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The San Francisco Giants are unlikely to tender a contract to right-hander Brian Wilson by this Friday’s deadline, which would make the closer a free agent, reports Hank Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle:
From what I hear, Wilson and the team are not exactly seeing eye to eye…
The Giants do not intend to offer Wilson a $6.8 million guarantee after he missed the 2012 season (save for two games in April) with an elbow injury that required his second Tommy John surgery…
If the Giants do not tender Wilson a contract by Friday he becomes a free agent. Again, that seems likely to happen.
The $6.8 million is the minimum that the Giants are allowed to offer Wilson based on the rules of the new CBA. The 30-year-old Wilson made $8.5 million in 2012, so the team must offer at least 80 percent of that total -- $6.8 million – in order to comply.
The Giants would still like to re-sign Wilson as a free agent at a lower base salary with incentives, but the right-hander does not appear to be open to that proposition, according to Schulman. Wilson believes that he is worth the money to the organization, even with the injury concerns.
If Wilson does hit free agency, he will be one of several pitchers seeking a new home after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Fellow closers Joakim Soria and Ryan Madson are in a similar situation to Wilson, and right-handed starter Scott Baker already signed a one-year, $5.5 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.
