The San Francisco Giants have struggled to attract marquee free agents in recent years. The reasoning is manifold — better offers from better teams, unfair stigma around the city, and other various knocks on the franchise. Now, however, the front office has added fuel to the fire.

San Francisco recently waived J.D. Davis after losing their arbitration battle. Davis filed at $6.9 million and won; the Giants filed at $6.55 million. Rather than stomaching the extra $350K, the Giants cut Davis loose. He is now set to receive only 30 days of prorated salary as termination pay, which equals a shade over $1 million.

That feels like a scummy move to punish a player for winning a very narrow arbitration battle. Why else would the Giants go through all the trouble of pushing for $6.55 million in the first place? Davis was notably the only San Francisco player to not settle outside of court.

There is a pervasive sense that the Giants are shooting themselves in the foot here. Star free agents probably aren’t thrilled by the prospect of joining a team so thoroughly dedicated to penny-pinching.

San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi addressed those concerns with The Mercury News.

“Everything we’ve done in this case is well within our rights as a team. I think that’s recognized; it’s very cut-and-dry in the CBA… We try to reach an agreement with all of our arbitration-eligible players, him included. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.

We certainly made offers to all of our players, offers that could have been accepted. We negotiate all those deals in good faith because no matter what might happen we always prefer to get our cases done than go to hearing.”

Talk about a non-answer, man. The idea that $350K was enough to draw such a hard line in the sand is laughable, especially when the Giants have spent $149 million on outside free agents. It’s not like the Giants don’t have the capital to keep Davis around. The Matt Chapman move obviously complicates the matter, but why not trade Davis — who would surely have suitors — instead of pulling the rug out from under him?