South Florida SiriusXM radio host Craig Mish dropped a bombshell report on Monday morning, saying that the San Francisco Giants have offered Joe Panik and two prospects to the Miami Marlins for MVP outfielder Giancarlo Stanton and second baseman Dee Gordon.
Source : Giants/Marlins names exchanged in potential Stanton deal : (SF) 2B Joe Panik, Top Prospects SP Tyler Beede & OF Chris Shaw. (Mia) Stanton & 2B Dee Gordon.
— Craig Mish (@CraigMish) November 20, 2017
The report answered the question regarding San Francisco’s willingness to part with homegrown talent, but raised another question as to how much of Stanton’s $295 million contract the Giants would be willing to eat, considering the one sided nature of the deal in question.
Mish joined KNBR on Monday afternoon and said he believes that the Giants are willing to take on a lion’s share of Stanton’s massive contract, and that the Marlins would prefer to offload the money even if it means a weaker return.
“At this point we don’t know,” Mish said when asked how much of Stanton’s contract the Giants are willing to pay. “I don’t think the Marlins know either. They haven’t really given teams a clear indication of what they’d rather do, which is either take better prospects and give some money back to a team in return, or do they want to go what I think is maybe the most plausible route, which is the Giants route. ‘Let’s get a team that can take on this whole contract where we don’t have to give a lot back. Maybe the return wont look as good but we’re free from the deal.’ I think the Giants are sitting in a pretty good spot here.”
Mish further reiterated that the reported deal would seem to indicate that the Giants are willing to pay a large portion of Stanton’s contract, as both Beede and Shaw are giant question marks. Mish believes the Giants willingness to do this might make them the favorites to land the MVP.
“I think that’s 100 percent right,” Mish agreed after Gary said he thinks the Giants are willing to pay for most of Stanton’s contract. “I think that’s exactly the way I look at it too. I looked at the names as well and from an opinion standpoint, in terms of what they need, maybe Beede is able to turn it around and become a #2 or #3 in the Marlins’ system, and who knows what Shaw will be at this point, I don’t think Shaw would be a top 10 prospect in anybody’s farm system at this point. We know where the Giants stand with that, but what the Giants have is the money, and potentially more money to spend than any other team in baseball, so I think that does give them an advantage, but we don’t know at this point, with the teams that the Marlins are talking to, the Marlins haven’t given an indication. They haven’t said ‘okay look, we’re looking to get rid of this entire deal.’ They haven’t said that. They also haven’t said ‘we’ll pay some of it if you give us back better prospects.’ Until we know that we don’t know the answer, but it does serve due diligence for both the Giants and the Cardinals to at least try.
“As I reported by in July, at that time the Marlins had spoken to one of Stanton’s representatives and he had intimated that he wasn’t interested in going to the Midwest, so again leg up for the Giants there. In terms of prospects we know the Giants don’t have what the Cardinals have, but if they are willing to absorb the whole deal, and if that’s what the Marlins want, they should be in the driver’s seat.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Mish’s comments on the Stanton deal, start from the beginning.