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After a prolonged free agency that went well into spring training, four-time Gold Glove third baseman Matt Chapman signed a deal with the San Francisco Giants.
The two sides agreed on a three-year, $54 million contract, even though Chapman had been projected to receive something longer-term and in excess of $100 million. In a March 4 interview with Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Chapman shared that he now plans to exercise one of the two opt-out clauses that his agent Scott Boras was sure to include.
“Our goals were to either get a long-term contract that we felt that I was worth. If not, get the short-term contract with opt-outs and bet on myself,” Chapman told Nightengale. “If I was going to do something long-term, I was going to get the value I’m worth.”
Nightengale added that the expectation is for Chapman, who will turn 31 in April, to opt out after the first year.
“It’s also why the Giants officially announced the contract as a one-year, $20 million deal, paying him $16 million in salary, a $2 million signing bonus and a $2 million buyout if he opts out,” he wrote. “Well, make that when he opts out.”
Matt Chapman Might Have Lost by Waiting to Sign With San Francisco Giants
Chapman’s new deal with the Giants would pay him $17 million in 2025 with a $3 million buyout should Chapman opt out after the second year. Then it gives him an $18 million salary in 2026 and a mutual option for a $20 million salary in 2027.
Boras told Nightengale that Chapman had received longer contract offers, but that the third baseman “wanted to bet on himself.” In a previous report, Nightengale noted that Chapman’s free agency strategy before the 2024 season did not prove to be a winning one.
“Matt Chapman is the latest free-agent signee that played the waiting game, and badly lost,” Nightengale noted. “Chapman … turned down a $125 million contract from the Toronto Blue Jays last year, and a 10-year, $150 million contract from the Oakland A’s in 2019.”
Matt Chapman Plans to Double Down But Need a Rebound With the San Francisco Giants
While a $54 million contract is nothing to scoff at, Chapman’s determination to make another bet on himself as a free agent in 2025 shows he’s disappointed in it.
Racking up four Gold Gloves in seven years at third base has made Chapman one of the most respected defenders in the big leagues, but his struggles at the plate might have something to do with the relative lack of enthusiasm for his services this year.
Chapman slashed .240/.330/.424 for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2023, a mediocre line that was boosted by a strong start — after April, he slashed a mere .205/.298/.361. If Chapman is going to win the next bet on himself, he will have to demonstrate that his bat still has some of the potency left from the .278/.356/.508 2018 season that saw him earn MVP votes.
That might be even harder playing for the Giants than it was for the Blue Jays.
“It’s not hard to envision Chapman putting in a strong enough season to opt out, but it is worth remembering that Oracle Park particularly tends to suppress right-handed power, which is Chapman’s calling card on offense,” according to FanGraphs. “However much this gets spun as a win-win deal … this looks like a case where Boras and his client came up short.”
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