It sure seemed like for a while there, the San Francisco Giants were going to get Giancarlo Stanton. Craig Mish of Sirius XM in South Florida thought so too, and reported over the past few weeks that the Giants were a favorite to land the NL MVP.
Santon ended up signing with the Yankees on Saturday, following a shocking report on Thursday evening that the Giants were not even on Stanton’s shortlist of teams that he’d consider approving a trade too. Gary & Larry asked Mish about this when he joined their show on Monday. Mish says he now believes that Stanton never seriously considered joining the Giants based on what he’s heard from sources and the player himself, and that the outfielder only took a meeting with the team because he had to.
“Yeah I had thought that (the Giants) were a favorite for sure but I’m going to tell you, from hearing everything that we’ve heard and things that I’ve heard over the last 24-48 hours, I think that perhaps the Giants were just a better option of the two between them and St. Louis,” Mish said. “I mean these comments that are coming out from all of the writers and even Stanton himself and his agent, I’m kind’ve of the belief at this point, and I think it’s trending in this direction, that they never had a chance. That (Stanton) simply took these meetings because he was being forced to and being told that if he didn’t, there would be a chance that he’d have to go back to Miami. So he was left with no other option, and I think potentially on the back end, the Marlins may have had a deal with the Yankees, or at least somewhat of a deal, so that they were just simply making him go to these meetings to see if they could up the ante. The story is crazy. It seems to be trending in that direction, but we’re not clear on it yet.”
So the Giants were just used to jack up the price?
“It sure sounds like it,” Mish continued. “They weren’t on the four team list that he was interested in and (Miami) proposed deals to those four teams: the Dodgers, Cubs, Astros and Yankees. They came away thinking that the only two potential teams that could be involved were the Yankees and the Dodgers. The Dodgers never progressed, the Yankees did, and then when it came down to Miami taking a deal with the Yankees or no one, I suppose they were just fighting against themselves. Then he takes the conversations with St. Louis and San Francisco, maybe at that point the Yankees got more serious. I don’t know but it sure seems that way.”
Listen to the full interview below.