Giants fail to earn playoff bid in loss to Eagles, as Cowboys clinch No 1 seed and NFC East
Realistically, the New York Giants losing a late-season game won’t hinder the team’s ability to make the playoffs given the many Week 16 possibilities that exist to bump them in. And historically, a late-season loss is no big deal for the feast-or-famine Giants, with Week 15 setbacks to the Washington Redskins in both of their Super Bowl seasons in the past decade proving that. So why does the 24-19 loss to the Eagles on Thursday feel like a missed opportunity? The Giants beat the Dallas Cowboys twice this season but let their chances to win the division slip through their fingers with this loss. The Cowboys also now are the top seed in the NFC and have clinched home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs as a result. Cleveland beat out Texas, whose offer was well within the Indians’ neighborhood, and Oakland, which offered a higher per-year average but didn’t want to go any longer than two years. Which, for a 34-year-old first baseman who’s probably better suited at designated hitter, makes plenty of sense. Encarnacion’s desire for a five-year deal at the start of free agency was posturing gone awry, as Toronto’s four-year, $80 million deal for him disappeared, and then nobody cared to do $70 million or $60 million and by the end of the Winter Meetings, one team had proffered a three-year, $42 million contract. All for a guy who hit .263/.357/.529 with 42 home runs, an AL-leading 127 RBIs and capped off a five-year stretch in which his 193 home runs were the second most in all of baseball. Prolific is the best word to describe Encarnacion, whose home-road split has practically disappeared over the last two years and whose bat-to-ball skills are rare for a hitter with such power. He’s the guy Cleveland was missing in its lineup. Francisco Lindor is a superstar in the 3-hole, Jason Kipnis dandy ahead of him in the second spot and Carlos Santana, with whom he’ll share first-base and DH duties, an on-base savant at leadoff. Even if Michael Brantley’s return doesn’t go as planned – the organization doesn’t see his health as anything close to a guarantee – they’ve got an able-enough roster with Jose Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall and an on-the-come Bradley Zimmer to handle it fine.
