The middle infield market is going insane

The deals that have already been made:

* Willie Bloomquist: two years, $3.8M, signed with Arizona Diamondbacks
* Mark Ellis: two years, $8.75M, signed with Los Angeles Dodgers
* Jamey Carroll: two years, $6.75M, signed with Minnesota Twins

Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins are obviously still the top free agents to get if you need help at shortstop, but even third level guys like Bloomquist are getting paid. Heck, even Mark Ellis secured a two year deal and $8.75M from the Dodgers. You might say, “LOL Dodgers” and I wouldn’t disagree with you (thanks, secret agent Ned), but the point is clear: anyone that can play the middle infield is getting paid right now.

Guys that would normally settle for a one year deal (Ellis, Carroll) are getting two years; guys that would normally be Spring Training invites (Bloomquist) are getting secured contracts to play baseball; and, guys like Clint Barmes and Rafael Furcal – the somewhat interesting, slightly injured, stopgap-ish, warty options – are looking like sure bets to get two years.

We know for a fact that shortstop was a huge problem for the 2011 Giants team. Giants’ shortstops hit nearly 40% worse than league average, they played terrible defense (not you, Brandon), and were depressingly awful as a collective. I’m still skeptical of Brandon Crawford’s ability to hit, but every passing day that we see middle infielders get secured two year deals, I start to warm up to the idea of him starting the year at short. Call it perspective if you will.

I can honestly say that I don’t envy Brian Sabean’s job right now. And as much as I’d love to dream about Jose Reyes in San Francisco, it’s just not going to happen. Whether or not it should is a topic for another post.

Bonus thought: the more I look at the state of shortstop in baseball (and as I’m working on the BCB prospect list), the more I think that Ehire Adrizana is a top five prospect for me. It’s an aggressive ranking, but I think one that’s warranted.

Robert Haymond

And why shouldn't we discuss Jose Reyes? The Giants have the money, plenty of it, to invest in a longterm contract with an outstanding player in a position where we need one. Do they really think that Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum will want to stick around at contract signing time withot knowing that the Giants were not prepared to bid on top players in order to fashion a winning team?

Chris Quick

Discussing Jose Reyes would be awesome, but then again, so would living in any fantasy land. I think the Bloomquist offer puts an end to any talk of Rollins or Reyes.

Ryan

Can you really take everything a FO says at face value? There's some posturing involved. Maybe some collusion to deflate values. I agree though, Jose Reyes is the 1% and will be occupying short elsewhere. Options are still out there. I imagine the Giants will make an offer for Bartlett. He could be the perfect platoon for Crawford (of what's left). Not much talk of Furcal. He's certainly familiar with the NL West and the Cardinals will probably be too occupied with Pujols negotiations.

oldjacket

I think he's the cheapest good SS on the market.

Chris Quick

Furcal is interesting. And I know for a fact that Otis is pro-Furcal. I like him for a couple of reasons, but I also realize that his health is kind of a wild card and he might be expensive. I think the last number I saw was something like two years, 18 million.

Andy G

And there goes Barmes.... Why are more people not talking about Furcal? Given his dwindling career stats and the front office's willingness (eagerness?) to overpay for veterans who have little left to offer other than their names, I don't see the Giants acquiring Furcal for a good value. But I could see him with an Edgar Renteria-like contract which is actually better than it sounds because (1) the market is so thin that overpaying for a SS is a given right now and (2) Furcal was decent for St. Louis down the stretch until the playoffs. And an Edgar-like contract, though it makes you want to cringe, wouldn't be the worst thing. Dude was our Series MVP.

Chris Quick

Bartlett: Semi-interesting. Not really good at anything, but good enough to stick out there as a stopgap. I really don't think the Giants are involved in some masterstroke effort to damped Reyes' value; I just think the Giants aren't interested in Reyes at his price. It's true you can't take everything the team says at face value, but every move they've made this year indicates that they are on a tight budget (well, relatively speaking) and that they aren't going to spend beyond an imposed limit. I think the best we can hope for is Carlos Beltran returning, but even that seems like a stretch right now.

Ryan

I think they could sign Reyes and stretch the budget beyond the 130 mil ceiling to just under 140. I don't understand why Reyes is verboten, he'd be a bit more than Beltran, but younger and more dynamic and at an extremely difficult position to fill with impact talent.

Chris Quick

It's not that they can't afford to sign Reyes (presumably), however, they will not sign him. Go watch/listen to Baer's most recent comments on SFGiants.com. Yeah.

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rog61

Finally! Someone else on the Ehire bandwagon. Totally agree that positional scarcity drives up Adrianza's worth. I'm also sticking with my prediction that if we go to ST with Crawford as the defacto starting SS then we're going to see some Ehire before the season's out (for one thing Crawford's missed fairly substantial time with injuries in every season of his pro career thus far).

I think I'll still be kind of surprised if Crawford is the starting SS on Opening Day, but stranger things have happened. I still think the Giants might scrape up someone to provide "competition" with Crawford, but I think, right now, it's going to be a dumpster dive player.

Oh, and I think you've influenced my thinking re: Ehire. So when he flops, I'll blame you!

Seems like in this market Keppinger would have some trade value. I'd tender him and trade him.

But when he succeeds you can take all the credit! It's a failsafe plan!

AND, I'd probably just keep Fontenot at this point. He's a useful guy to have. Keppinger is on the bubble for me.

The middle infield market is going insane

Article written by Chris Quick

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