S.F. Giants Matt Chapman Happy to Play for an Ownership That's Willing to Spend
After signing with the San Francisco Giants over the weekend, third baseman Matt Chapman sat down with the San Francisco Chronicle and had one quote that was certainly aimed at Oakland A's ownership.
"So to come back here and have an opportunity with an organization like the Giants that’s not afraid to spend, a team that’s not afraid to go and get free agents and keep guys together and adding, and do all the things you expect a winning franchise to do, we have the opportunity to do that here and I couldn’t be more excited to be part of that."
He also said that he and Giants manager Bob Mevlin, the former A's skipper, have "unfinished business."
For some A's fans, the arrivals of Melvin and Chapman across the Bay may be enough to soften their stance on potentially rooting for the orange and black. It's not likely, but it's possible.
What's interesting about these comments, however, is that he's obviously comparing how the Giants do business with how A's ownership operates. John Fisher's status as an owner is so low that even these quotes from Chapman hardly even register nationally anymore. The other part of this is that his statement is true. The A's operate more conservatively, to put it nicely, while the Giants are actually trying to appease and grow their fan base.
The Bay Area should be a two team market, but for the last two decades it has essentially been owned by the Giants because they have the new ballpark and they spend money. A's ownership has found success in spite of themselves. It's honestly impressive that San Francisco doesn't have a bigger stranglehold on the market given the A's lack of effort for so long.
The big reason they don't is because A's fans are A's fans, not Bay Area fans. They root for the green and gold. Period. Instead of having an ownership group that understands that and the amount of money they could make because of that rabid fandom, Fisher has instead punted the market and is in the process of just handing all of Northern California to the Giants, who just so happen to be his favorite team growing up.
The most confounding part of this whole relocation saga has been the Commissioner's willingness to back Fisher every step of the way. The A's owner collects bad headlines constantly, and yet MLB seems to think that moving from Oakland to Las Vegas is such a good deal that it'll be worth it. Vegas may be different, but the way Fisher runs a team sure won't be.