Blue Jays: Kevin Gausman offers an interesting fact about his free agency

The Blue Jays star free agent acquisition of the winter took to Twitter to offer some clarity about how his negotiations went ahead of the ongoing lockout.

According to the man himself, it turns out that the Blue Jays didn’t have to bid against Kevin Gausman’s former team in free agency. That’s because the Giants never made a formal bid for the right-hander, which is a bit of a surprise.

To be fair, the Giants have always done things a little bit differently, and it’s possible that they knew Gausman was going to make more money than they were comfortable spending on a starting pitcher, especially one on the wrong side of 30. They just got out of the big-money contract for an aging Johnny Cueto, and perhaps that situation was too fresh for them to potentially set themselves up for something similar in a few years. Still, Gausman’s statement comes as a bit of a surprise, especially because the Giants had already learned of Buster Posey’s retirement long before Gausman signed with the Blue Jays.

What the Giants wouldn’t do was something that the Blue Jays were happy to sign up for, and that’s a five-year, 110 million dollar contract for the Colorado native. Instead, the Giants seemed to be content to spread that money around to try and improve their rotation, inking a trio of veterans. They brought back Anthony DeSclafani on a three-year, 36 million dollar contract, Alex Wood for two years and 25 million, and Alex Cobb for two years and 20 million. While that’s a nice bit of a business, the first two pitchers were already Giants in 2021, with Cobb essentially replacing Gausman. Unless something unforeseen happens, that’s a pretty significant downgrade.

The Giants do already have Logan Webb in the rotation as well, so perhaps they felt that spreading the money around and protecting their overall depth was the better play. Still, I’m surprised that they didn’t make some kind of offer to Gausman. Perhaps they had planned to, but the Blue Jays pushed the bidding to a place where they didn’t feel they had a competitive offer to make. It’s also possible that the Giants want to spend some serious money in another area of the roster.

Whatever the reason, Blue Jays fans shouldn’t be the least bit put off by the news. Gausman was one of the best starters in the National League last year, finishing 6th in Cy Young voting while going 14-6 with a 2.81 ERA and a 1.042 WHIP over 33 starts. He ended up striking out 227 batters over 192.0 innings, and earned a tidy 5.4 bWAR in the process.

Between bringing in Gausman and signing Jose Berrios to an extension, the Blue Jays are set up very well at the top of their rotation. When you add the emerging young talent of Alek Manoah and the veteran presence of Hyun Jin Ryu, the rotation should feature a very solid top four in 2022. Regardless of how they stack up, Gausman will be a huge part of the equation, and the Giants’ loss should be the Blue Jays gain.