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San Francisco Giants Rumors: Five potential Bay-bound trade options

By Paul Ashley

NEW YORK, NY - JULY 26: Sonny Gray #55 of the New York Yankees celebrates the final out of the third inning after Mike Moustakas #8 of the Kansas City Royals struck out with the bases loaded at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JULY 26: Sonny Gray #55 of the New York Yankees celebrates the final out of the third inning after Mike Moustakas #8 of the Kansas City Royals struck out with the bases loaded at Yankee Stadium on July 26, 2018 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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San Francisco Giants
LOS ANGELES, CA – AUGUST 15: San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey (28) looks on from the dugout during a MLB game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 15, 2018 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The San Francisco Giants failed to reach the postseason in consecutive seasons for the first time since their ’04-’09 playoff drought.  As the organization has a recent history of postseason success, this offseason presents an opportunity to retool for another deep run in October next season.

The San Francisco Giants finished the 2018 regular season 18.5 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West division.  After back-to-back seasons of not reaching the postseason, the Giants decided to remove Bobby Evans as the general manager.

Although the Giants have not yet hired a replacement general manager, the organization hired Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi to be their president of baseball operations.  Zaidi has previous experience working under Billy Beane with the Oakland Athletics while also having previous general manager experience under Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles.

As Zaidi has worked in two front offices that focus on analytics when evaluating players, he should be able to give the Giants a large advantage while they deal with improving an expensive, aging roster.  With Buster Posey, Evan Longoria, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, and Mark Melancon combining to earn roughly $111 million in both 2019 and 2020, an analytical approach will help the front office as they search for valuable players at a lower cost.

Despite a high payroll, the Giants batters only combined for a 7.2 WAR.  According to FanGraphs, this ranked the team 29th in the MLB with the Baltimore Orioles holding the lowest WAR at 2.7.  On the other side of the field, the Giants pitchers combined for a 12.2 WAR (21st in the MLB) while the fielders combined for a -17.1 UZR (23rd in the MLB).

Even though there are a lot of free agents that could help fix the current roster issues for the Giants, it may be more financially beneficial for the team to explore the trade market instead.  Due to this, let’s take a look at five possible trade options that could find their way to the Bay Area prior to the 2019 season.

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