Another first baseman has left for the West Coast, jilting the Houston Astros in the process. On Wednesday, it was Corey Hart signing with the Mariners and on Thursday, it's Michael Morse agreeing to a deal with the San Francisco Giants.
Reports out of the Winter Meetings Wednesday evening suggested that the Astros and Morse were close to a deal and were negotiating heatedly. But, no news broke from that and Morse has reportedly agreed to a deal with the Giants instead, on a one-year deal to play left field.
According to Ken Rosenthal:
Reported last night that #Astros were in serious discussions with Morse. They made offer, strong push. But Morse wanted #SFGiants.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 12, 2013
Two things might have swayed things in the Giants favor. First, the team itself. San Francisco won a World Series not long ago. The Giants have a good pitching staff and a decent offense. Two, Morse gets to play left field. If he's interested in increasing his market next year on a one-year make-good deal, it makes more sense for him to play the field and show some versatility rather than pigeon-hole himself into first base.
While it appears this may have been about money (we don't know how much he got yet), those two factors probably weighed just as heavily against Houston. Oh well. Onto the next first base target: Grady Sizemore.