The San Francisco Giants have seen free agency as a revolving door for them each offseason, just as it is for every team. Some players stay, some players go.
But what often doesn’t get considered as the team tries to weigh who to bring in, who to bring back, and who to let go is the odd dynamic it creates for players who have been teammates for at least the entire preceding season and in often cases much longer than that.
While players become great friends, the reality of the business side of things is that even the best of teammates are going to entertain opportunities to play elsewhere when those come along.
Giants star pitcher Logan Webb recently talked about this, using current teammate Matt Chapman as an example.
Chapman, who signed a one-year deal with San Francisco last offseason, was due to hit free agency after another huge season. But he quickly came to love the team and the city and signed an extension in September before the season ended.
Webb addressed this dynamic when he was asked whether or not players who are due to hit the open market talk to each other about it during an appearance with the Talkin’ Baseball Podcast.
“It’s not like we talk about it every day, but when it gets brought up in the middle of a season…[Chapman] loves San Francisco, he loves the organization, at that point he said he wanted to be back here so then we started talking about it for sure like he wants to come back, and then it just kind of randomly one day happened,” Webb said.
While Chapman signed an extension with the organization while the season was still going on, Webb went on to say dealing with free agent teammates is different once the season has ended and they are actually fielding offers.
“I do think it is different once the guy gets to free agency. During the season is completely different…I talked to Blake [Snell] about coming back, I know Michael Conforto loved San Francisco and would have loved to come back…But once free agency actually starts you kinda just let them be. I did talk to these guys during free agency…but maybe I’m different. Maybe I’m just the annoying teammate they had that’s just saying ‘Hey, where are you going?'”
Webb’s experience is certainly not unique to himself as it’s likely that every MLB clubhouse goes through the exact same situation every single winter. Such is the reality of the business side of the sport and often a dark underbelly of professional sports in general.
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