Giants have growing interest in Furcal

November 17, 2008   ·   Paul Raymond   ·   Jump to comments

The San Francisco Giants have had their name mentioned in many rumors regarding this years big free agents, but it sounds like the Giants are starting to focus on the next tier of players, specifically Rafael Furcal. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle says the Giants are starting to focus more on the more realistic targets and have a substantial interest in free agent shortstop Rafael Furcal. One of the major needs this off season for the Giants is a middle infielder, unfortunately for them a majority of teams have that same need.

Furcal is coming off a very disappointing season, even when you consider his Los Angeles Dodgers played in the National League Championship Series. He missed almost the entire season due to a back injury that required surgery. His official line for the season was 36 games, .357 average 5 homers and 16 runs batted in, including 12 doubles and 2 triples. Pretty impressive stats for such a period but all of that was in the month of April before the surgery. His asking price in a contract is ten million a year for four years. If he could stay healthy this is a pretty affordable asking price for what he can bring to the table, especially when you consider he just finished a three year, $39 million contract.

I’ll just say we’ve got serious interest in each other,” Furcal’s agent Paul Kinzer said. “He likes the Giants and they’ve expressed serious interest.”

Like I said earlier, the Giants have a big need in the middle of their infielder. Their name has been linked with quite a few of the shortstops on the market, Orlando Cabrera, Edgar Renteria and Furcal. What makes Furcal the most intriguing is the fact that any signing will not cost the team a draft pick. Because of the down season, the Dodgers aren’t eligible for any compensation should Furcal sign elsewhere. If the Giants were to sign Cabrera or Renteria they’d be forced to give up their second round draft pick. Signing either of those two would be a steep price to pay for a team that did so poorly last season.

Furcal still only 31, could definitely help anchor an infield behind a very young pitching staff. That young pitching staff is actually one of the things that has gained Furcal’s interest. Kinzer was recently asked why he’d consider the Giants over playoff contenders. Kinzer responded by saying “Their great young pitching staff. He feels they can be competitive pretty quick.”

Unfortunately for the Giants there are other teams in the mix. Specifically their local rival, the Oakland Athletics. Both teams really interest Furcal, but I have serious doubts whether the Athletics would meet his asking price, especially at his age. Furcal’s agent is hoping to have things wrapped up pretty soon, even before the MLB Winter Meetings in December. “It could be fairly soon,” Kinzer said. “We’re hoping to narrow it down to three teams here pretty soon and see where [Furcal] wants to go from there.”

It will be interesting to see how this plays out but I have a feeling he’ll wind up in San Francisco.

You can also check out the Launching Pad, as they speculate on Furcal returning to the Atlanta Braves.

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