It couldn’t have been more than 20 minutes after the Twitter world blew up with news that the San Francisco Giants had traded for veteran third baseman Evan Longoria, before the conversation immediately turned to, “Cool, what’s next?”
According to Matt Sosnick, the agent of lefty-power-hitting outfielder Jay Bruce, on KNBR 680’s Gary Radnich Show with Larry Krueger, it could very well be his client.
“We’ve talked about it peripherally but Bobby knows that Jay, given his choice to play in San Francisco, you know he really wanted to play in San Francisco or Houston. Houston made it clear they just didn’t have a need for him and a fit. And I think it works out as a perfect fit for the Giants and we have to figure out the lay of the land whether it works for the Giants and if it works for us. I think if Jay ended up in San Francisco, he’d be thrilled.”
After getting rejected by Houston, Sosnick says the Giants were Bruce’s clear favorite of all the clubs left. After ten years in the majors, Bruce is still just 30 years old. His 277 career home runs (including 95 home runs over the last three seasons for three different teams in two different leagues) combined with a solid and versatile outfield presence, gives Bruce a nice range of options to choose from for his next destination.
“The places he wants to play, and he has five or six teams he’s comfortable playing for, like I said Houston and the Giants were the top two. He’s made good money in his career and I think for him it’s more about comfort and family. You know he’s got a family now, he’s in a position where he can be a little bit choosey so I think we’re gonna wait and see how it shakes out with the Giants before we make any decisions.”
So what will it likely cost the Giants to land Jay Bruce? Pushing aside an incorrect rumor indicating he and his people were looking for $100 million over the course of five years, Sosnick reported Bruce’s camp would be thrilled with a four-year deal, while staying away from tying himself to any specific salary number during the interview.
“Jay never thought he was getting five [years] and we never thought he was getting anywhere close to 100 [million dollars] so I’m not really sure where that came from. I think that hopefully he can get four years, we’ve had an offer already and we have another team I think is making another offer tonight [Wendesday].”