The Giants couldn't land two-time Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
Ohtani signed a historic 10-year, $700 million contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers that includes unprecedented deferrals that stunned the MLB world when details emerged Monday.
After striking out Ohtani, the Giants reportedly agreed to a six-year, $113 million contract with Korean outfielder Jung Hoo Lee on Tuesday. Farhan Zaidi, the Giants' president of baseball operations, spoke to reporters on a conference call shortly after the news broke, and while he couldn't discuss Lee's reported move because the contract isn't official, he provided a detailed timeline for pursuing it Ohtani through the organization.
Zaidi revealed that Ohtani's camp was looking for tentative offers at the start of the offseason and that the Giants offered the “biggest contract in major league history” to show how aggressive and interested they were in him. Zaidi said Ohtani's camp then took some time to weigh initial offers before coming back with refined terms and numbers, which the Giants quickly agreed to.
Zaidi also confirmed rumors that the Giants hosted Ohtani during a visit to Oracle Park on December 2nd.
“Of course, all along we've been very interested in them coming to San Francisco, meeting some of our people, meeting in person and talking about things,” Zaidi said. “As reported, this happened last weekend just before the winter meetings and we had a really productive meeting with the player's representative. Pretty small group, but we addressed some of our concerns, which is our long-term plan, which we're very optimistic about, and we found those meetings were really productive and we felt really good afterward.”
Zaidi shared that during the MLB winter meetings, Ohtani's camp then proposed to all remaining teams a contract structure similar to the later agreement with the Dodgers, to which the Giants committed.
“What they proposed to us conceptually was, of course, not some kind of formal offer for us, but something like the exact deal that they ended up doing,” Zaidi said. “It was certainly an unusual deal, we were aware of the benefits for the player but also for the team. And again, it was a departure from our previous offer, but we thought we could work it out. So we quickly implemented it.” around and said we were okay with it.
The Giants agreed to whatever the camp asked of Ohtani and were told it was now ultimately in the player's hands as Ohtani took his time deciding which offer to accept as financial negotiations came to an end went. Zaidi and the Giants asked Ohtani's camp if there was anything they could do to improve their position and got the feeling after their three contract offers that every team's suggestions were in a similar ballpark.
San Francisco was confident in his offer, but Zaidi admitted doubts arose because Ohtani preferred to stay in Southern California.
“I think we had really good chances at certain points,” Zaidi said. “In other places, as always, you have questions or doubts because you know that it is very competitive.
“One thing – both in our direct conversations with the player and his agent and in our kind of background work, talking to people in the industry – geography seemed to play a role. It wasn't an absolute must or a deal.” Given the large number of interested teams, this is of course a sticking point. We felt there was a preference to stay in Southern California and we knew that would be a challenge for us.”
The Giants made their final offer, and after 24 hours with no resolution, it became clear that Ohtani and his camp were going in a different direction.
Even though the Giants couldn't prevail against Ohtani, Zaidi made it clear that the organization – from top to bottom – was committed to doing everything it could to land the two-time AL MVP.
“I just wanted to lay out a small part of that sequence,” Zaidi said. “First, we want to demonstrate how committed our ownership group has been to this endeavor, and really, every financial goal and request from their camp has been met fairly quickly.”
“And secondly, to clarify any other questions about the timing, what may have happened, and to be fully transparent about the seriousness of our efforts and the fact that we pulled a number of levers to try to make things happen.” “What put us at a disadvantage in terms of player preferences – particularly geography – is that ultimately it's free agency, it's a player's choice, and when you talk about a Generational player who will have a lot of choice and will probably be able to tick every box they are looking for.”
The Giants, similar to previous superstar free agent efforts, ended up back with an offer similar to the one the player ultimately signed. Now that their pursuit of Ohtani is in the rearview mirror, Zaidi and Co. will continue to look for improvements for a squad they hope will be fighting for a playoff spot in 2024.
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