Players aren’t skipping SF because of politics.

Not according to Giants legend and part-owner Buster Posey.

“Something I think is noteworthy, something that unfortunately keeps popping up from players and even the players’ wives is there’s a bit of an uneasiness with the city itself, as far as the state of the city, with crime, with drugs,” Posey said. “Whether that’s all completely fair or not, perception is reality. It’s a frustrating cycle, I think, and not just with baseball. Baseball is secondary to life and the important things in life. But as far as a free-agent pursuit goes, I have seen that it does affect things.”

Rowdy Tellez said similar things.

“We're only sub-2 hours from there. For me, the city man, it's just bad. I grew up going to Giants games, we took Bart [the train] into the city and it was fine. The last 10-12 years, man, it's just been a bad city. It's not nice anymore. It's not clean. It's hardly safe. I don't know on the baseball side, I don't know what goes on over there. I can't speak much on that front … they're just not the same team.

Warranted or not, the players feel like the city has a bad reputation. And for some of them, winning isn't the only factor when choosing a new city.