The San Francisco Giants signed third baseman Matt Chapman to a 3 year $54MM contract officially on March 3rd.

In doing so the contract breakdown is as follows; a $2MM signing bonus and $16MM salary in 2024, a $17MM player option for 2025 with a $2MM buyout, 2026 has an $18MM player option with a $3MM buyout, and 2027 has a mutual option of $20MM with a $1MM buyout. Signing with the Giants was kind of a home coming for him as he was a Cal State Fullerton graduate. But it was nothing like a homecoming for J.D. Davis.

J.D. Davis was now the odd man out in San Francisco, and over the weekend he was placed on waivers. Which means he could be claimed by any team off those waivers as long as they agreed to pay his 2024 season salary of $6.9MM that he won in arbitration against the Giants. The 2023 season saw Davis hit a slash line of .248/.325/.413 with 18 home runs. Currently in Spring Training he is 6-for-15 with 2 home runs giving him a slash line of .400/.471/.800.

I am part of an Xspace called The Sportz Truth that we recorded on Monday, and one of our topics of conversation was loyalty in sports. We looked at it from the player perspective and we looked at it from the team aspect as well(you can find the link to the audio show below). We focused on the turn of events in San Francisco after the Giants signed Chapman and the corresponding move of placing odd man out J.D. Davis on waivers.

When Chapman was signed, there were two separate, yet telling quotes from Davis. The first was “willing to do whatever the team needs,” but he also admitted and candidly said he was not told of the signing before it was released to the press and upon finding out said it was “definitely surprising.”

The Sportz Truth Xspace by the 643andout Guys

As far as the loyalty aspect, should the Giants have shown loyalty to Davis by giving him a heads up of the signing before telling the press? Or, should Davis have just played better, and they would not have felt the necessity to sign Chapman? We debated that on the Xspace above, you can also leave your comments below.

There is more to this story though. Monday, Davis went unclaimed on outright waivers, probably due in large part to the $6.9MM salary attached to him. Every team knows that if no team claims him, and he is released, any team can then sign him, as he is then considered a free agent and the Giants are on the hook for the difference between the league minimum($740,000) and the $6.9MM…………Or are they?

Under the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, absent a hearing, any sum agreed upon in the off-season is not fully guaranteed until Opening Day. Therefore, by cutting him now, the Giants could potentially only owe Davis 30 days of termination pay, or about $1.1MM.

The new CBA does specifically state that this rule only applies to players who have “failed to exhibit sufficient skill or competitive ability.” We gave you Davis’ stat line at the end of the second paragraph above. Plus, from a defensive standpoint, where he has always been perceived as a poor defender, Davis actually improved on his third base fielding stats in 2023 as Statcast graded him 5 outs above average. And without getting to deep into the statistical weeds, last year he was 104 in terms of wRC+ and for his career an even better 127 wRC+.

I believe these stats would give his representation at ALIGND sports combined with the backing of the MLBPA just cause to file a grievance on his behalf. These developments still have me question where the loyality lies in sports. And more importantly begs the question, Are the Giants trying to do J.D. Davis dirty?

By WeLikeSportz Staff writer

Photo Credit; Getty Images, FanSided, and McCovey Chronicles