New free agent Chris Young might make sense for Giants

While working on a free-agent-predict-a-thon post, there was news. It doesn't relate to the Giants … yet.

@athletics make it official, exercise Coco Crisp's and Brett Anderson's 2014 option. Decline on Chris Young and Kurt Suzuki.

— John Shea (@JohnSheaHey) November 1, 2013

See, if you get Suzuki, that frees up Posey to play first, which …

No, the relevant name up there is Chris Young. He's right-handed. He is overstuffed with dingers. He is a mean defender, especially in left. And in center. He's much, much better in center than Angel Pagan. But at least the Giants could continue the hilarious tradition of playing their second- or third-best outfielder in center field.

Young is also a guy who could hit .150 one of these years. The dingers are great, but he's like Rob Deer with great speed and defense instead of walks. He's pretty lousy against right-handers, too, which is a problem because a majority of pitchers happen to be right-handed.

But as a way to get some power and save money for pitching? I'm fer it. This is Mike Morse for smart people. Young had a miserable year for the A's, hitting .200/.280/.379 with uncharacteristically poor defensive stats, but he had one of those years before, in 2009. He followed that up with two five-win seasons and a two-win season. I'm not saying he's still a five-win player, but if you're looking for a realistic platoon partner for Gregor Blanco -- realistic, dammit -- Young is almost ideal, considering the options that are available.

He's not Mike Morse, you know.

You might before an entirely new left fielder. Like, one who isn't part of a platoon. I hear you. And maybe there's someone out there who would make sense, and who could be had in a trade. There's also Carlos Beltran, who would cost the only Giants a first-round pick, and when has that ever worked out poorly?

There will be time for thinking about the sexy free agents later.

No, no, I mean the big-ticket, expensive guys the Giants aren't actually going to sign. For now, here's a practical option that just came on the market. And it makes a tremendous amount of sense. Chris Young seems like a Sabean player, other than the strikeouts. I think the athleticism makes up for that in his mind, though. He's basically a rich man's Andres Torres, and he plays the Torres role from 2013 much better than Torres does. For the first time in months, I'm actually optimistic that Mike Morse isn't going to be on the Giants.

Now let's all just wait for Mike Morse to sign with the Giants.