Offseason Giants update- Dec. 13, 2012

OF Andres Torres is back, signing a one-year deal.

The team also re-signed P Shane Loux to a minor-league deal and signed P Chad Gaudin to a minor league contract as well.

Also at the Rule 5 Draft on December 6, the Giants neither drafted nor lost any players in the Major League phase. In the Triple-A phase, they drafted P Scott Shuman from the Tampa Bay organization.
They lost P Cameron Lamb (who pitched 2012 with low-A Salem-Keizer) to Houston.

Ex-Giants news:
-Eli Whiteside is waived for the third time this off-season (SF, NYY, Tor). Texas has now claimed him.
-Jeff Keppinger signs with the White Sox.
-P Kevin Correia signs with Minneosta
-2B Eugenio Velez signs a minor-league deal with Toronto

Giants Off-season update

Catching up with the last few weeks:

November 30 was the non-tender deadline, meaning the team had to offer contracts to its arbitration eligible players, or they could become free-agents. Of that group, the team declined to offer a tender to P Brian Wilson.

Recapping the off-season moves thus far:

Activated from 60-day DL:
2B Freddy Sanchez
P Eric Surkamp
P Brian Wilson

Free agents:
P Jeremey Affeldt (re-signed with SF on 11/14/12)
OF Melky Cabrera (signed with Tor on 11/19/12)
2B Emmanuel Burris (outrighted by Giants on 11/06/12; elected free agency on 11/08/12; signed with Cin on 11/14/12)
P Clay Hensley (outrighted by Giants and elected free agency on 11/06/12)
P Guillemro Mota
OF Xavier Nady
OF Angel Pagan
P Brad Penny
2B Freddy Sanchez
2B Marco Scutaro
2B Ryan Theriot
1B Aubrey Huff

Added to 40-man roster (on 11/12/12)
P Jake Dunning
P Edwin Escobar
OF Juan Perez
INF Nick Noonan
P Chris Heston
 
Minor-league free agent signings
P Eric Hacker (re-signs on 11/14/12)
C Tyler LaTorre (re-signed with SF)
P Will Lebron (did not play affiliated baseball in 2012; last for KC organization in 2011) [as reported by MLB.com transaction ticker]
P Fabio Castillo (from Tex; reported by Baseball America)
C Guillermo Quiroz (from Bos, reported by Baseball America
Also, reports that the team re-signed P Boof Bonser

Minor-leauge free agents (list confirmed by Baseball America)
P Brian Burres
OF Justin Christian (signed with Cin)
P Hector Correa signs with the Dodgers on 11/14/12
3B Jose Flores
1B Wes Hodges
P Andrew Kown
1B/OF Todd Linden
P Shane Loux
P Rafael Martinez
P Scott Munter
P Wilmin Rodriguez
P Clayton Tanner
P Craig Whitaker
P Matt Yourkin


Designated for Assignment and claimed
C Eli Whiteside (by NYY on xxx; then DFA'd again by NYY on 11/28/12)

Notable former player tracker:
OF Nate Schierholz was non-tendered by Phi and elected free agency.
OF Andres Torres was non-tendered by NYM and elected free agency.
2B Mike Fontenot signs with Tampa Bay (from Phi)
P Alex Hinshaw signs with Tor on 11/21/12 (played for Chi-N and SD in 2012)
P Zack Wheeler is added to NYM 40-man roster on 11/18/12
OF Darren Ford signs wiht Pit on 11/06/12



Also, Giants mortal enemy OF Scott Cousins has been designated for assignment and claimed (in order) by Miami, Toronto, Seattle and is now with Los Angeles of Anaheim.

Giants add five prospects to 40-man roster

The Giants added five minor league prospects to the 40-man roster, protecting them from the Rule 5 Draft.

Added are P Edwin Escobar, P Chris Heston, P Jake Dunning, OF Juan Perez and INF Nick Noonan.

Only Noonan played as high as Triple-A. No one has MLB experience.

The Giants now have 35 men on the 40-man roster:

Italics- added since end of off-season

Pitchers:
Affeldt (re-signed)
Bumgarner
Cain
Casilla
Dunning (purchased contract)
Escobar (purchased contract)
Heston (purchased contract)
Kontos
Linceum
Lopez
Machi
Mijares
Otero
Petit
Romo
Runzler
Surkamp
Vogelsong
Wilson
Zito

Catchers:
Posey
Sanchez

Infielders:
Adrianza
Arias
Belt
Crawford
Gillaspie
Noonan (purchased contract)
Pill
Sandoval

Outfielders:
Blanco
Kieschnick
Peguero
Pence
Perez (purchased contract)

Offseason update: Affeldt back, Christian gone

P Jeremy Affeldt resigned with the Giants.

OF Justin Christian, who was outrighted and elected free agency, signed a minor-league deal with the Cardinals.

Also, according to Baseball America:

Signed: RHP Boof Bonser (re-signed), RHP Omar Javier (Newark (Can-Am)), 1B Mark Minicozzi (re-signed)

Hensley, Burriss outrighted

The Giants today (11/07/12) outrighted P Clay Hensley and INF Emmaneul Burriss. Hensley declined the assignment, and is now a free agent. Burriss accepted, and is now on the Fresno roster.

Both players were arbitration-eligible.

Whiteside wavied; Yankees claim

The Eli Whiteside era is over. The Giants waived the catcher off the 40-man roster, and he was subsequently claimed by the Yankees.

The Giants now have 31 active players on the 40-man roster (not included Angel Villalona, still on the restricted list).

Giants roster back in full force

Now that the season is over, the off season is here, and the Giants' 40-man roster is back at full force, kind of. In the transactions, the remainder of the players not on the playoff roster were "activated," Freddy Sanchez was activated from the 60-day DL, and the three remaining players not already recalled in September (Kieschnick, Gillaspie, Adrianza) are now recalled.

However, Monday began free agency (see here for the Giants list). This year marks the new system of free agency, as negotiated in the new collective bargaining agreement, where players do not have to file, they automatically become free agents.

There is a five-day window (Monday-Friday this year), where the teams have an exclusive window to negotiate with their free agents. Yet according to John Schlegel of MLB.com, in order to receive a compensation pick if a free agent signs with another team would require a one-year offer of about $13 M (the average salary of the top 125 players).

That is a high risk if the Giants wanted to receive an extra draft pick of OF Melky Cabrera or even OF Angel Pagan sign elsewhere.

The Giants have 10 free agent-eligible players (assuming the option to 1B Aubrey Huff is declined). The team also has nine arbitration-eligible players (assuming Buster Posey is one of them). If the team declines to offer arbitration, that player may also be a free agent.

Expect also to see more prospects added to the 40-man roster with all the additional spots opened up.