S.F. remains potential buyer in August
PHOENIX — The hype surrounding a very active July trading season in baseball is over, but the Giants’ efforts to improve the very definition of a .500 team is not.
The Giants still could use a starting pitcher and a bat. Finding quality additions in August is not easy, because players must clear waivers before they can be moved. Odds are slim, but general manager Bobby Evans pledged to try.
“There’s been a whole lot more activity around the trade deadline than we’ve seen in years past, which lends itself to a belief there still could be more activity in August than we’re used to,” Evans said. “We’re still strategic in our evaluation of our opportunities.”
The Giants have won three straight and have an opportunity to help their cause directly with a four-game series against the Diamondbacks, which begins Thursday night with Madison Bumgarner facing a hot Zack Greinke.
The Diamondbacks moved into first place in the National League West on Tuesday night. The Giants, in fourth place, are five games out. It’s a deja vu situation. In late June, they entered Chase Field 5½ games behind first-place Arizona and swept a three-game series.
They then went to Coors Field and got swept by Colorado. Win three. Lose three. That’s how it’s been.
In an 18-10 June and 11-14 July, pitching was the Giants’ strength. Entering the final July game, the Giants had the best ERA in the league since June 1 at 3.30.
However, that cannot mask the Giants’ need to add an experienced starter, which proved to be the commodity least in supply in July once a couple of name left-handers ( J.A. Happ, Cole Hamels) were moved.
Aside from a lack of supply, the Giants were hindered by their desire to stay under the luxury-tax cap and not deplete the farm for rentals.
Without the emergence of Dereck Rodriguez and Andrew Suarez, the injuries to Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija might have forced the front office into an undesirable move.
“We’re in a unique situation because all of a sudden, Rodriguez and Suarez are growing up before our eyes,” executive vice president Brian Sabean said.
Still, projecting their performance in August and September as they surpass their career highs in innings is difficult. Although Rodriguez looks like a bull who will not tire, Suarez has shown a few cracks over his past three starts, allowing 11 earned runs in 162⁄3 innings.
Chris Stratton, who replaces Cueto in the rotation, started strongly in 2018 only to lose his job and even be sent to Triple-A for a bit of retraining.
Therein lies the Giants’ need to continue searching for another arm, perhaps another Derek Holland type, to pick up some valuable innings.
“We’re always interested, or have an ear toward controllable pitchers,” Sabean said.
The Giants have to look beyond the final two months of 2018 as well because Cueto will be lost for 2019 and Samardzija is a huge question mark. The system offers some possibilities, starting with Shaun Anderson, a 2017 midseason acquisition.
But one can imagine the Giants offering a package of prospects and even big-leaguers down the road to acquire a good starter with more than a year of team control.
Impact deals in August are tough because most of the players who clear waivers and can be traded anywhere either are underperformers or have huge contracts that a claiming team would not want to absorb.
The Giants do have an advantage being in fourth place. They have claiming priority over the other West contenders.
The lineup can use help, too, but hitters are just as hard to find midseason as starters. The Giants and their fans need a little faith that the current lineup somehow can coalesce enough to provide a good pitching staff with adequate support. Make that lot of faith, because 109 games of scuffling at the plate is a sample size too large to ignore.
At some point, the Giants also can give Mac Williamson another look and Chris Shaw a first look, but remember, every minor-league call-up inches the team closer to the tax threshold.
The Giants’ search for pitching and offense will merge seamlessly into the offseason, when they will have more financial leg room (even with a lot of potential dead money) and the time to engage multiple teams and free agents in seeking the best fit.
All that matters now, though, is that the Giants will throw Bumgarner, Stratton, Suarez and Holland at the first-place club in their division over the next four games, hoping to make a move in the standings that needs to happen quickly.