[cardcrimson]

Fans are always fickle. No sale of the team, no boycott. . . .

OK, now that the disaster has happened, it's now time to peel away the layers of this rotten onion and learn WTF REALLY happened. This is the story of the lifetimes of Giants reporters. Let's see who comes up with the full monty based on adroit reporting inside the organization, because it's gonna be a doozy. Before that happens, let's pose some questions that need to be answered and engage in some commentary about them.

Who made the call to nix the Correa contract?
It seems highly doubtful that Farhan Zaidi would be the one to balk at the deal based on results of this physical. Maybe he did, but it seems Farr more likely someone in ownership was responsible. It's dubious to me that Farhan would go to Greg Johnson and say "uh, boss, we found something a little concerning with the Correa physical, and I'm not so sure it makes sense to go forward on the contract now."  It seems a lot more likely that Farhan would have said they found something, told Greg Johnson, and he said "that sounds too risky, we need to renegotiate." The other possible reality that would be kind of the worse case scenario, is Greg Johnson has a "mole" checking around Zaidi's actions, and the mole, not Farhan, brought the medical concern to the attention of Greg Johnson, and Johnson told Farhan to cancel the presser, etc. If it wasn't Farhan's call, and he didn't think the issue was that big of a deal or could be managed, he should resign. 

HOW could the Giants not have done due diligence on Correa before agreeing to terms?
It's been reported that the Twins knew of the Correa physical issue and offered him more AAV than the Giants. Aside from anything else, the Giants should have known what the Correa concern was before they negotiated terms of a deal with Boras. Nobody with any wisdom would negotiate the largest contract in organization history without knowing before negotiations start that they know whatever they need to know to move forward. Just like you don't make an offer to buy a company until after due diligence, you don't make the biggest free agent contract offer in franchise history without without doing it. The Giants have plenty of owners who know M&A basics. Someone needs to get to the bottom of why they didn't do it with Correa. 

How can the Giants square being afraid with the Mets and Twins being OK with paying Correa almost the same?
Everyone has different risk tolerance, but both the Mets and Twins were OK with signing Correa to a long term contract. It would be a bigger gamble for the Twins given they aren't nearly as rich as the Giants. The "he's been in the IL 7 times in 8 years" concern is a red herring to me. Every player can get injured and miss time. And FFS, a guy like Evan Longoria was on the IL what, 4-5 times in 2022 alone? Unless Correa misses months at a time with an injury related to whatever caused concern in the physical, the Giants will look even more foolish than they do just allowing this debacle to happen in the first place. And like was pointed out in the Chronicle on Dec. 21, the Mets balked on a contract with a player who had a concerning MRI JUST LAST YEAR.

How can the team possibly gain back the trust of fans?
The Grant Brisbee column on this pratfall has about 600 comments in less than 24 hours. I can assure you most of them are not flattering to the Giants. The most liked comment (222) is this:

It’s really, really hard to squander Three World Series In Five Years-levels of goodwill, but dang if this front office hasn’t done it. I say we dust off and nuke the site from orbit - it’s the only way to be sure.

Pretenders. Con-artists. Charlatans. These are the words the fans are using to describe the Giants in the aftermath of their latest debacle. And nobody gives a F about 107 wins anymore either. When you have the Dodgers and Padres running circles around you, are the 5th richest team in MLB, with the #14 ranked payroll, on a team without a bevy of talented team-controlled youth, you have zero credibility.  I just looked at Spotrac's Giants payroll and OMG is it a a joke. Brandon Crawford is the highest paid regular player. A 36 yo declining SS. Really? Fast forward a year and the Giants only have THREE non-arbitration players in 2024; Haniger, DeSclafani, and Flores. WTF are they even doing? If Haniger plays well, he will be a trade chip this season as the Giants are circling the drain in July.

When do the excuses stop?
The Chronicle column referenced above ripped the Giants a new one in a very New York kind of way for their absurd "San Francisco politics turns off baseball players" pre-excuse before free agency nonsense. As the column correctly points out (and I have been railing about for years), you get passed players choosing other places when all things are equal, by making sure they aren't equal and paying more than anyone else. That's how it works. The Giants are too oblivious to understand they have a special tax on their incompetence, meaning it's going to cost them more to get top players anyone else wants, because the agents know how badly the Giants need to land someone to satisfy their fans. Throw the S.F. cost of living on top, and the Giants probably need to pay 20% more than the next highest offer to land someone coveted by others. One can only imagine what the premium on Giants incompetence and timidness is going to cost them for the next big free agent they do actually sign. But guess what, the Giants balked at Correa, not the other way around.

Is it time for this ownership group to sell the team? Is it time for the fans to boycott the team until they do?
I believe the answers are yes and yes.

[cardcrimson]

Fans are always fickle. No sale of the team, no boycott. . . .

OK, now that the disaster has happened, it's now time to peel away the layers of this rotten onion and learn WTF REALLY happened. This is the story of the lifetimes of Giants reporters. Let's see who comes up with the full monty based on adroit reporting inside the organization, because it's gonna be a doozy. Before that happens, let's pose some questions that need to be answered and engage in some commentary about them.

Who made the call to nix the Correa contract?
It seems highly doubtful that Farhan Zaidi would be the one to balk at the deal based on results of this physical. Maybe he did, but it seems Farr more likely someone in ownership was responsible. It's dubious to me that Farhan would go to Greg Johnson and say "uh, boss, we found something a little concerning with the Correa physical, and I'm not so sure it makes sense to go forward on the contract now."  It seems a lot more likely that Farhan would have said they found something, told Greg Johnson, and he said "that sounds too risky, we need to renegotiate." The other possible reality that would be kind of the worse case scenario, is Greg Johnson has a "mole" checking around Zaidi's actions, and the mole, not Farhan, brought the medical concern to the attention of Greg Johnson, and Johnson told Farhan to cancel the presser, etc. If it wasn't Farhan's call, and he didn't think the issue was that big of a deal or could be managed, he should resign. 

HOW could the Giants not have done due diligence on Correa before agreeing to terms?
It's been reported that the Twins knew of the Correa physical issue and offered him more AAV than the Giants. Aside from anything else, the Giants should have known what the Correa concern was before they negotiated terms of a deal with Boras. Nobody with any wisdom would negotiate the largest contract in organization history without knowing before negotiations start that they know whatever they need to know to move forward. Just like you don't make an offer to buy a company until after due diligence, you don't make the biggest free agent contract offer in franchise history without without doing it. The Giants have plenty of owners who know M&A basics. Someone needs to get to the bottom of why they didn't do it with Correa. 

How can the Giants square being afraid with the Mets and Twins being OK with paying Correa almost the same?
Everyone has different risk tolerance, but both the Mets and Twins were OK with signing Correa to a long term contract. It would be a bigger gamble for the Twins given they aren't nearly as rich as the Giants. The "he's been in the IL 7 times in 8 years" concern is a red herring to me. Every player can get injured and miss time. And FFS, a guy like Evan Longoria was on the IL what, 4-5 times in 2022 alone? Unless Correa misses months at a time with an injury related to whatever caused concern in the physical, the Giants will look even more foolish than they do just allowing this debacle to happen in the first place. And like was pointed out in the Chronicle on Dec. 21, the Mets balked on a contract with a player who had a concerning MRI JUST LAST YEAR.

How can the team possibly gain back the trust of fans?
The Grant Brisbee column on this pratfall has about 600 comments in less than 24 hours. I can assure you most of them are not flattering to the Giants. The most liked comment (222) is this:

It’s really, really hard to squander Three World Series In Five Years-levels of goodwill, but dang if this front office hasn’t done it. I say we dust off and nuke the site from orbit - it’s the only way to be sure.

Pretenders. Con-artists. Charlatans. These are the words the fans are using to describe the Giants in the aftermath of their latest debacle. And nobody gives a F about 107 wins anymore either. When you have the Dodgers and Padres running circles around you, are the 5th richest team in MLB, with the #14 ranked payroll, on a team without a bevy of talented team-controlled youth, you have zero credibility.  I just looked at Spotrac's Giants payroll and OMG is it a a joke. Brandon Crawford is the highest paid regular player. A 36 yo declining SS. Really? Fast forward a year and the Giants only have THREE non-arbitration players in 2024; Haniger, DeSclafani, and Flores. WTF are they even doing? If Haniger plays well, he will be a trade chip this season as the Giants are circling the drain in July.

When do the excuses stop?
The Chronicle column referenced above ripped the Giants a new one in a very New York kind of way for their absurd "San Francisco politics turns off baseball players" pre-excuse before free agency nonsense. As the column correctly points out (and I have been railing about for years), you get passed players choosing other places when all things are equal, by making sure they aren't equal and paying more than anyone else. That's how it works. The Giants are too oblivious to understand they have a special tax on their incompetence, meaning it's going to cost them more to get top players anyone else wants, because the agents know how badly the Giants need to land someone to satisfy their fans. Throw the S.F. cost of living on top, and the Giants probably need to pay 20% more than the next highest offer to land someone coveted by others. One can only imagine what the premium on Giants incompetence and timidness is going to cost them for the next big free agent they do actually sign. But guess what, the Giants balked at Correa, not the other way around.

Is it time for this ownership group to sell the team? Is it time for the fans to boycott the team until they do?
I believe the answers are yes and yes.