Giants reportedly 'still in mix' for Rusney Castillo

There's a premium international free agent on the market, and the rich teams are climbing over themselves to offer him money. One of those teams is ... the Giants?

Indeed, according to Ken Rosenthal, the Giants aren't dead yet:

Sources: #Tigers, #RedSox, #SFGiants still in mix for Rusney Castillo. #Cubs, #Yankees, #Phillies not expected to place high bid.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) August 20, 2014

This isn't Jimmy Rumorfingers reporting it. We're talking Ken Rosenthal. He wears $10,000 suits made entirely out of rumors. So everyone get really, really excited.

If you're looking for more information on Castillo, Kurt Mensching wrote a quality explainer on who he is and why teams are excited about him.

How much money is Castillo going to cost?

It might take a $50 million, six-year deal. Jon Paul Morosi reported that in a video for Fox Sports on Saturday. Earlier reports had put him in the mid-to-upper $40 million range.

That's a big risk for an unknown player. For all of the grief the Giants got for the Aaron Rowand deal, at least he was something of a known quantity, even though he was over 30 and coming off a career season. This would be a ton of risk, but apparently enough reward for teams to consider it.

Wonder if there are any comments after the above article that could help clear things up.

SO THERE WILL BE 28 TEAMS VIEWING MR. CASTILLO. PLEASE DONT TELL ME THE METS WILL BE ONE OF THOSE 28 TEAMS. THAT WILL JUST BE A WASTED TRIP AND A WASTE OF TIME. WHERE EVER THERE IS COMPETITION TO SIGN SOMEONE THE METS DONT SPEAK UP OR PONY UP OR PAY UP. SO WHY BOTHER GOING THERE AND BREAK YOUR HEART ON SOMEBODY YOU CAN ONLY DREAM OF. THE METS HAVE NO CUBANS IN THE ORGANIZATION. THEY PROBABLY DONT EVEN KNOW HOW TO ACQUIRE A BOX OF CUBAN CIGARS AND IF THEY MANAGE TO SOMEHOW COME BY A BOX THATS ALL THEY WILL BE COMING BACK WITH BESIDES FRUSTRATION . OH YEAH THE METS PAID 1 MILLION FOR ANOTHER VENEZUALEN KID. LIKE CIGARS ITS NICE BUT NO CUBAN. BTW HOW MANY OTHER TEAMS WERE BIDDING ON HIM? ONE? MAYBE NONE. STAY HOME AND DONT TELL US YOU WERE IN THERE BIDDING TILL THE END…OK

I feel the same way about the Giants, my man. They rarely seem to come out as the winning team with these rumors. But according to one of the best rumormongers in the business, the Giants aren't dead yet. They might be one of the few teams left.

Stray thought: Boy, it would sure be embarrassing to escalate the Puig arms race and come up with a dud. Can't run an organization based on fears like that, yet I can't shake the thought.