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After bouncing from coast to coast in less than a year, Jake Peavy has decided to stay put in the National League West Division, as the former Cy Young winner has reportedly agreed to a contract with the San Francisco Giants.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported the news early Friday morning and has provided details of the contract (h/t Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com):

The market for Peavy took some time to develop, which wasn’t unexpected given his age and how many starters were available this winter. It wasn’t until the winter meetings that something started to happen, with Rosenthal reporting the Los Angeles Dodgers were showing interest:

Even though the Dodgers are operating with a new front office, the organization certainly knows how much better Peavy seems to pitch in the National League West. The 33-year-old right-hander was impressive last year after being traded to San Francisco, posting a 2.17 ERA in 78.2 innings. 

This was an important decision for Peavy, who has spent 13 seasons in the big leagues without being a free agent. He told Crasnick in early December that he feels a burden of trying to prove doubters wrong based on how things ended for him in the World Series:

I have a lot to prove. If I went out and threw a shutout in Game 6 or pitched the way I did down the stretch, maybe it would have allowed me to relax too much this winter and not play this role I need to play. I need to have people doubting me, because that’s when you dig deep and find out what you’re made of.

I like it to a degree, because it spurs you on and kicks you in the butt. I’ve done that my whole life. I have no problem at 33 proving that I’m not a washed-up 40-year-old.

That’s something to remember about this situation: Peavy is relatively young. He’s reaching a point at which pitchers see declines in velocity and have to change their approaches, but there’s potential for another solid season or two. 

Crasnick also tweeted that Peavy has a higher-quality start percentage (six innings, three earned runs or fewer) than a few high-profile starters:

Peavy isn’t going to be Jon Lester or Yu Darvish moving forward, but this isn’t some washed-up pitcher merely holding on to past glory. He would be helped by playing with a strong defense behind him, as missing bats isn’t a strength anymore. 

Don’t judge Peavy by what happened in the postseason, because small sample sizes can skew our opinions. Some people will tell you Clayton Kershaw isn’t the best pitcher in baseball. 

Peavy’s resume and performance speak for themselves. He’s a solid mid-rotation starter who can fill at least 180-200 innings for a team, which is a huge asset all 30 teams would love to have.

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Somewhere in a quiet corner of AT&T Park, San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean pushes the record button on an R-2 unit and says, “Help us, Max Scherzer. You’re our only hope.”

A likely scenario? Not exactly, no. But plausible. At least to the extent that Scherzer is still available, and that he does look like the Giants’ only hope.

As strange as it feels to place the Giants in a dire situation mere weeks after winning their third World Series in five years, well, that’s the kind of offseason it’s been.

They’ve already lost Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse from their lineup, and their rotation is missing Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong. For a team that only won 88 games in the regular season, that’s a lot of missing talent.

The good news is that the rest of the National League West hasn’t left the Giants in the dust. The bad news is that it hasn’t done them any favors, either.

In Los Angeles, the Dodgers have gone from really good to a different kind of really good. In San Diego, the pitching-rich Padres have new bats in Matt Kemp, Wil Myers and Derek Norris.

FanGraphs‘ projections for 2015 presently have the Giants in between these two clubs, but there’s an argument that they’re below both the Dodgers and Padres in the NL West totem pole.

All it would take for the Giants to fix that is a nice, big splash. Ergo, Scherzer.

You know him mainly as the 2013 American League Cy Young winner, but his most recent effort saw him post a 3.15 ERA and 4.00 K/BB ratio across 220.1 innings in 2014. By FanGraphs WAR, he was the seventh-best starter in baseball. Over the last two years, only Clayton Kershaw has been better.

Of course, you may also know Scherzer as a guy the Giants were interested in not that long ago.

After the Giants watched Sandoval sign with the Boston Red Sox in November, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported they had a slate of Plan Bs that included Scherzer and Jon Lester. They’re obviously not the same thing as Sandoval, but Sabean made it clear the team was perfectly willing to replace Sandoval’s bat and glove with an impact arm.

As he told John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle:

We don’t have the next wave of pitchers coming like the ones we produced who have been so important to us. You need other guys side by side with a [Madison] Bumgarner just to keep up with the Joneses, whether it’s in the division or league. You have to have a pretty good damn solid three and fill it out from there, not just this coming year but going into the future.

After the Giants missed out on Lester, logic suggested that Scherzer would find his way into their crosshairs.

Apparently not, according to Shea:

This could be a bluff. Or, it could be a reaction to Scherzer‘s sudden demand for a $200 million contract, as Jon Morosi of FoxSports.com reported. Tack on a lost draft pick after his rejection of his qualifying offer, and you’re looking at quite the price tag.

If the Giants are just bluffing, great. If they’re scared off by Scherzer‘s asking price, they shouldn’t be. They’re one of the few teams in the league that can afford it, and chances are he would be worth it.

As much as the Giants give off an aura of a scrappy underdog, they’re most definitely a big-market team with a big-market payroll. 

Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Giants have escalated their payroll every year since 2008, and in a big way. In going from $76.6 million that year to $149.1 million in 2014, the club’s payroll has risen by an average of $12 million every year.

Knowing this, a $160 million payroll in 2015 would seem possible, especially after winning the World Series. That’s a lot of extra revenue, you know.

As of now, the Giants have about $130 million committed to 2015, with MLB Trade Rumors projecting another $12.8 million in arbitration payouts. But come this time next year, the departures of Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson alone will create $30 million in payroll space.

The point: Scherzer‘s hardly a financial no-go for the Giants. A $200 million contract over, say, seven years would cost $28.5 million a year, but the Giants could have him work for cheap in 2015 before the real payments begin.

The long term, naturally, would be a gamble. In the short term, however, the Giants would be getting a legit ace to help them carry on as World Series contenders.

According to FanGraphs, the Steamer projection for Scherzer‘s 2015 season calls for a 3.02 ERA and a 3.9 WAR. That’s not so great compared to the 6.0 WAR he’s averaged over the last two seasons, but it’s the seventh-highest WAR among Steamer’s starting pitcher projections.

Also, bear in mind that Steamer isn’t thinking of Scherzer as a guy who pitches regularly at AT&T Park. It’s up to you and I to imagine how good he could be there, and boy could he be good.

Scherzer‘s abilities as a strikeout pitcher obviously play well at any ballpark, but his batted-ball profile would definitely, ahem, fly in San Francisco. He’s been one of the fly-balliest pitchers in baseball over the last two seasons, and fly balls don’t die anywhere quite like they do at AT&T Park.

It’s not just the huge dimensions. It’s the marine layer, too. These two things have kept a lot of balls in the yard in recent seasons. Per ESPN.com’s park factors, AT&T Park has been the least-friendly park to home run hitters in three of four years.

Scherzer‘s ERA over the last two seasons with the Detroit Tigers is 3.02. If he trades American League lineups for National League lineups and Comerica Park for AT&T Park, he could consistently do maybe half a run better than that with the Giants as long as he remains in his prime.

Of course, Scherzer won’t be in his prime forever.

He’s 30 years old, and his fastball velocity in 2014 was the worst of his career at an average of 92.8 mph. There’s also no point in ignoring that Scherzer comes with some injury risk, as he’s:

1. A pitcher.
2. A pitcher with over 1,200 big league innings on his arm.
3. A pitcher who doesn’t have a low-effort delivery.

But while these concerns certainly exist, Scherzer‘s not necessarily doomed.

He’ll have more adjustments to make once his fastball velocity is no longer above average, but the fact that he’s steadily decreased his reliance (see Brooks Baseball) on his fastball as he’s gained more experience is a pretty good head start.

And as Jeff Zimmerman argued at MLB Trade Rumors, Scherzer is less of an injury risk than fellow Hot Stove aces Lester and James Shields:

“These three pitchers each have health (no recent DL stints) and a history of being able to make about 33 starts per season on their side. The only difference among them is age, which makes Scherzer the least likely to end up on the DL.”

This is not to say that spending $200 million on Scherzer would be an entirely safe gamble by the Giants. That’s a lot of money going to a 30-year-old pitcher. There would be risk. Plenty of it.

But right now, Scherzer is quite healthy and quite good. Later, there’s a solid chance he could remain quite healthy and quite good. And remember, AT&T Park isn’t going anywhere.

Lastly, beyond the reality that the Giants can afford Scherzer and the reality that he could be worth their while, is another reason to sign him: It’s not like the Giants clearly have better options.

Relative to other clubs, the Giants don’t have a surplus of young talent to use in trades. So as much as a Justin Upton or a Cole Hamels would help, San Francisco may be barred from acquiring players like that.

Meanwhile on the free-agent market, all the good bats are gone, and the only arm comparable to Scherzer is Shields. He’d cost maybe half as much as Scherzer, but he is almost 33, is past his peak and could well be past his peak as a pitcher overall. 

And so, it’s Scherzer or bust. He’s a guy the Giants can get, and he’s the guy they need to get.

Unless, you know, their plan at this point is to just wait until the next even year. That also seems to work.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.  

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Imagine if Mark Twain and Grantland Rice drank rye by a bonfire all night and attempted to come up with an American folk hero for the modern sports era. 

They could conjure up a backcountry, bull-wrangling giant capable of winning the World Series on his own, and they would still only have a fraction of the character that is Madison Bumgarner. 

I say this with confidence due to a feature profile published by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci Tuesday, which—to put it lightly—revealed to readers the tall tale that is Bumgarner‘s life story. 

Verducci lists a number of unbelievable, but reportedly true, stories about the San Francisco Giants pitcher, ranging from wild rabbit saving to dating a woman also named “Madison Bumgarner.” We’ll start with the rabbit, which Verducci writes Bumgarner saved from the belly of a snake he killed.

This may be the best Boone-like tale about the man they call Mad Bum. One day during spring training this year in Scottsdale, Bumgarner and his wife were roping cattle when Madison was startled by a large snake he figured was a rattler. He quickly grabbed an ax and hacked it to pieces. When Ali, an expert field dresser, examined what was left of the snake, she found two baby jackrabbits inside pieces of it and extracted them. A short while later the Bumgarners noticed that one of the rabbits had moved slightly. It was alive. Ali brought the rabbit back to their apartment and for the next few days kept it warm and bottle-nursed it. The rabbit soon was healthy enough for them to release in to the wild.

Bumgarner affirmed this to Verducci.

“Think about how tough that rabbit was,” Bumgarner said. “First it gets eaten by a snake, then the snake gets chopped to pieces, then it gets picked up by people and it lives. It’s all true.” 

As for the other Madison Bumgarner, it’s as weird and simple as it sounds. Bumgarner claimed that prior to marrying his wife Ali, he dated a woman also named “Madison Bumgarner.”

“No relation,” Bumgarner told Verducci. “I’m sure of it.”

If that doesn’t do it for you, Verducci writes of the routine a homesick Bumgarner established in 2007 while playing for the Giants’ Instructional League team in Scottsdale, Arizona. 

Bumgarner would pass the downtime by walking from his room at a Days Inn to the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall. But he didn’t go inside. In a courtyard there was a statue of a bull. Bumgarner would bring a lasso and practice his roping against the inanimate animal, pretending he was home.

So we’re clear, Bumgarner honed his cow-roping skills on a fake bull outside a mall. Again, this is not a character in a Norman Mailer book.

Verducci’s story goes on to tell of Bumgarner’s first real suit (purchased this year), his days of playing coach-pitch with kids nearly double his age and his father-in-law’s one-eyed dog. It’s a great read for fiction lovers, and an even better one for baseball fans who want to know the full, surreal story of the man who practically won the Giants the 2014 World Series single-handedly.

Just try not to forget this is a real person. It’s difficult at times.

Follow Dan on Twitter for more sports and pop culture filigree.

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The San Francisco Giants just lost Pablo Sandoval, their third baseman and cleanup hitter. So, naturally, they should set their sights on…Jon Lester, starting pitcher.

Seems counterintuitive on its face. Sandoval’s departure leaves a panda-sized hole in the San Francisco lineup; shouldn’t filling it be priority No. 1?

The Giants must pursue offensive upgrades, no argument there. In addition to replacing Sandoval, they need a left fielder and complementary pieces to bolster the bench.

But first they should take the gobs of cash they were prepared to hand Sandoval—$95 million over five years, as general manager Bobby Evans revealed on Yahoo SportsTalk Live, per CSN Bay Area—and use it to woo Lester.

If they do land him—and, according to Nick Cafardo of The Boston Globe, they’re “becoming more serious” in their pursuit—it’ll cost them the Sandoval money and then some.

Lester, the top arm on the market not named Max Scherzer, just enjoyed another typically stellar season: 2.46 ERA, 219.2 innings pitched, 220 strikeouts and a 1.102 WHIP.

Naturally, the Giants aren’t alone in the Lester sweepstakes: The Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox have also been linked to the 30-year-old left-hander, per CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman. Expect every team with dough to burn to at least kick the tires.

Giants fans mulling a potential Lester signing may recall the last time San Francisco inked an Oakland A’s left-hander to a massive pact…a fella by the name of Barry Zito.

While Zito ultimately redeemed himself with a gutsy renaissance in the 2012 postseason, helping the Giants secure the second of their three recent rings, his tenure in San Francisco was generally unremarkable and intermittently awful.

So there are reasons to be cautious. As Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles put it, “Lester makes me mighty nervous. At least he’s actually good, though, and not smoke-‘n’-mirrors good like Zito was in his last two years with the A’s.”

Frayed nerves and scarring memories aside, let’s look at what Lester would do for San Francisco.

For all the hand-wringing over Sandoval, the Giants’ true Achilles heel is the starting rotation.

Yes, Madison Bumgarner, fresh off his historic playoff dominance, is an unmitigated stud. After that, things get dicey in a hurry.

Veteran Tim Hudson had a nice year, but he struggled down the stretch, posting an unsightly 8.72 ERA in September, and he turns 40 in July.

Matt Cain, once the sort of horse you’d hitch a franchise to, is recovering from season-ending elbow and ankle surgery.

After that, the Giants have journeyman Yusmeiro Petit, who lifted his stock with a superlative October, and former ace Tim Lincecum, coming off a third consecutive (mostly) dreadful season.

Now imagine Lester slotted next to Bumgarner, creating one of the most formidable left-handed tandems in baseball. Instantly, San Francisco’s starting corps goes from a potential weakness to a significant strength, especially if Cain returns to form.

Yes, a five- or six-year deal would carry Lester at least into his mid-30s. But he’s defined durable, tossing more than 200 innings in six of the last seven seasons.

And he’d play his home games at AT&T Park, an extreme pitchers’ yard.

Of course, the Giants could wow Lester with a budget-busting offer and still lose out. He’s got deep ties to the Red Sox, his old team, as Heyman notes.

He’s also familiar with Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein, who was general manager in Boston when Lester made his big-league debut, and he makes his home in Atlanta.

“When you get to a certain point, money can’t buy happiness,” Lester said of his prospective landing spots, per Heyman.

That seems to suggest he’ll prioritize an ideal location over a maximum payday. Then again, he’s yet to sign, indicating he’s at least weighing all options.

If he chooses the Giants, he’ll nudge the defending champs closer to another title and give himself a chance to improve upon his impressive 2.57 career postseason ERA.

If he goes elsewhere, San Francisco will have to keep scrambling to plug its many holes…and spend that Pablo money.

All statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.

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Fresh off their third World Series title in five years, the business of baseball moves on for the San Francisco Giants.

Pablo Sandoval has signed with the Boston Red Sox, leaving a gaping hole at third base and in the middle of the Giants’ batting order. In addition to third base, general manager Brian Sabean is also in the market for a left fielder, starting pitcher and right-handed reliever.

The Giants will likely have about $30 million to spend to fill these needs, and it will be wise for Sabean not to spend it all on one player.

Let’s take a look at some of the key players the Giants have expressed an interest in and gauge the odds of whether we will see them in a Giants uniform.

Player stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com. Salary and contract data courtesy of Baseball Prospectus.

Begin Slideshow

Suddenly, the San Francisco Giants have a panda-sized hole to fill.

As expected, the Giants made a spirited run at re-signing free-agent third baseman Pablo Sandoval. But the rumor mill had him leaning in the direction of the Boston Red Sox, and Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reported Monday morning that Sandoval and Boston had finally agreed to something in the neighborhood of five years and $100 million.

It took a while for Kung Fu Panda’s departure to be confirmed. But for those who still have doubts about his signing with the Red Sox being a reality, the Giants’ fare-thee-well note should clear things up:

For most Giants fans, here’s guessing that Sandoval’s exit hurts more than the garden-variety free-agent departure.

Beyond it marking a change of pace from general manager Brian Sabean’s usual post-championship M.O. of keeping the band together, the Giants are losing a guy who’s been a postseason hero in two of the club’s three championship runs since 2010 and who’s been widely liked ever since taking over at the hot corner in 2008.

“He’s been such an important part and integral part of this organization for a long time,” Giants assistant general manager Bobby Evans told Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle, adding: “All that he’s accomplished here, it was a terrific story that he wrote while he was here.”

If for no other reason than simple familiarity, Sandoval will be missed in the Giants’ clubhouse. He may be missed even more by the club’s marketing branch, as it’s not easy to replace fan favorites who have fan-friendly nicknames.

What the Giants must make sure of, however, is that they don’t miss Sandoval on the field.

He hasn’t been a great player over the last two seasons, hitting .279 with a modest .748 OPS, but he’s been a good one—particularly in 2014, when Sandoval’s solid offense and defense gave him a decent 3.0 WAR by FanGraphs’ reckoning. A team that won only 88 games in the regular season can’t afford to lose that kind of production without replacing it.

To that end, let’s discuss four solutions the Giants could pursue, beginning with a long shot and ending with the most practical solution.

Move Buster Posey to Third Base and Go with Catcher Platoon

This probably isn’t happening. But since it’s a fascinating idea with a shred of a chance of happening, let’s talk about it.

It was in 2013 when the idea of the Giants one day moving Buster Posey to third base found its way onto the table. This was partially because skipper Bruce Bochy told Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area that he thought his superstar catcher could be a “really good third baseman.”

He certainly could be. Posey’s a solid athlete for a catcher, with the kind of arm strength he’d need for the hot corner. And as a .300 hitter with 20-25-homer power, Posey definitely has the bat for third base.

And it’s not like the Giants are without excuses to move Posey to third. It would be a good way to keep him healthy throughout the life of his nine-year contract, and they have Hector Sanchez and Andrew Susac standing by to form a solid platoon behind the dish.

It’s no wonder that, according to Eno Sarris of FanGraphs, moving Posey to third base has supporters in the Giants front office. Nevertheless, this tweet from the San Francisco Chronicle‘s Henry Schulman indicates pretty strongly that it’s a down-the-line idea rather than a 2015 idea:

Well, nuts. It would be a solid way for the Giants to fill Sandoval’s shoes without sacrificing too much, but it sounds like the Giants have other ideas in mind.

Such as…

Take Sandoval’s Money and Sign a Hitter

Just because the Giants couldn’t re-sign Sandoval doesn’t mean they couldn’t afford him. Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe says they offered him $95 million over five years and were willing to go higher.

Logical conclusion: If the Giants were willing to spend that much on Sandoval, maybe they’ll be willing to spend it on someone else.

To this end, pickings are slim now that the Red Sox have also signed Hanley Ramirez. But one name the Giants have been linked to is Cuban slugger Yasmany Tomas, whom Heyman characterized as something of a Plan B in case the Giants whiffed on Sandoval.

If you don’t know about him already, here’s Ben Badler of Baseball America with the book on Tomas:

A righthanded-hitting corner outfielder, Tomas can hit towering home runs thanks to the strength from his thickly-built 6-foot-1, 230-pound frame. Tomas has 70 raw power on the 20-80 scale. … He has some experience in center field and is a decent runner for his size, but his speed is still below-average and he’s going to be a corner outfielder in pro ball.

That Tomas profiles as a corner outfielder means the Giants could stick him in left field. But since he has some experience at third base and the arm for the position, he could go there instead.

But it must be said that the Giants would be taking a bigger risk than most with a big contract for Tomas. As I outlined last week, AT&T Park is a deterrent for the Giants to invest big on a power-only player. And since they’re in win-now mode, they’re not an ideal fit for a 24-year-old project player like Tomas.

Since he’s really the only free-agent hitter still out there in line for a Sandoval-sized contract, the Giants will be better off if they…

Take Sandoval’s Money and Sign a Pitcher

If you can’t add run production, just go ahead and add run prevention, am I right?

It’s not the worst idea in the world. This according to both myself and apparently the Giants as well. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com says the club has interest in free-agent left-hander Jon Lester:

Lester’s left-handed stylings would be a bit redundant next to those of Madison Bumgarner, but that wouldn’t keep the two of them from being a dangerous duo. And yes, with Tim Hudson old, Matt Cain broken and Tim Lincecum a shell of his former self, the Giants rotation could use such a duo.

Aside from Lester, Max Scherzer’s probably a bit outside the Giants’ price range. But the same doesn’t go for James Shields. He’s likely to be the cheapest of the three and would fit well at AT&T Park after pitching at Kauffman Stadium for two years.

But while the Giants using the money they had set aside for Sandoval on a stud pitcher would work, there’s no rule that says they have to spend that money all on one player. Arguably, the best idea of all would be to…

Take Sandoval’s Money and Spread It Around

Had the Giants spent roughly $20 million per year on Sandoval, they would have filled one hole and left themselves with little money to fill the others. That would have been a dilemma, as they need help in left field and in their rotation.

Now that Sandoval is gone, that potential dilemma has been erased and replaced with a very doable project: spend $20 million to shore up third base, left field and the starting rotation.

The Giants could make a play for Chase Headley at third base and target an affordable left fielder and starting pitcher. They could make a play for Colby Rasmus or old friend Melky Cabrera in left field and target an affordable third baseman and starting pitcher. Or they could target Francisco Liriano, Ervin Santana or Brandon McCarthy and target an affordable left fielder and third baseman.

Based on how they’ve operated in recent years, this is more of a typical Giants way of doing things. Sabean has crafted three championship teams in five years not by luring big-name free agents, but by looking for solid bargain buys and using them to give Bochy a deep roster to work with.

It would have been hard to give Bochy a deep roster if the Giants had committed big bucks to Sandoval. Since the Red Sox barred them from doing so, the Giants must look at what comes next as an opportunity rather than a curse.

Note: Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted/linked.  

If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter.

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Entering the offseason, general manager Brian Sabean and the San Francisco Giants front office faced a question regarding free agent Pablo Sandoval that seemingly had no correct answer.

On the one hand, Kung Fu Panda has been unquantifiably crucial to the Giants’ three World Series runs in the last five years. But on the other, he was expected to be in line for a major payday. Not only did he once again rake in the postseason, but his brother/agent recently talked about seeking respect.

“The good part of this is he’ll get a chance to explore his value on the market, see who can really appreciate him and his work,” said Michael Sandoval, via the Boston Herald‘s Michael Silverman.

Translation: Brother is going to get paid. Like, nine-figures paid.

But the Giants’ once impossible decision (Sandoval has been a San Francisco hero over the past half-decade, but do his numbers really command a bloated contract?) may have just gotten a little easier, so long as this rumor from ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick is accurate:

There’s no question that $90 million seems like a lot, until you realize Russell Martin was just given $82 million over five years, as reported by ESPN.com. That’s not meant as a slight to Martin—he’s one of the best two-way catchers in the league—but it’s a testament to the kind of contracts that are given out when there is no salary cap.

And in that kind of environment, Sandoval is a no-brainer for $90 million over five years.

Panda hit .279/.324/.415 with 16 home runs and 73 RBI last season, numbers that are a little lower than his career averages. He also provided solid defense at the hot corner, finishing with four defensive runs saved, per FanGraphs.com.

He’s not spectacular. But he has solid pop, hardly ever strikes out (third among third basemen in K percentage last year), provides consistent defense at an important position and has a knack for coming up big in clutch situations.

Sandoval had an OPS of .808 with runners in scoring position last year. That was actually well below his career average but still seventh among all qualified third basemen. He also hit a scorching .366/.423/.465 in the postseason, setting a major league record in the process:

Throw in the fact that a five-year deal would only keep him under contract until he’s 33, and there’s little reason not to like a contract of this nature.

It sounds as though the Boston Red Sox are going to be aggressive, so the price could very well increase. But if the price remains this reasonable, the Giants have no choice but to match the offer and hope Panda returns home.

He’s simply too important to let walk for that kind of contract.

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San Francisco Giants pitching prospect Adalberto Mejia has been suspended 50 games by Major League Baseball due to a failed drug test. 

According to Alex Pavlovic of The San Jose Mercury News, Mejia tested positive for a banned stimulant:

As Pavlovic mentions, Mejia is regarded as one of San Francisco’s best prospects. He was ranked as the Giants’ No. 4 prospect coming into the 2014 season by Baseball America and MLB.com, and spent all year playing for Double-A Richmond. 

Just 21 years old, Mejia was signed by the Giants as an international free agent in 2011. In the scouting report for him coming into 2014 on MLB.com, the left-hander was described as having the total package of what scouts look for in a young southpaw:

He had no problem handling high Class A hitters at age 19, as the only thing that slowed him down was a strained lat muscle that sidelined him for seven weeks.

Mejia has everything scouts look for in a pitcher — stuff, size and command — and as a bonus, he’s left-handed. Mejia throws a low-90s two-seam fastball with minimal effort, getting the ball to cut or sink and locating it where he wants.

Losing Mejia for 50 games certainly delays his path to the big leagues next season. He still had work to do, as evidenced by a 4.67 ERA and 119 hits allowed in 108 innings, via MiLB.com, but the ceiling is bright for this young pitcher. This is just a bad speed bump on the road to what will hopefully be a long and prosperous career for a talented hurler. 

If you want to talk sports, hit me up on Twitter. 

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The cheers have quieted and the confetti has been swept away, but the 2014 season will never be forgotten.

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Kansas City Royals to win their third World Series title in five years. In the modern era, with free agency and so much parity in the game, the Giants are a baseball dynasty.

The 2014 season was filled with an incredible number of highs and lows, but in the end, it was the Giants who prevailed. Now that the euphoria of the Giants’ victory parade has subsided, though, it’s time to look at how this team will shape up for 2015.

San Francisco has five key free agents, and it is unrealistic to believe that it can retain all of them. These players include Pablo Sandoval, Michael Morse, Jake Peavy, Ryan Vogelsong and Sergio Romo. All played important roles in the Giants’ success this past season.

Giants general manager Brian Sabean will have a tough task ahead of him this winter. He will attempt to field another championship-caliber team, with limited funds available at his disposal.

In 2014, the Giants opened the season with a payroll of approximately $149 million. That grew to over $150 million over the course of the season. 

San Francisco has already committed roughly $127 million for the upcoming season, but that’s for only 12 players. In addition, this includes Marco Scutaro, who may never play again.

Fresh off the exciting and financially lucrative postseason, the Giants’ ownership group will undoubtedly allow Sabean to grow the payroll above the $150 million mark. Just how much more is the major question.

Even a $25 million increase, which is a realistic figure, may not enable Sabean the flexibility to build a roster as solid as the one San Francisco had in the 2014 postseason.

Let’s take a look at the key free agents the Giants must consider and estimate the odds of each player returning to San Francisco.

All stats are courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

All salary data is courtesy of BaseballProspectus.com.

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Of course a playoff game between the San Francisco Giants, those inexplicable #EvenYear magicians, and St. Louis Cardinals, the late-inning comeback club, would end this way. With a walk-off error on a bunt, that is. Oh, and in extra innings to boot.

The Giants’ postseason fortune in 2014—like that from 2012 and 2010 before it—continued as they won 5-4 in 10 innings to go up two games to one on the Cardinals, who stormed all the way back from a 4-0 first-inning deficit on Tuesday.

The deciding run came when Brandon Crawford, a lefty hitter who had been walked by lefty specialist Randy Choate to lead off the 10th, sprinted home from second base when Choate fielded Gregor Blanco’s sacrifice bunt attempt only to promptly throw it away down the right field line.

It was a so-very-Giants way to win, especially considering San Francisco had managed exactly one hit—by starting pitcher Tim Hudson, no less—after that four-run barrage in the first until Juan Perez’s single in the 10th pushed Crawford to second.

And yet despite the seeming randomness with which this club keeps on winning, the Giants have regained the edge in a dramatic, tightly contested National League Championship Series that has featured a ninth-inning walk-off home run in Game 2 and Game 3’s walk-off E-1. Through three games, the two teams are separated by all of three runs.

“I’m a little delirious,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in his televised postgame press conference of managing in yet another pressure-packed playoff game. “We don’t do anything easy. We scored four in the first and then nothing after that until the very end. We play a lot of tight games. It’s kind of our way.”

But the Giants don’t only play a lot of close games in October—they tend to win them.

With the next two still in San Francisco, the Giants have a chance to close out the Cardinals at home behind their Game 4 starter, righty Ryan Vogelsong—he of the 1.19 career playoff ERA—and lefty Madison Bumgarner, the last postseason ace still throwing, who looms in the potential clinch-the-series Game 5.

On the other side, the Cardinals are dealing with injuries (or at least injury concerns) to their two most important players, right-hander Adam Wainwright with his balky elbow and catcher Yadier Molina with his cranky left oblique.

“I woke up [Monday] moving a little better,” Molina said, via Lyle Spencer of MLB.com. “I feel good enough to catch.”

And yet, Molina isn’t healthy enough to hit, so he missed Game 3, the first playoff game he hadn’t played in since Game 2 of the World Series all the way back in 2004—a whopping 84 games ago. Sure, he got up to catch relievers Trevor Rosenthal and Seth Maness in the bullpen in the late innings, but that’s not exactly a promising sign.

Wainwright, meanwhile, is lined up to go against Bumgarner in Game 5, but that doesn’t instill much confidence given how he’s thrown this October. In two turns, the normally dependable righty has managed to make it through just nine innings while surrendering eight earned runs on 17 hits. Yikes.

Even the Cardinals’ freakish knack for finding their stroke late in games, particularly from the seventh inning on, might not be enough to overcome that. Heck, the comeback from 4-0 down to tie it at 4-4 on a solo shot by rookie Randal Grichuk in—you guessed it—the seventh wasn’t good enough Tuesday.

As Giants left fielder Travis Ishikawa, whose three-run double was the blow that put the Giants up 4-0 in the first, said, per Chris Haft of MLB.com:

Somebody asked me earlier…if there’s any other way we can score a run other than a non-conventional way, and I said, ‘If there is, we’re going to find a way.’ Just seems like…the resilience of this team. There’s no quit, whether we’re down or whether we’ve got the small lead. We’re going to find a way to get it done.

These two teams rule the NL just about every year, thanks to their uncanny (and somewhat supernatural?) ability to win—and win in dramatic, weird fashion—in October, so it’s fitting that they’re facing off in the NLCS.

But after the drama and weirdness of Game 3 and the questionable status of two key Cardinals going forward, it seems St. Louis’ late-inning comeback powers are being overwhelmed by the Giants’ random every-even-year luck.

You know, if such a thing exists.

Statistics are accurate through Oct. 14 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

To talk baseball or fantasy baseball, check in with me on Twitter: @JayCat11.

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