The San Francisco Giants had a lot of opportunities to upgrade at shortstop in the offseason. Jimmy Rollins and Jose Reyes were on the open market and Marco Scutaro ended up being ridiculously obtainable via trade. The Giants were coming off a season of Miguel Tejada and Orlando Cabrera at the position, totaling 345 years of age and one functioning knee. It turned out that those dreamed of an upgrade were all wishful thinking on the part of Giants fans, as the team made it clear they were thinking of in-house prospect Brandon Crawford and only Brandon Crawford for the position. Now it seems that might not actually be the truth. And the truth is horrifying.
Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area reported on Thursday that the Giants actually reached out to former Giants shortstop and World Series MVP Edgar Renteria regarding the vacancy during the offseason, but did not make a formal contract offer. The Giants tried to bring Renteria back for 2011, but the veteran famously called their offer at the time "an insult" and instead spent the season with the Cincinnati Reds.
Sometimes it makes for a nice little departure from reality to imagine that the Giants really do know what they're doing and how to evaluate talent; that they have some sort of overarching master plan. But then you look at offseason lateral moves like trading Andres Torres for Angel Pagan, or jettisoning Tejada and Cabrera and reaching out to Edgar Renteria of all people to gauge his interest. Not the best shortstop on the free agent market Jose Reyes, at least to find out what ballpark we'd be dealing with. Not Bay Area native Jimmy Rollins, who was voted "Most Likely To Be A Huge Upgrade Over League Average" like six years running. Edgar Renteria.
Look, we love Edgar Renteria here. We always will. The dude won the Giants their first San Francisco World Series title. But sometimes all you can do it shake your head. Because it's wobbly from all the times you just bashed it against your desk.
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