SAN FRANCISCO _ The Giants have their starting third baseman for 2018 and perhaps well beyond. And to hear them tell it, it's just their first major move in their offseason "reset" from a 98-loss season.
Picking up steam after a relatively dormant winter meetings stint, the Giants acquired Tampa Bay Rays veteran third baseman Evan Longoria on Wednesday in exchange for outfielder Denard Span, top infield prospect Christian Arroyo and minor league pitchers Stephen Woods and Matt Krook. The Giants also will receive an undisclosed amount of cash in the deal.
Third base has been a high priority offseason quest for the Giants but they appear to have solved that for the long term. The club will take on the final five years of Longoria's six-year, $100 million contract signed before last season that also includes a seventh-year option for 2023.
"We check off a huge box with this acquisition," said Giants baseball operations executive vice president Brian Sabean. "Evan is a known player and, quite frankly, you look at his baseball card and we're getting somebody that's an accomplished third baseman of note that hits in the middle of the order.
Longoria is also 32 years old, which may raise questions with fans who have long accused the Giants of pursuing aging veterans with mixed results, particularly considering the contract obligation the club is taking on, which is roughly $83 million over the next five seasons.
But Longoria is nothing if not durable, having played at least 156 games in each of the past five seasons, and his 798 games played over that stretch are the most in the majors. He has been a three-time All-Star during his 10-year career, all of it spent with Tampa.
"The organization just got better," Sabean said. "The fan base and our organization realizes that this affirms our commitment to turn our fortunes around as soon as possible, and specifically the 2018 season.
Longoria was the American League Rookie of the Year in 2007 and is a three-time Gold Glove winner, including this past season. A right-handed hitter, he hit .261 with 20 home runs and 86 RBIs in 2017. He is also a career .261 hitter with 160 lifetime home runs.
Longoria, who grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower and attended Long Beach State, could help solve some of the Giants' power issues. He has hit at least 20 home runs in nine of his 10 big-league seasons with a high of 36 in 2016. Brandon Belt led this year's Giants with just 18 home runs. He is also a consistent run-producer, having averaged nearly 90 RBIs a season during his career.
Defensively, he has long been acknowledged as one of the best in the game and will make up a formidable left side of the infield for the Giants with shortstop Brandon Crawford, who along with Longoria also won a Gold Glove for the 2017 season.
The Giants have had a virtual revolving door at third base ever since their longtime fixture Pablo Sandoval signed a free agent contract with the Boston Red Sox following the club won its third World Series title in 2014.
When free-agent signee Casey McGehee flopped out of the gate in 2015, the Giants turned to prospect Matt Duffy, who appeared to be the long-term answer at the position. But the club dealt Duffy at mid-season in 2016 in another swap with Tampa, acquiring recently traded left-handed starter Matt Moore.
The Giants acquired Eduardo Nunez from Minnesota to take over for Duffy, but injuries kept Nunez from being a major factor in the National League Division Series against Chicago, and original Giants prospect and journeyman Conor Gillaspie took over the position in the playoffs.
Nunez, Arroyo, Gillaspie, prospect Ryder Jones, Korean import Jae-gyun Hwang and Sandoval _ re-signed after being waived by the Red Sox _ all spent time at third base during the Giants disastrous 98-loss 2017 season. Nunez performed the best, hitting .308 with 18 stolen bases in 76 games, but he was dealt to the Red Sox at the trading deadline for prospects Shaun Anderson and Gregory Santos.
Arroyo, 22, was long considered the Giants top prospect, had a tremendous spring in 2017 and was hitting .446 at Triple-A Sacramento when he called up by the Giants in late April to take over the third base spot. But he couldn't hold the position, hitting just .192 in 34 games. He was shipped back the minors, where suffered a hand injury that required surgery. Nonetheless, Arroyo will likely be the leading candidate to be the Rays' starting third baseman next season.
Span, 33, was entering the final season of a three-year deal he signed with the Giants before the 2016 season. He hit .272 with 12 home runs and 12 steals in 129 games as their primary center fielder and leadoff hitter, but he struggled defensively to cover the gaps in spacious AT&T Park. Had he remained with the Giants, he almost certainly would have been moved to a corner outfield spot, but trading him expands the potential options for the club, particularly in center and left field.
Span was due to make $11 million in 2018 and had a mutual club/player option for $12 million in 2019 with a $4 million buyout.
Longoria's contract gradually escalates through the remaining five years on his deal. He will make approximately $13.6 million in 2018, $14.6 million in 2019, $15.1 million in 2020, $18.6 million in 2021 and $19.6 million in 2022.
The pitching prospects the Giants gave up were both in the lower minors. Krook, a 23-year-old left-hander, was 4-9 with a 5.12 ERA this past season pitching for Class A San Jose, primarily as a starter. Woods, a 22-year-old right-hander, pitched at Augusta in the Class A Sally League and was 6-7 with a 2.95 ERA in 23 starts. Krook was a fourth-round draft pick of the Giants in 2016 and Woods was an eighth-rounder.
