Giants sign Melancon: ‘lockdown guy for the ninth’

On the first day of the winter meetings, the Giants signed All-Star Mark Melancon to the biggest contract in history for a closer: four years and $62 million.

“It gives all of the club peace of mind and confidence with as many close games we play that we have a lockdown guy for the ninth,” general manager Bobby Evans said Monday.

Melancon, who turns 32 in March, will receive a $20 million signing bonus ($12 million up front, the rest due after the contract) with salaries of $4 million in 2017, $10 million in 2018 and $14 million in both 2019 and 2020.

“You would have loved for this market to have been more in line with past markets, but the demand for the closers was high, and there were some big clubs pursuing,” Evans said.

The Giants met with Melancon in the Bay Area, including a ballpark visit, and with Jansen but not with Chapman.

The signing comes in the wake of the Giants’ ugliest inning of the season, the ninth inning of Game 4 of the Division Series in which the Cubs scored four runs to clinch the series, the first postseason step to their first World Series championship since 1908.

Santiago Casilla lost the closer’s job in September and wasn’t trusted to appear in the fateful inning.

Melancon saved 47 games and posted a 1.64 ERA last season for the Pirates and Nationals, and Evans said he likes the rest of the bullpen: right-handers Derek Law, Hunter Strickland, George Kontos and Cory Gearrin and lefties Will Smith, Josh Osich and Steven Okert.

Evans plans to invite nonroster pitchers to spring training to deepen the competition.

The Giants anticipate their 40-man roster payroll topping the $195 million tax threshold, so they’d be taxed for the third straight year, this time 50 percent for everything above $195 million.

Evans said the Giants checked on Yoenis Céspedes, who re-signed with the Mets, and Andrew McCutchen, who’s being shopped by the Pirates, but might go with Mac Williamson and/or Jarrett Parker.

“When you invest heavily in your rotation and you invest heavily in your bullpen and you invest heavily in your first baseman, your shortstop, your catcher, your right fielder, your center fielder, at some point, you need your farm system to raise up,” Evans said.

Successful organizations give their farm systems a chance to produce, and some of that production doesn’t get realized until it’s at the big-league level.

For now, the Giants don’t seem willing to add more relievers or an expensive outfielder, but the market tends to change over the winter, and if players become available at the right price, the Giants would be open-minded.