2024-03-05 01:00:50
Major League Baseball Weekly Express will take you to review the big and small events that happened in the previous week of Major League Baseball. This week (2/27~3/4), following Bellinger returned to the Cubs last week, Matt Chapman of the “Boras Four” also found a new home; Kris Bryant admitted that he should have been more cautious when choosing to join the Rockies. ; In addition, the two Japanese superstars that attracted much attention during the off-season also made their first appearances following changing teams.
Major League Baseball Weekly Express will take you to review the big and small events that happened in the previous week of Major League Baseball. This week (2/27~3/4), following Bellinger returned to the Cubs last week, Matt Chapman of the “Boras Four” also found a new home; Kris Bryant admitted that he should have been more cautious when choosing to join the Rockies. ; In addition, the two Japanese superstars that attracted much attention during the off-season also made their first appearances following changing teams.
Three years, $54 million to return to the Bay Area, Matt Chapman joins the San Francisco Giants
According to foreign media reports, star third baseman Matt Chapman has reached an agreement with the San Francisco Giants. The two parties signed a three-year, $54 million contract. The annual salaries are 20 million in 2024, 18 million in 2025 and 16 million in 2026. In addition, like Bellinger, who is also a member of the “Boras Four”, it also comes with post-season escape options in 2024 and 2025. If he performs well in the coming season , there is a great opportunity to challenge the free market once more.
Chapman, who will turn 31 in April, has won four Gold Glove Awards and two Platinum Gloves at third base since he first stepped onto the plate in 2017. He is recognized as one of the best fielding third basemen in baseball. With his return to the Bay Area, Chapman can not only reunite with Giants coach Bob Melvin, who he has worked with for five years during the Athletics era, but also replace JDDavis as the main third baseman, increasing their capital to return to the playoffs. .
Extended reading: Four Golden Gloves but no success?Three reasons why Matt Chapman is unmarketable in free agency
There are signs that Chapman would wait until spring training started in March before signing. Last season, Chapman started high but then started low. Although he had a batting average of .384 and an OPS of 1.152 in April, he only had . With a batting average of 205 and an OPS of .659, his performance was too ups and downs. In addition, he only hit 17 home runs in the 2023 season, which was his worst performance in a full season. His batting average and swing rate declined year by year. The rise is also worrying, and it also puts Chapman, who is already over 30 years old, in an embarrassing situation where he has a good business but no market.
Before Chapman officially joined, the Giants had been considered his most reasonable destination. In addition to the aforementioned reunion with Melvin, it also adds long-range firepower as a right-hander following adding Jorge Soler. The Giants have had many success stories in transforming hitters. If Chapman can regain the firepower he had in 2019 (36 home runs, .848 OPS) following returning to the Bay Area, it will be a big plus for the Giants. Still maintaining similar performance to last year, the 4.4 WAR he contributed in the 2023 season will be the second-highest contribution by a fielder since the Farhan Zaidi era (2018), second only to Brandon Crawford in 2021 (6.1).
After losing his savior aura, Kris Bryant admitted that he should have done more research on his original choice.
In 2015, Kris Bryant emerged with the aura of “savior”. In the first year, he seemed to take away the National League’s rookie king. The following year, he not only won the MVP of the National League, but also led the Cubs to end the 108-year championship. After playing the first two seasons of his career, Bryant, who was only 24 years old at the time, seemed to be on a path to the Hall of Fame.
Time returns to the present. In a recent exclusive interview with The Athletic, the 32-year-old Bryant no longer has the high spirits of the past. All the aura and expectations have long faded, and the Hall of Fame seems to be out of reach. “People aspire to be the best version of themselves, to be the best, at the top,” Bryant said. “But at the same time, as you get older, you have to have the right mentality to get there. I think professionally I’ve lost some of that mentality at certain points in my career, which has put me in more difficult situations.”
Looking back now,Bryant thought he might have done more research before signing with the Rockies.
At that time, the Rockies did not start contacting Bryant until the end of December, the eve of the major league closure. After the closure, most players were ready to train, and he was still free at this time, so he rushed to make a decision. Decide. “I was like, ‘Oh shit, I gotta get there,'” Bryant said. “There was interest from other teams, but I didn’t want to wait any longer. My situation was different than most free agents at that time.I think I may not have done enough research on the team’s prospects.」
After signing a seven-year, $182 million mega-contract with the Colorado Rockies in 2021, although no one expected Bryant to be able to lead the team back to the playoffs with one hand, his performance can be said to be perfect. It doesn’t meet people’s expectations for this contract. Affected by injuries in the past two seasons, Bryant only played 122 games. In 80 games last year, his OPS was only a miserable .680. In addition, his advanced batting data also declined overall, and he and the Rockies He still has five years left on his contract with the team.
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