Alongtime San Francisco Giants beat reporter called out the Athletic for its “bananas” story about Matt Chapman being willing to switch positions to shortstop.
On Thursday night, Ken Rosenthal posted the eyebrow-raising story about Chapman and his willingness to help the Giants sign free agent shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, who had surgery to fix a torn labrum in his right shoulder in October and is expected to miss time at the start of the 2025 season.
“The Giants third baseman has told club officials he would be willing to move to short until Kim returned, one of numerous scenarios club officials are considering as they seek creative ways to reshape their roster, according to sources briefed on their discussions,” Rosenthal wrote.
He doubled down on the report during an appearance on the “Foul Territory” YouTube show on Friday, reiterating many of the points within his story. Chapman has barely played shortstop since high school — only 16 innings in college and the pros — and has won five Gold Gloves for his defense at third base.
As Rosenthal wrote and said on the show, Chapman being willing to move to shortstop could be a sign of new president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s ability to connect with players. Rosenthal gave Posey further shine, saying he was “hearing a lot of good things” from agents and other teams about how Posey was handling his new job.
The story seemed to to be a pretty clear indication, both to the public and to their other free agent targets, of the Giants’ intentions: Sign Kim and wait for him to get healthy, with Chapman filling in at shortstop until then. Then on Saturday, the Giants did land a shortstop — but instead of Kim, it was Willy Adames, the former Brewer who was considered the best shortstop on the market.
Shortly after word got out about the seven-year, $182 million deal for Adames, NBC Sports Bay Area reporter Alex Pavlovic, who has covered the Giants for the last 14 seasons, went on an emergency episode of the “Giants Talk” podcast and took a jab at the Athletic’s story about Chapman.
“The Chapman shortstop story was bananas,” Pavlovic said. “I don’t know who planted that, but well done.”
Pavlovic and co-host Cole Kuiper gave Chapman kudos for reportedly volunteering to make the switch, but Pavlovic pointed out the move would make the Giants worse at multiple positions. Pavlovic openly speculated that the story was meant to “put some pressure” on Adames to sign.