NEWSLETTER
Last night, very high level Giants execs met with Giancarlo Stanton’s representatives, presumably to put in their pitch for him to accept a trade to San Francisco.
Very high level:
At meeting in LA
Brian Sabean
Bobby Evans
Bruce Bochy— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) December 1, 2017
But a report out of Miami cautions that the Marlins are still talking to other teams, too:
As Stanton’s camp meets with #SFGiants execs in LA, reaching agreement on a trade is not considered imminent. The #Marlins also remain engaged with other clubs regarding NL MVP
— Joe Frisaro (@JoeFrisaro) December 1, 2017
Do we buy that? Marlins hedging their bets? I have hard time seeing the biggest of bigwigs in the Giants’ organization going to L.A. to talk to Stanton’s people unless a deal was agreed to by the Giants and Marlins, and they were on to the final step.
If you’re asking my guess, the deal to San Francisco gets done before the Winter Meetings.
… which would mean that the Cardinals missed out on the guy who was, presumably, their top target this offseason. Given that they’ve been pretty open about wanting to add a big bat to the middle of their lineup, it doesn’t get much better than the reigning MVP.
Things aren’t looking so good on their front:
#cardinals have offered the better prospects, and this report says #Marlins even prefer them. But Stanton has the say, still, and Fish want to cut costs. https://t.co/Brey9QtnRC
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) December 1, 2017
If they do in fact whiff on Stanton, Jon Morosi suggests they could have a back-up plan:
Sources: Evan Longoria's name not seriously involved — yet — in ongoing #STLCards/#Rays talks centered on Alex Colome. But Cardinals could look to add bat at 3B if they fail to land Giancarlo Stanton. Stay tuned. @MLB @MLBNetwork
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) December 1, 2017
The Rays, who want to slash payroll this year, would undoubtedly love to move Longoria and the $81 million left on his deal through 2022. Conversely, that’s a pretty reasonable sum for the Cardinals to take on if they believe the 32-year-old third baseman still has a lot left in the tank. For what its worth, his numbers took a nosedive last year (.261/.313/.424, 96 wRC+), mostly thanks to a massive drop in power (from a .248 ISO in 2016 to just .163 in 2017).
As Morosi advises, we’ll stay tuned.
(Side note: you can see right there how Stanton could be holding up markets that seemingly have nothing to do with him. If the Cardinals are waiting on Stanton to try to expand the talk with the Rays, and if the Rays are waiting to trade Colome until that happens, and if other free agent relievers/other teams are waiting on Colome to pull the trigger … then boom, serious downstream impact.)
