LOS ANGELES — It stands to reason that the San Francisco Giants will become active sellers before Tuesday’s trade deadline. It also stands to reason that one of their prime organizational goals should be to reduce enough payroll to slip under the $237 million competitive balance tax threshold. If management and ownership are convinced that this season is a lost cause, then there’s no sense in being a luxury taxpayer in 2024, which would set themselves up for steeper penalties if they have ambitions to invest heavily in next year’s team.
According to current payroll calculations, the Giants are projected to exceed the first threshold by nearly $16 million — the first time they will cross the tax line since 2017. Advertisement Except indications are there is no current mandate from Giants ownership to trim that $16 million and slip under the tax threshold. And perhaps this is why: Because of how the Giants structured certain contracts, the task would be almost impossible for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi to achieve.
The most important contract wrinkle involves left-hander Blake Snell , whom sources say is drawing significant trade interest after returning to his 2023 NL Cy Young Award-winning form over his past three starts. Snell signed a two-year, $62 million contract in March and his competitive balance tax calculation of $29.7 million (which is slightly lower than his average annual guaranteed money because of salary deferrals) represents the large.
