Giants sign Mark DeRosa to two-year contract

Posted on December 28, 2009

Mark DeRosa of the Chicago Cubs gets ready in the dugout before the game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on July 3, 2008. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

 

The San Francisco Giants have not made any moves in the off season as the hot stove over at AT&T Park has yet to be lit. Until today. Late this afternoon SI.com is confirming the rumor that has been going around for several days that free-agent infielder Mark DeRosa has signed a two-year $12 million deal with the Giants. DeRosa would play third base for the orange and black as Pablo Sandoval will move across the diamond and play first base in 2010.

The 34-year-old DeRosa has been a journeyman for his entire career, bouncing around with five different teams over 12 seasons. He had his best year in 2008 with the Cubs when he batted .285 with 21 home runs and 87 RBIs before being traded that off season to the Indians.The Indians sent him to the Cardinals in July of 2009 in a deal to help the Cards down the stretch run. DeRosa was pretty awful in St. Louis hitting only .228 with 10 homers while getting a lot of playing time at third base.

DeRosa has always been known as a great clubhouse guy. What does that really mean? Does anyone care about that stuff? Sounds to me like a classic Giants signing: older guy with fair numbers who has never been a star and comes cheap. Yes- he is versatile and can play anywhere and that will help the Giants, but he will not sell any tickets. The big problem with this off season is the Giants need offensive help and the free agent market is really down this year. The big names out there (Jason Bay and Matt Holliday) are too expensive for the Giants, and even if the Giants had the cash to spend none of the big hitters out there want to come to San Francisco and play in the beautiful, but hard-to-hit-in AT&T Park. There is no way they will ever be able to get a big hitter to come to San Francisco as a free agent. Thus they will be stuck with journeyman guys like DeRosa to try and beef up the lineup unless they can drag a legitimate hitter here kicking and screaming via a trade or do a better job of growing their own talent on the farm.

There are still many moves ahead for the Giants as there are still about six weeks to go until pitchers and catchers start reporting to Scottsdale for spring training. Look for the Giants to wrap up a one-year deal with Juan Uribe any day now and they still need a catcher to be their opening day starter us phenom Buster Posey will probably not be ready to be the regular catcher in April. Looks to me like another season of relying way too much on the young pitching staff to throw shutouts every night and praying for runs. Last season over-achieved and had a nice year, but I would not be surprised to see the club regress in 2010 unless something big happens.