- 22 hours ago
Willard and Dibs wonder why every MLB reporter is sharing the same thing at the same time -- the Giants are willing to listen to trade offers on Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman. Why are they putting this out there now?
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00:00I'm fascinated by something that's taken place over the last 24 hours, and I want to work it out with
00:05you a little bit.
00:06Okay, let's do that.
00:07Why is every single baseball reporter in America all of the sudden, at the exact same time, all reporting the
00:13exact same thing about the San Francisco Giants?
00:15And they're reporting it on their own. They're not just reporting somebody else's report.
00:18Correct. Multiple sources to ESPN, multiple sources to MLB.com, multiple sources to The Athletic, multiple sources, multiple sources.
00:28The Giants are taking offers on their big three money guys.
00:33Man, Adamus, Devers, and Matt Chapman.
00:36Right.
00:37They're taking offers seven weeks ahead of the deadline.
00:40There's so much that I want to pick apart here, because think about what that means.
00:45It literally feels today as if a press release went out, and you don't send press releases out about that.
00:54But text messages done got sent.
00:59All at the same time, to multiple places, Rosenthal writes it, Buster Olney tweets it, Mark Feinsand tweets it, all
01:11of the outlets write articles about it.
01:15The San Francisco Giants.
01:16And all of the articles also say the same thing.
01:19While they have not fully made the decision yet to become sellers, because there is still time for them to
01:28rally back.
01:30But at the same time, they are now officially making calls and taking calls with regard to Rafael Devers, Matt
01:39Chapman, and Willie Adamus.
01:41Why would suddenly that get reported by so many people all on the same day?
01:47Because you want to get ahead of the curve, and you want to let teams know, let the world know,
01:52that anybody in this team can be had except for Logan Webb.
01:56Because that was also...
01:57And except for Bryce Eldridge.
01:59Fine, yeah.
01:59You know, but okay, let me ask you this.
02:03If you want the world to know, I'm pretty sure Buster Posey's got the number for all the other GMs.
02:09You would hope.
02:10Why don't you text them?
02:11Zach Manassian's brother is actually a GM as well, so...
02:15Correct.
02:15Down there in Anaheim, I believe.
02:17They're doing well, too.
02:18Yeah, boy.
02:19What's the aggregate for the Manassian brothers right now?
02:22I mean, I think that the Giants have a slightly better record than the Angels, but, I mean, they're probably
02:28a combined 38-low.
02:30Yeah.
02:31It's rough between the two, but...
02:33Yeah.
02:34So that just struck me.
02:36Yeah.
02:37Again, not the news, but why the news, and how the news.
02:43Why did the Giants suddenly send that out?
02:46And then, here are some of the branches that come off of that tree.
02:49Hey, Willie Adamas and Matt Chapman both have no trade clauses.
02:54Interesting.
02:55So I would imagine that if I were Willie or Matt, and I've got a computer, and I've got a
03:00phone, they can both afford one, and all of a sudden, you see that everywhere.
03:06Giants are taking offers on Willie Adamas and Matt Chapman, and both of them are sitting there going, I have
03:11a no trade clause.
03:13You can't take offers on me without my permission.
03:17Ah, there's that.
03:19Does that tell you that the Giants have already gone to both of those guys and said to them, hey,
03:28here's the situation, and we've got to kind of recalibrate a little bit.
03:34There might be an opportunity for us to get you to a winner.
03:39Would you be open to it?
03:40And it might have even gone the other way where they go to management and say, look, this thing is
03:46not going the way we wanted.
03:48I signed here when Bob Melvin was the skipper, and I like Bob.
03:52I used to play for him.
03:53And you brought this guy in who is not Harry High School, but he's straight out of college, and he's
03:59doing things that aren't really working.
04:01And you know what?
04:02Maybe I want to go play for a winner.
04:05So how about you start making some calls and taking some calls?
04:08I doubt it's gone that way, but sure, it's on the table.
04:11It's on the table.
04:12And I mean, the agent can contact the front office.
04:15I mean, don't forget that Chapman spoke to Slusser three weeks ago, and in the article, it was like, trading
04:23Chapman is, quote, not happening.
04:25It's not happening.
04:26In other words, he was telling her at that time, like, and remember, at that time, he also was striking
04:33out every single day.
04:34Right, right.
04:34And that's what Buster told Susan Slusser?
04:37No, Matt.
04:37Okay.
04:38Matt.
04:39I mean, well, it was really.
04:40Well, that was at the same time as him getting death threats.
04:42Yeah, it was Susan's line.
04:43She wrote, not happening.
04:45Right.
04:45But I certainly took from that, like, you're sitting there talking to Matt.
04:48If you say not happening, it's both because you, A, think the Giants have signed up for this, and they
04:55believe in Matt Chapman, and, B, Matt's sitting there going, that's not what I signed up for.
05:01And he has no trade clause.
05:03But then again, not what I signed up for.
05:06Like, when Matt Chapman joined the Giants and when he signed his extension, Bob Melvin was the manager.
05:13Exactly.
05:13And Farhan Zaidi was president of Baseball Ops for both of them.
05:18Even though Buster pushed that across, he was not the Pobo yet.
05:23Right.
05:23And, you know, you have that situation primarily.
05:25I look at the Bob Melvin piece because he played for Bob in Oakland, and then Bob's here, and you
05:31decide you want to sign an extension, possibly connected to Bob because you enjoyed playing for him.
05:37And now Tony Vitello is in, and it's not going great.
05:40And it's his first year, and you got to give him time and all the rest of it.
05:43But just from the outside looking in, it's not going great.
05:48And, you know, you had to replace your third base coach already because he was making mistake after mistake, and
05:54you have no bullpen, and you're one of the losingest teams in baseball right now.
06:00So I wouldn't blame any of them if they went to their agent and said, yo, yo, agent, how about
06:06we try to get me out of here?
06:07I wouldn't blame anybody for anything.
06:10Like, that kind of stuff, you never know what's going on behind the scenes because, make no mistake about it,
06:16Matt Chapman and Willie Adamas, and I'm sure money was the number one driving force, but both of them sat
06:20down once upon a time, and a piece of paper was put in front of them that pretty much represented
06:26you spending the rest of your career here.
06:29Not that long ago.
06:31Both of them signed those pieces of paper.
06:33I'd like to be a giant into my late 30s.
06:37That's what both of them, and in fact, I so want to be a giant that that agent you just
06:42referenced, in both cases, requested a no trade clause.
06:47Like, you, in fact, you can't make me not be a giant if I don't want to be.
06:53They both asked for that less than two years ago, and so I'm fascinated by, let's unpack what happened here,
07:03what just happened here.
07:05And then there's the third piece, and this might be the largest one of them all, and that is the
07:10first baseman who is in some ways blocking the great new hope,
07:15and also is the one who doesn't have a no trade clause.
07:19Rafael Devers does not have a no trade clause.
07:21And he did not sign to play here.
07:23Correct.
07:24He signed to play elsewhere, and then that soured, and, well, he's getting paid a lot, but he would be
07:29here for another seven and a half seasons?
07:31And these articles came out on the exact one-year anniversary of his acquisition, and it really made me take
07:42a step back and go,
07:44okay, let's think about Rafi Devers for a second, because these three guys, in different ways, at one point or
07:52another,
07:53represented the guys we've been waiting for.
07:57Absolutely.
07:58Willie Adamas and Matt Chapman, veteran left-side infielders who both chose to come to the Giants.
08:05So all the fans that go, nobody wants to come here.
08:09Well, they did.
08:10They chose to come here.
08:11They chose to sign long-term, and they chose to have a no trade clause.
08:17And then Rafi Devers, he's acquired, and we've all been after the elite hitter.
08:25The Giants have been after all of the Bryce Harpers and the Aaron Judges to no avail.
08:30And finally, they get this guy.
08:33And 365 days later to the day, they put all of them on the market, in the middle of every
08:42content creator who will listen.
08:45And it struck me that the relationship that has been built between Rafi Devers and this fan base in 365
08:52days is damn near non-existent.
08:54Right.
08:55And that's wild to me.
08:57This was the guy we were waiting for.
09:01And the relationship is what?
09:05It's non-existent.
09:06What is it?
09:06Well, do you see any Devers jerseys out there?
09:09No.
09:09Because I sure don't.
09:10No.
09:10And have you ever seen him do, like, a sit-down interview?
09:14I know on NBC Sports, Bay Area, they do the thing with Alex Pavlovich and Bonte Hill.
09:21And I think Adamas is on one of those.
09:23Adamas has done it.
09:23Sure.
09:24Logan has done it.
09:25Don't think I've seen Rafi Devers on that.
09:27Nope.
09:27And I don't even know what he sounds like.
09:29You and I were talking about it before the show, and I was just trying to think about just his
09:33voice.
09:34And, you know, what does he sound like?
09:36I have no idea.
09:37You got to remember back, basically, to the introductory press conference.
09:42Yep.
09:42But he has barely spoken since then.
09:45And he doesn't like it.
09:46And I'm not going to come down his road for that.
09:48Yeah, I'm not.
09:49You know, there is a language barrier, though Jung-Hoo Lee has done more interviews than Rafi Devers.
09:54But that's fine.
09:55If you choose to not talk to the media, you choose to not talk to the media.
10:00But we arrive at here.
10:02The guy we've been waiting for.
10:05And the guy that the Giants gave up their then No. 1 upcoming pitching prospect,
10:10the No. 1 left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball,
10:13they gave him up for this guy because they so badly needed a bat.
10:17And we as a fan base so badly needed a bat.
10:20And exactly a year later, the relationship between him and the fans feels like a wet newspaper.
10:27It's not.
10:28It's just it's not even there.
10:30These three guys we're talking about, I would argue if you did a Giants popularity poll right now,
10:36none of them end up in the top four.
10:37No, I was even thinking top eight, but that might be a stretch.
10:41Yeah, that's probably a stretch.
10:42I mean, Bryce would be above him for sure already.
10:44Bryce, Casey, Jung-Hoo Lee, Logan Webb.
10:48Those are my four.
10:49Yep, that's an easy, quick four.
10:51Yeah, those are the four that I think are resonating with the fan base right now.
10:55I like Matt Chapman.
10:56And Matt's had now a good three weeks that's calmed everyone down about his numbers.
10:59I don't dislike Rafi Devers and Willie Adamas, but it's fascinating.
11:05None of them homegrown.
11:07All of them acquired.
11:08All of them supposedly scratching itches that we all had.
11:13And their relationship with the fans, particularly with Devers, is just it feels very incomplete.
11:21Yeah, I think Adamas has a great relationship with the fans.
11:24And it would help if they had more walk-off wins and he could douse more people with Gatorade.
11:29They just haven't had that many.
11:31And even though he was chatting with Mookie Betts and forgot how many outs there were,
11:36he has a certain amount of joy and personality, I think, that is connecting with people.
11:40But it's hard to really look at any player and be happy about it because they, as a team, are
11:46so bad.
11:47There you go.
11:47I mean, the number one answer on the board as to why it's like this is because since the three
11:52have arrived,
11:53the Giants lose a lot more games than they win.
11:56But we'd love to hear about that.
11:58You, as a Giants fan, what is your relationship with Rafi Devers?
12:04Like, let's spotlight on that.
12:06If you'd rather talk about Adamas or Chapman, we can do that too.
12:10But those guys are in control of their future.
12:12If they don't want to leave, they don't leave.
12:15Devers is the one that the Giants, if they find a taker, he can go.
12:20And Bryce Eldridge can just go ahead and take over first base.
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