Marco Scutaro was a vital piece of the San Francisco Giants‘ World Series run in 2012, and it appears that he’s being rewarded for his efforts.

According to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, the Giants have signed the veteran shortstop to a multi-year deal:

 

Forget that Scutaro will be 37 years old by the time this deal is up—he was too big in the postseason to not be retained. Danny Knobler of CBS Sports mentioned on Tuesday that the Cardinals and Yankees were also said to be interested, but Scutaro decided to return anyway.

Acquired from the Colorado Rockies before the trade deadline in July, Scutaro turned into a new player. He hit .362 in 61 games, which is completely out of character for the career .276 hitter.

Once the playoffs came around, things changed again. He was injured in Game 2 of the NLCS when Matt Holliday slid hard into second base, but that didn’t stop him. He came back and hit .500 in the series while also maintaining sound defense.

Scutaro was a critical part of the Giants’ magical postseason run and he deserved to come back to San Francisco. He’s not going to win any Silver Slugger Awards, but he’s going to play excellent defense, work counts and do the little things that every team needs to do to win big games.

It’s important for the Giants to retain the core of last year’s team and Scutaro—along with Angel Pagan—is a big part of that.

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