How the San Francisco Giants have ruined the trade market
With one week until the July 31st deadline, the San Francisco Giants are miraculously in a position even they did not anticipate being in.
I’ve called the 2019 San Francisco Giants several different things: Terrible. Unbearable. God awful. A revolving door. The greatest story of the 2019 season.
That last description has come in the wake of a 17-3 record in their last 20 games. It has come in the wake of entering Wednesday night two games ABOVE .500. It is the best thing to happen to the Giants and their fans this year.
It is also the absolute worst thing to happen to the trade market.
This year has been described ad nauseam as a buyer’s market; meaning more teams need pieces than teams have to offer.
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The problem is that those teams no longer considering themselves in contention don’t have comparable pieces for the buying teams like the Yankees and Dodgers and Astros.
All the buying teams have the same problem too: their pitching.
Yes the Dodgers have a double-digit lead over their next closest division rival – the Giants – but the goal is no longer to win the division, but to win the World Series.
The Dodgers’ bullpen ERA is 4.15, which is in the top-10 in the league. That’s not where the problem lies.
The Dodgers have blown 19 save opportunities this season, and that is tied for second-most in the league.
So yes, they need bullpen help and so do the Yankees who have blown 18 saves despite a 3.72 bullpen ERA.
The Giants have been rumored to have several arms available: Sam Dyson, Tony Watson and their all-star closer Will Smith.
But the Giants now are in the best possible position and they are on fire right now.
There is no possible way they can sell anybody, let alone their veteran bullpen arms.
Or can they?
Consider the Minnesota Twins in 2017. They had an all-star closer in Brandon Kintzler and were hot before the deadline.
They traded for Jaime Garcia but then a week later looked like a completely different team. So they changed course and traded Garcia to the Yankees and Kintzler to the Nationals.
But that was it! There was no massive fire sale and still snuck into the playoffs as the second wild card.
They may have lost to the Yankees but they proved a point.
You can still sell and make a push for the playoffs.
Can the Giants do the same thing?
Can they sell off guys like Smith and Dyson, replace them with some major-league ready talent in Fernando Abad and Sam Coonrod and still make the playoffs?
Right now it looks like the Giants won’t sell at all! And that’s why the market has been so shaken.
The Giants have all the pieces some of the struggling or playoff-push teams need, and they are remarkably playing better than any team in baseball.
Next. A case for Curt Schilling to the Hall of Fame. dark
Farhan Zaidi is keeping his plans close to his vest, but just how close to the vest are they? Will the San Francisco Giants be able to keep their current pace past the deadline? And how will the other team’s adjust if the Giants add themselves to the massive pile of buyers?