also been shaky defensively, which puts added pressure on a lineup that needs him to be more than just a source of occasional damage. The encouraging part is that his bat speed and exit velocity have stayed close to his usual standards, so this does not look like a player who has simply lost his tools. For now, the question is whether the Giants can get him back on track quickly enough before the conversation around him shifts from slump to something much more structural. [Read more 🡒]