MARCH 3 : The Giants officially announced Chapmans signing and the terms, with the additional detail that the contract includes a mutual option covering the 2027 season. Chapman will receive a $2MM signing bonus and a $16MM salary in 2024, plus a $2MM buyout on the $17MM player option for 2025. If the third baseman remains in his contract through the 2025 season, hell have an $18MM player option for 2026 with a $3MM buyout attached. Should he remain in his contract through those three seasons, Chapman and the Giants will share a $20MM mutual option for the 2027 season, with a $1MM Jeremy Swayman Jersey buyout if either party declines their side of the option. MARCH 1 : is headed back to the Bay Area. The four-time Gold Glove winner has reportedly agreed to terms with the Giants on a three-year, $54MM guarantee. The Boras Corporation client can opt out after each of the next two seasons. Hell make $20MM this season, followed by succe sive $18MM and $16MM player options. The contract has an $18MM average annual value for competitive balance tax purposes. San Francisco will need to make a 40-man roster move once the deal is finalized. Chapman, 31 next month, reunites with Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and manager Bob Melvin. Hes familiar with both from his early days with the As. Chapman was a first-round pick by Oakland in 2014 and debuted three years later. He stepped in as one of the sports best all-around players. The Cal State Fullerton product put up a .255/.336/.503 batting line through his first three and a half seasons. He paired that with the best third base defense in the American League. Chapman finished among the top 10 in AL MVP balloting in 2018 and 19, securing Gold Glove honors in both years. Chapmans 2020 season was cut short by a labrum tear in his right hip. He underwent surgery that September, shutting him down for the year. While it wasnt clear at the time, that injury has proven to be something of a turning point in his career. His offensive production hasnt been the same since he made his return. The right-handed hitter stumbled to a career-worst .210/.314/.403 line in 2021. The As dealt him to the Blue Jays the following offseason. Chapmans offensive production ticked up slightly in Toronto, but he hasnt found his 2018-19 form outside of a scorching April last year. After a .229/.324/.433 showing in 2022, Chapman entered his platform season looking to reestablish himself as a middle-of-the-order force. He began the year as the hottest hitter on the planet. Chapman mashed at a .384/.465/.687 clip through the end of April. While hed cut his strikeout rate to a 22.8% mark in the seasons first month, his whiffs spiked as the summer approached. A dismal May kicked off what proved to be a disappointing finish to his Jays tenure. Over his final 467 plate appearances, Chapman hit .205/.298/.361 with a strikeout rate near 30%. By the second half, he was often hitting in the bottom third of the lineup. The Jays briefly sent him to the injured list in late August for a sprain of the middle finger on his right hand. Its po sible that had an adverse effect on his offense, but the biggest concern is that he didnt sustain the strides in contact rate he had seemed to make early on. That presented a tough evaluation for teams as he hit the open market for the first time. Even if hes no longer an MVP-caliber player, Chapman is still an above-average regular. He has drawn walks in more than 10% of his plate appearances in each of the last three seasons. He connected on 27 homers in both 2021 and 22. That dipped to 17 longballs a year ago, yet thats not a reflection of a drop in his contact quality. Chapman actually hit the ball harder than ever last season, averaging 93.5 MPH in exit velocity. He made hard contact (defined as 95+ MPH) on 56.4% of batted balls. That was the highest rate for any qualified hitter in the majors, narrowly ahead of impact bats like former teammate , , , and . He remains an a set on the other side of the ball. Chapmans defensive grades arent quite as eye-popping as they were early in his career, but hes still a plus at third base. Both Statcast and Defensive Runs Saved have rated him as an above-average defender in every season of his career. That includes an estimated three runs better than par by Statcast and an excellent +12 mark from DRS over more than 1200 innings last season. Infield defense was an i sue for the Giants, particularly on the left side. San Francisco led longtime shortstop walk in free agency. Theyre set to turn that position to 22-year-old . Incumbent third baseman drew mixed reviews from defensive metrics last season. Theres no question that Chapman will be an upgrade on that side of the ball. While there had been some speculation the Giants could consider kicking Chapman up the defensive spectrum to shortstop, Susan Slu ser of the San Francisco Chronicle that hell stick at the hot corner at Oracle Park. San Francisco has targeted Chapman throughout the offseason, having been tied to him as early as the middle of November. They were content to wait out the market as he was one of a handful of top free agents who lingered well into Spring Training. A $54MM guarantee certainly isnt what his camp had in mind at the beginning of the offseason. Chapman had reportedly declined a 10-year, $150MM extension offer from the As back in 2019. He also reportedly an offer from Toronto that wouldve topped $100MM at some point before he got to free agency. Whatever asking price he had set at the beginning of the winter wasnt met. As with fellow Boras Corporation client , Chapman turned to a short-term deal that gives him the chance to get back to the market next offseason instead. He was one of seven players to receive and decline a qualifying offer in November. The QO would have been valued at $20.325MM, a hair above what he now stands to make next season. This contract structure is certainly preferable to taking the qualifying offer theres added security built in via the player options in case he struggles or suffers an injury but the end result could be similar. The likeliest outcome is that he collects a $20MM salary in 2024 and retests the market next winter. It remains to be seen if it would treat him more kindly the next time around. Hed be entering his age-32 season with a profile that is heavily dependent on defense. Chapman wont be eligible for another qualifying offer players cant receive that more than once in their careers, per the CBA but hes unlikely to be the clear top free agent at the position, as he was this winter. headlines next years third base cla s, which will also include Davis. The Giants surrender their second-highest pick in the upcoming draft (#51 overall) and $500K in international signing bonus space to add a player who had declined the QO. The Jays were one of eight teams that paid the luxury tax last season, so their compensation is minimal. Theyll get an extra draft choice after the fourth round, roughly 136th overall. Its a bigger penalty for the Giants than it is compensation for Toronto. Its one the Giants are neverthele s happy to pay to get Chapman at a price well below what they could have expected coming into the offseason. (MLBTR predicted hed receive six-year, $150MM pact at the start of the winter.) The contract pushes their 2024 player payroll to roughly $183MM, as calculated by . Theyre around $231MM in luxury tax obligations, keeping them $6MM shy of next years threshold. If they want to avoid the CBT, that wouldnt leave a ton of room for in-season acquisitions. Its po sible theyre comfortable exceeding the threshold for the first time since 2017. San Francisco has been tied to (and to a much le ser extent) . Theyre still in clear need of rotation help, particularly after expected #5 starter underwent surgery on Friday to addre s an aneurysm. Forfeiting a draft choice to sign Chapman to a contract that allows him to opt out after one season is the clearest win-now move of San Franciscos offseason. Theyve also brought in to take center field, at designated hitter, and signed to a four-year pact to transition to the rotation. Revamping the lineup to that extent without adding more certainty behind , Hicks, and rookie seems unlikely. Davis is set for a $6.9MM salary in his final season of arbitration and just lost his spot in the starting lineup. Soler and are ahead of him as right-handed hitters wholl factor in at DH at first base, respectively. Flipping Davis to a team that needs third base help before Opening Day could clear spending room for the Giants and seems the best outcome for him personally. Theres very likely more to come at Oracle Park in the next three weeks. first reported the agreement, opt-outs, and salary breakdown. Image courtesy of USA Today Sports. Bruins Custom Jersey