Though he didn’t land the contract he was looking for, Matt Chapman wound up signing where he was most comfortable.
On Monday afternoon, the four-time Gold Glove-winning third baseman was formally introduced by his new team, the San Francisco Giants. Chapman told reporters at Oracle Park that as time went along during his free agency, he realized more and more that he wanted to go home.
“It just seemed like it was destiny,” Chapman said. “I think we’ve got some unfinished business.”
Born in Victorville, California, Chapman attended Cal State Fullerton and was selected by the Oakland Athletics in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft. He spent five seasons with the A’s and made playoff appearances with the club in 2018 and 2019 before being traded ahead of the 2021 season as part of one of Oakland’s standard roster tear-downs.
With the Giants, Chapman will be reunited with Bob Melvin, who was the team’s manager during each of his seasons with the A’s.
“I felt like we had something really special building with the A’s — unfortunately that got kind of ripped out of our hands,” Chapman said. “Getting to come back, be in an organization like the Giants, a team that’s not afraid to spend, go get free agents, keep guys together and keep adding. All the things you expect a winning franchise to do.”
The Giants had a busy winter after missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year. San Francisco won the National League West with a shocking 107-55 record in 2021 but declined to 81-81 and 79-83 in the next two seasons.
Though the Los Angeles Dodgers stole the show this off-season by signing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Giants were among the top spenders in baseball. Beyond Chapman, they also signed Korean League star Jung Hoo Lee, slugger Jorge Soler, and flame-thrower Jordan Hicks in free agency and they added former Cy Young winner Robbie Ray through a trade with the Seattle Mariners.
More must-reads: