All out on Imai

The rising excitement around a feast of positive rumors from last week seemed to suggest the San Francisco Giants were primed to sign Japanese starter Tatsuya Imai.

Well, that turkey has dried out. All the optimism and hope surrounding Imai is now painfully naive in-light of Monday’s news. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, citing club sources, reported that the Giants were “not inclined” to hand out a nine-figure contract definitely required to seal the deal with Imai.

Why? you ask from your knees, your arms thrusted skyward. The answer: a “number of financial considerations” that don’t really have anything to do with fans who care about the Giants because they play baseball, not because they invest in real estate.

This isn’t just an out-on-Imai deal — who, on paper, appeared to be a perfect fit for the Giants — it’s a bail on all the top arms available this winter. “Modestly priced alternatives” are what the front office will shop to resolve their pressing pitching needs, which is a pretty Scrooge-y way of going about spending around the holidays. What if Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in “Jingle All the Way” settled for a moderately priced alternative to the Turbo Man action figure his son Jamie wanted? Yeah, he’d avoid all the hullabaloo that’d ensue trying to track down a real one, but there’s no movie there, absolutely nothing to watch. AND Jamie would’ve been pissed, not only because he got a store-brand knock-off, but he would’ve been robbed of learning the true meaning of Christmas!

Now I understand some teams aren’t in the financial situation to shell out for a somewhat wild card arm in Imai — the Giants are certainly not one of them. There are contracts on the books with Rafael Devers and Willy Adames and Matt Chapman, sure, but the club is also valued at an estimated $4 billion and share a division with the spend-happy Dodgers. The thriftiness here just doesn’t fly.

Is this outcome worse than being legitimately out-bid for Imai? I think so.