McDonald: Don’t cry for Jimmy Garoppolo. The 49ers have been straight with him.

The 49ers traded for Garoppolo, made him a very rich man, then Shanahan rolled the dice and wanted more with Lance, communicating with Garoppolo along the way.

UPDATE: Adam Schefter of ESPN is reporting that Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers have agreed to a one-year restructured contract that will keep him with the franchise through the season and be free to leave in free agency in 2023.

SANTA CLARA — It seems a lot of people are feeling sorry for Jimmy G.

The poor guy, exiled to a side field during training camp, his job as 49ers quarterback taken from him by coach Kyle Shanahan and handed to a neophyte in Trey Lance.

Am I alone in thinking Garoppolo isn’t an aggrieved party as he awaits his exodus from a franchise that paid him more than $113 million over four years?

Garoppolo wasn’t around during media viewing sessions Sunday or Monday. Before that, the Garoppolo I’ve seen on an adjacent practice field hasn’t looked hangdog at all. He’s got a big smile on his face, and is going through the paces of getting ready for a new assignment that could come at any time.

If Garoppolo has a problem with how the 49ers handled this, then either he or his agent Don Yee should say something.

Make no mistake, if Garoppolo had made himself a distraction by speaking out publicly while Lance is preparing to take over, then he’d have been out the door by now.

He hasn’t said a word and awaits his fate at Tuesday’s cutdown to 53 players.

Having Garoppolo around has had no effect on the 49ers as they prepare for the 2022 season. Players appear solidly behind Lance, and they understand perfectly it won’t always be smooth on the field.

The transition in leadership, however, has been very smooth as Lance has conducted himself in a professional manner that belies his 22 years. The move was a fait accompli the moment the 49ers traded three first-round picks to move from No. 12 to No. 3 in 2021 in order to replace Garoppolo at quarterback for the 2022 season.

Shanahan has stuck to his public stance from the outset, first in keeping Garoppolo as the starter for one more year and then in making the commitment to push him aside for something more dynamic.

The whole idea of trading Garoppolo was torpedoed the moment he had shoulder surgery that would make it impossible for a new team to commit to him during OTAs and mandatory minicamp.

With no trade on the horizon, for the 49ers to keep Garoppolo around in case something catastrophic happened with Lance seems like an abundant show of good sense. He was a “break glass in case of emergency” option that would make it so a stacked 49ers roster wouldn’t have to rely on Nate Sudfeld or Brock Purdy for a Super Bowl run.

With Lance healthy, Garoppolo should be set free soon enough. And it’s not as if Garoppolo, had he been released earlier, was going to walk into a training camp and immediately win a job.

Cleveland was a supposed option, but why would Garoppolo want anything to do with the Deshaun Watson circus?

Other potential suitors signed quarterbacks when Garoppolo was rehabbing. And let’s face it, even when healthy, it’s not as if Garoppolo was going to go into someone’s camp and wow everyone with his ability to throw outside the boundaries. If he goes to Seattle, he’ll need to beat out Geno Smith and Drew Lock and while that could happen, it won’t be right away.

Garoppolo served his purpose with the 49ers and was well paid for doing so. He’ll eventually get another chance elsewhere. The matter of an extra week or three wasn’t going to give Garoppolo the chance to be someone’s starter at the outset of the 2022 season.

There’s no guarantee Garoppolo will ever be anointed as someone’s starter again. More likely, he’ll be signed as an expensive backup who can lead a team whose starter is injured, although it won’t be for the big-time money he got from the 49ers.

The 49ers traded for Garoppolo, made him a very rich man, then Shanahan rolled the dice and wanted more with Lance. Whether he is right or not will determine Shanahan’s future with the 49ers, as well as general manager John Lynch.

It’s not as if the 49ers deceived Garoppolo, telling him he had a chance at a job that didn’t exist anymore. They met with Garoppolo at the outset and informed him the team now belonged to Lance. He wouldn’t be involved in practices and meetings but would remain with the team until such a time when he wasn’t. Since there was no false competition, players were barely even asked about it.

Everyone knew the score. Garoppolo didn’t raise a peep in protest. The 49ers appear to have been straight with him all the way down the line.

The business of football isn’t always fair, but from here it looks like the 49ers have been fair with Jimmy G.