Cody Glenn-USA TODAY Sports
The baseball season is over.
Farhan Zaidi’s season is beginning.
As the Nationals took out the Astros on Wednesday night to close the World Series, they also opened what will be a busy offseason for the Giants. As of today, Madison Bumgarner is no longer a Giant. Neither is Will Smith, Pablo Sandoval (at least once Boston officially rejects his option), Stephen Vogt and Fernando Abad. The Giants have an exclusive window to negotiate with these free agents over the next five days, but it would qualify as a stunner if any is signed in that space.
When Tuesday hits and no contracts have been signed, the Giants can assign qualifying offers to Bumgarner and, likely, Smith. The one-year, $17.8 million pact will be turned down by Bumgarner and hurt his free agency, as a team that signs him would lose a compensatory draft pick to the Giants. If Smith is given the qualifying offer, there is a chance he takes it; the 30-year-old has made just under $13 million in his career, according to Spotrac. While he likely can land a multi-year deal in free agency, his QO strings would hurt his value, too, and he would not approach $18 million per year in this market. The free agents have 10 days to decide whether to accept the qualifying offer.
Also with a decision to make within that five-day gap will be Tony Watson, who has a player option for next year with a $2.5 million base salary with plenty of incentives.
Come Tuesday, the Giants also must add the players on the 60-day IL back to the 40-man roster (Steven Duggar, Trevor Gott, Reyes Moronta and Zach Green). They do not have to make more drastic 40-man decisions yet, as the free agents will be removed.
Through Monday, Zaidi can add these free-agent/qualifying offer decisions to the manager and GM search he’s already conducting, as the offseason is not really an offseason for a front office.