Giants After Sabathia, Maybe Lowe

Regarding C.C. Sabathia, MLB Trade Rumors reports that, "the Giants are considering making an offer to C.C. Sabathia. It'd be more than $100MM but far less than $140MM. I imagine the Giants are trying to determine how much money Sabathia would leave on the table to come to San Francisco."

I've been hoping for the Giants to sign Derek Lowe, and it is believed the team is one of the pitcher's many suitors. While Lowe will still command a high price, he comes cheaper than Sabathia and would be a solid addition to an already strong staff.

Jayson Stark weighed the pros and cons of signing Sabathia yesterday:

Imagine a rotation of CC, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Barry Zito and Jonathan Sanchez. Looks like potentially the best rotation in baseball, assuming Zito can just rebound to mediocrity and Sanchez more closely resembles the Sanchez of the first half (8-5, 3.97 ERA) than the second half (1-7, 7.47).

Of course, assembling a rotation like that would create its own set of problems. For one, it wouldn't address the offensive issues of a team that got outscored by every team in baseball except the Padres. Then again, CC did have the same OPS this year (.627) as Austin Kearns. So maybe it would.

But it also would create the opportunity for the Giants to soften on their refusal to deal Cain, then explore whether trading him could land a middle-of-the-order bat. And our guess is: It could.

Even more complicated, though, are the payroll reverberations of adding a $22 million-a-year pitcher to a team already weighed down with five more years and $101.5 million worth of obligations to Zito.