Giants Sign OF Denard Span To 3 Year, $31 Million Deal
According to Jon Heyman of the MLB Network, the San Francisco Giants are close to finalizing a deal with former Washington Nationals outfielder and free agent Denard Span. CSN Bay Area Giants insider Alex Pavlovic is reporting a three-year, $31 million deal pending a physical.
Span, 31, will be starting his ninth season in the MLB, where he is a career .287 hitter with a .352 on-base percentage and a .395 slugging. Last season, Span played in only 61 games for the Washington Nationals, hitting .301/.365/.431 with five home runs and 22 RBI. He missed most of the season with hip and abdominal surgeries and didn't play at all in September.
He has experience playing all three outfield positions and he bats left handed. The Giants will most likely start him in left field alongside Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence.
Due to Pagan's previous health issues, Span may spend quite some time in center field while Pagan rests, moving Gregor Blanco to start in left field in relief. span still has some speed, stealing 11 bases in 11 attempts last year in less than half the season. Span has typically been a lead-off hitter, so it will also be interesting to see what Bruce Bochy does with the batting order in regards to Pagan.
At AT&T Park, Span has played poorly, but with only seven games played, the sample should be taken with a grain of salt. His line in San Francisco is .241/.281/.414 with three doubles, a triple and one RBI. With a strong history of hitting a large amount of triples throughout his career, it'll be interesting to see how he takes advantage of AT&T Park's vast outfield.
Span led the national league in hits and stole 31 bases in 2014, and finished with a 3.7 WAR according to baseball-reference.com. He was paid a career high $9 million last season, so with a new AAV of $10.33 million, this will be his largest contract yet.
