Remember when the Los Angeles Dodgers signed former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal back in December? Larry Baer definitely does, and it's probably eating him alive more than he wants us to believe.
After all, it had to hurt for the San Francisco Giants' CEO knowing that their star left-hander would be leaving to pitch for their most hated division rivals, the reigning World Series champions. After the Dodgers' offseason additions of Snell, Tanner Scott and Roki Sasaki, among others, the talent gap between Los Angeles and San Francisco is as wide as ever; but Baer is doing his best to appear unbothered by it all.
"Look, they've made a lot of good Betts — no pun intended with Mookie — and they've done good work," Baer said of the Dodgers during a Monday interview on 95.7 The Game in San Francisco. "We can't focus on them, and I know it sounds like a pretty tripe thing to say, but we've got to focus on ourselves. We have 30 clubs, the years we did win championships, nobody thought we'd be there in '10, '12 and '14. The years we made the playoffs, nobody thought [we would]."
Even without the cringe-worthy pun, this would have been a pathetic attempt by Baer at appearing ambivalent toward his team's most formidable competitors and their blockbuster-filled offseason. The Giants, meanwhile, are fresh off an underwhelming 80-82 season in 2024 and have made just one major offseason acquisition, signing shortstop Willy Adames to a franchise-record seven-year, $182 million contract.
Giants CEO has incredibly weak response when pressed about Dodgers dominance, spending
If Baer truly believes that adding Adames and former Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander will have an impact equivalent to that of the Dodgers' bevy of blockbuster signings this offseason, then more power to him. But in an attempt to appear unaffected by the Dodgers' dominance, Baer only made the Giants look weaker by comparison.
"I think you've got to look at this in a measured way, and being a .500 team last year, our focus this year is progressing dramatically," Baer said. "Can we turn 80 wins into 90 wins? We think we can. 92 wins, 95, whatever, and see where the chips fall where they may. We don't play the Dodgers 162 times, we play them now 12 times. If our progression goes the way we're pushing it to go, then we're fine competing with the Dodgers and we should be OK."
Baer clearly thinks San Francisco is building something that can compete with Los Angeles for years to come. As for the rest of us, we'll believe it when we see it.
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