Farhan Zaidi says don’t rule out $100 million player contracts for the SF Giants

Since taking control of baseball operations in San Francisco, the Giants’ head honcho, Farhan Zaidi, has taken small bites in free agency, signing a multitude of players to one-year and short-term contracts.

The effect has been grand, with the Giants winning an astonishing 107 games last season. But after signing outfielder Joc Pederson to a one-year deal and letting last season’s mid-year acquisition, Kris Bryant, walk in free agency and sign a big-money deal elsewhere, the question must be asked:

Are Zaidi and the Giants prepared to spend? According to Zaidi, they are. Though at the moment, Zaidi likes how his position players stack up.

“I think the right fit we would still look at, but we feel pretty set on the position-player side.”

The idea that the Giants have ruled out any $100 million deals is inaccurate, he said.

“That’s just not the case,” Zaidi said, noting that many of the team’s signings recently have been one-year deals because the players wanted to prove themselves and go back out on the market. “There is an element of that incremental approach in what we do, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t players getting big contracts that we would love to have and that we were involved with.”

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco

That’s good news for Giants fans. They only need to look across San Francisco Bay to see what cheap ownership looks like.

But if the formula isn’t broken, then why fix it? Zaidi’s approach has worked wonders, and the Giants are well-positioned for just one big-time player contract to make an enormous impact.

It will be difficult for Zaidi’s squad to duplicate its success from last season, however, so it’s a certainty that Zaidi is looking for the right player that is worth spending on. But overall, his approach seems sound. He’s got money to spend, but it’s not burning a hole in his pocket. In today’s Major Leagues, with spending at an all-time high and return on investment hard to come by, Zaidi looks to have what it takes to make the Giants contenders year after year.