Report: Giants expected to cut payroll for 2025 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After a lackluster 2024 MLB season in which the Giants finished fourth in the NL West, San Francisco will reportedly take a different approach when it comes to the team’s coffers next year.
Under new president of baseball operations Buster Posey, the Giants are expected to be more frugal with their spending this season, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly reported in a piece published Friday, citing a league source familiar with the plans. the team.
“The Giants’ adjusted payroll, which takes into account salary earned but not necessarily paid out in a given year, is expected to take a step back from the $206 million they spent last season when they were on 80-82 while crossing the luxury tax threshold.” for the first time since 2018,” Baggarly wrote.
According to Baggarly, even a “modest amount of tightening” would still leave the Giants with only $30-$40 million to spend this offseason on more players than those already under team control.
In addition to arbitration-eligible players, Camilo Doval, Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Tyler Rogers, and players eligible for pre-arbitration, the Giants have eight others under contract through 2025: Robbie Ray, Jung Hoo Lee, Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks, Taylor Rogers, Wilmer Flores, Tom Murphy and Matt Chapman, who just signed a lucrative $151 million contract.
Such cuts as reported by Baggarly would certainly exclude San Francisco from the Juan Soto sweepstakes this offseason, as well as from the competition for free-agent ace Blake Snell, who recently opted out of his Giants contract.
Baggarly contacted Posey by text for his story, who declined to comment, stating he “would not discuss the payroll matters.”
But chairman Greg Johnson told Baggarly via text message that the Giants “never have a fixed budget, just a pretty broad scope. The final number depends on enough movement between trades and free agents. Our goal is to try to field the most competitive team. It is far too early in the process to make smart baseball decisions that balance the short and long term.”
It’s been ten years since the Giants’ last championship season. But after failing to meet expectations in 2024 despite crossing the luxury tax threshold, the organization appears to believe changes are necessary — especially after operating at a loss last season, Baggarly said.
A lower payroll in 2025 does not mean that the Giants cannot make important steps this season. However, whether these are moves that can bring San Francisco back into contention remains to be seen.
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