San Francisco Giants Looking at Ryan Braun

With the San Francisco Giants numerous injuries in the outfield this season, it is understandable that they would be interested in bringing in Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun.

According to multiple sources the San Francisco Giants have engaged in preliminary discussions about a potential trade for Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun. Despite a denial of interest from GM David Stearns, it is likely that the reported discussion did indeed take place.

The Giants are still searching for answers at the corner outfield spots following Hunter Pence’s torn hamstring, which is projected to keep him out of action well into August or beyond. With Angel Pagan set to hit the free agent market next winter, and few viable options coming up through the Giants pipeline, a run at Braun, who, at the age of 30, has four more years remaining on his deal beyond 2016, makes sense.

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The Giants are amongst the elite handful of National League clubs that could realistically make a deep postseason push this October. They revitalized their rotation this winter by spending big on free agent pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto, both of whom are off to fantastic starts. In combination with their core group of position players, led by Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford, they are one of they possess one of the most balanced rosters in all of baseball.

It would be somewhat out of character for Brian Sabean to take on such a lofty and lengthy financial commitment via trade, and the questions pertaining to Braun’s character and potentially toxic influence on a clubhouse with some of the best chemistry in the game will never fully relent, but if any team is prepared to take on Ryan Braun it’s the Bruce Bochy-led Giants.

The logistical fit is another factor to consider. The Giants farm system is currently heavy on middle infield talent, but with Crawford and Joe Panik solidly established as the Giants long-term answers at those positions, it wouldn’t be as painful for them to part ways with the likes of the organization’s top prospect, Christian Arroyo.

On the other hand, if the talks do begin to take on greater substance over the upcoming weeks, we’ll quickly find out just how willing, if at all, the Giants are to dangle prized pitching prospect Tyler Beede. The Brewers, whose farm system is still, on the whole, position player heavy, are likely to set an ultimatum that requires the Giants to surrender either Beede or Phil Bickford.

If the Giants were to pull the trigger on such a blockbuster it would have profound ramifications across the rest of the National League. It’s no secret that both the Cubs and Cardinals have been searching for better corner outfield options, with the Cubs having never fully gotten over the loss of Kyle Schwarber and the Cards having never found a viable replacement for Jason Heyward. Each club has seen their young outfielders (Jorge Soler and Randall Grichuk respectively) struggle in attempting to fill those holes. Meanwhile, in the NL West the Giants grabbing Braun would almost certainly force the Dodgers hand within the arms race for a division far from guaranteed of producing one of the two wild cards.

From the Brewers perspective, they may never be a better time to sell Braun than right now. He’s currently having by far his best post-PED suspension season. His OPS of .919 and wRC+ of 141 are both in the top twelve of eighty-five qualified NL position players, while his strikeout rate (14. has thus far experienced a greater than 25% reduction from last season’s 20.2%.

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The Brewers are not ready to compete and won’t be for at least a few more years. By the time the rebuild is over Braun will be on the likely rough backend of his current 100+ million dollar deal. His greatest value to their organization is the assets he might help them to procure via a trade. Stay tuned for further updates if and when talks and negotiations on this front progress further.

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