With a collection of veteran players on their roster there was a chance that the San Francisco Giants would bounce back this season and hopefully contend for a playoff spot. Now that San Francisco is 43 games into this season it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. So the question becomes when do they start rebuilding?
The Giants find themselves sitting in last place in the NL West at 18-25 and are already 10 1/2 games behind the 1st place Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Giants have one of the lower ranked farm systems in major league baseball. They do have two players ranked in the Top 100. Catcher Joey Bart is inside most Top 25’s as a prospect while outfielder Heliot Ramos generally sneak into the Top 100 in most rankings. The Giants do have some veterans on their roster that could be traded to help improve the farm system.
Of course, the name that everyone is going to talk about is Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner is in the final year of his contract and believe it or not only makes $12 million dollars. Bumgarner does have a list of 8-teams he can’t be traded to but that shouldn’t hinder the Giants in finding a trade partner for him.
In 9 starts this season, Bumgarner is 2-4 with an ERA of 4.04 over 55 2/3rd innings. Bumgarner has struggled with some injuries making just 17 starts in 2017 and 21 starts last season. While his starts where limited the last two seasons his ERA’s where very solid with 3.32 in 2017 and 3.26 last season.
The fact that Bumgarner is in the final year of his contract will limit what teams will be willing to give San Francisco for him but it should still be a decent return if they decide to deal him.
Now Bumgarner isn’t the only veteran or the only pitcher that the San Francisco has that could really help out a team, especially in the bullpen.
After being brought in to be the Giants shutdown closer, Mark Melancon ran into some injuries and ended up losing his closing job.
The Giants brought Melancon in on a 4-year $62 million dollar deal. He has this season and next season left in that contract and is due to make $14 million in each of these two seasons.
Melancon has appeared in 15 games this season and is 1-0 with an ERA of 2.76 over 16 1/3rd innings.
Melancon is 34 years old but with the numbers he’s putting up this season and a very reasonable contract number there is probably a contender out their that would be interested in added him to their bullpen.
The Giants also have veteran left hander Tony Watson in their bullpen. San Francisco signed Watson this off season to a 2-year deal. Watson gets $6.5 million dollars this season and he has a player option for just $2.5 million dollars next season.
Not only does Watson have an team friendly contract he has also pitched well this season. Watson has appeared in 17 games this season. He is 2-0 with an ERA of 2.40 over 15 innings.
Watson is 34 years old, but with left handed pitchers age doesn’t seem to matter and if he can get people out their will be a contender interested in him.
Sam Dyson has been San Francisco’s main set up man out of the bullpen and seems to have found stuff when there was talk of him becoming a shutdown closer type of reliever.
Dyson did have a 38 save season back in 2016, but I don’t think there would be a contender out their looking at him to come in and close games for them, but with the success he’s had setting up there would be a spot in any bullpen for him.
Dyson has appeared in 19 games for the Giants this season. He is 1-0 with a 2.91 ERA and 1 save over 21 2/3rd innings.
Dyson has one more year of arbitration, so any team that acquired him would be able to hang on to him at a decent price next season if they where interested in doing that.
Believe it or not the Giants bullpen has one other pitcher that could draw some interest from teams as they look to strengthen there bullpens.
Will Smith has been closing games for San Francisco for almost a full year now. Last season Smith picked up 14 saves in 18 opportunities and posted an ERA of 2.55 in 54 games covering 53 innings. This season Smith is a perfect 11 for 11 in save opportunities. He has appeared in 17 games; he is 1-0 with an ERA of 2.70 over 16 2/3rd innings.
Smith is making $4.225 million dollars this season and will reach free agency at the end of this season.
Smith would give any contender a big time left hander coming out of their bullpen and with the success he’s had he could even be used as a fill in closer if a teams regular guy needed a day off.
I’m not sure how much interest he would draw, but there might be a team out there that would want to add a starter like Jeff Samardzija to the back of their rotation.
Samardzija has this season and next season left on his 5-year $90 million dollar deal the Giants signed him to. He’ll make $19.8 million dollars this season and is due the same amount next season.
Samardzija is 34 years old but has been solid for San Francisco this season. In 9 starts Samardzija is 2-2 with a 3.69 ERA over 46 1/3rd innings.
Samardzija does come with a pretty big price tag but you know how these trades go. The more of a players salary you pick up the less you have to give up to acquire him. If the deal was right Samardzija could be a good pick up as a 4th or 5th starter on a contender.
If the Giants are going to rebuild it looks like they’re going to have to use their veteran pitchers to get the process started. There might be a veteran bat or two that a team would be interested in, but I doubt the Giants could get much in return for any of them as they all have multiple seasons let on their contracts.
Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford are signed through the 2021 season and Evan Longoria is singed through the 2022 season. Maybe Joe Panik could get something in return. Panik is making $3.85 million dollars this season and has one year of arbitration to go through.
Now I left Buster Posey out of any possible trade talk as I don’t believe that San Francisco will deal Posey unless they’re overwhelmed by an offer. Posey is the face of the San Francisco franchise, but you do have to wonder with prospect Joey Bart working through the minor league system how much longer Posey will be the Giants everyday catcher.
Let’s keep an eye on the Giants and see when or if they start making deals and try to get the rebuild under way.
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