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Two down, two of the “Boras Four” left to sign. Plus: Ken on Mike Trout, a sea change in coaching and how Evan Carter or Wyatt Langford might solve a decade-long mystery in Texas. I’m Levi Weaver here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to the Windup!
Why Chapman is making less than Bellinger
Matt Chapman is the latest member of the Boras Four to find a home — he signed a three-year deal worth $54 million with the Giants over the weekend. Opt-outs after each of the first two years would allow Chapman to re-enter the free-agent market.
If that sounds familiar, perhaps it’s because Bellinger’s deal to return to the Cubs was remarkably similar: Three years, $80 million with opt-outs. So why is Chapman’s number $26 million lower than Bellinger’s, when at a glance, their production was pretty similar last year? Bellinger finished with 4.4 bWAR and 4.1 fWAR, while Chapman came in at 4.4 bWAR and 3.5 fWAR.
Both players, if healthy, are likely to be free agents again next winter. In fact, the Giants referred to Chapman’s contract as a one-year deal worth $18 million ($16 million in salary, plus a signing bonus of $2 million) with two player options. Bellinger, meanwhile, will make $30 million in 2024 — a gap of $12 million.
I think there are a couple of reasons for the difference.
First, while neither player is a dinosaur, Chapman (who turns 31 this year) is a little over two years older than Bellinger. The older the player, the higher the likelihood of an injury and a bad one could mean a player opts in for 2025 rather than hitting the market while they’re in rehab.
Second, Chapman struggled mightily in the second half last year. On May 10, he was hitting .338/.425/.579 (1.004 OPS) through 36 games. From that point on, he hit .205/.297/.370 (.666 OPS) in his final 104 games.
His return to the Bay Area signals a couple of things: The team followed through on their promise to improve the defense, and it could be the end of the J.D. Davis era in San Francisco.
More Giants:
Ken’s Notebook: Trout’s 2024 goal
From my latest column:
Mike Trout hears the noise. Trout is content to be with the Angels. He doesn’t want to win. He won’t demand a trade. It doesn’t bother him. Quite the opposite, in fact.
“It fuels me more,” Trout said last week in an interview I conducted with him for Fox Sports. “The overall satisfaction, when we do win here, it will be greater than if I did go somewhere else.
“So when I hear, ‘Trout needs to get traded,’ or, ‘He’s happy to be there,’ they can say whatever they want. I’ve got one thing on my mind. That’s trying to win here.”
Scoff if you must. FanGraphs projects the Angels to finish 78-84, ahead of only the pitiful A’s in the American League West. PECOTA has them at 74-88.
Trout, 32, isn’t ignoring the obvious as the team appears destined to miss the playoffs for the 10th straight season — that’s why he continues to lobby management for free-agent additions. But he does have one other thing on his mind, something that would help boost the team’s performance.
He wants to return to MVP form.
Let’s not forget who Trout is, a player who finished first or second in the MVP voting seven times in eight years between 2012 and 2019. As recently as 2022, he hit 40 homers in only 119 games. Last season, he had 18 homers before July 3, but played in only one game after that because of a left hamate fracture he suffered fouling off a pitch. He finished with an .858 OPS, a career-low.
It was Trout’s third straight season of missing significant time. In 2021, he did not play after May 17 because of a strained right calf. In 2022, he missed more than a month…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .