HOLDING STEADY
The Giants have a mostly quiet day as the MLB trade deadline passes
In the hours leading up to the 2020 trade deadline, Giants fans were waiting to see whether president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi wanted to buy or sell.
When the clock struck 1 p.m. on Monday, fans were still waiting.
A year after the Giants executed a flurry of last-minute trades, Zaidi opted to keep his roster intact and stay relatively quiet at the deadline.
“Every team at the deadline and really every day is trying to balance the present and the future,” Zaidi said. “In our position we’ve got to balance that because we have viewed ourselves as an organization in transition, but at the same time, we’ve tried to stay competitive and with a wider open picture playoff-wise, it made that a little more achievable with the format this year.
The club did announce a trade for Tampa Bay Rays lefthanded pitcher Anthony Banda 90 minutes after the deadline, but Banda had been designated
for assignment and San Francisco only parted with cash to acquire him.
The Giants were considered candidates to sell as aggressive buyers could have pursued pitchers Kevin Gausman and Johnny Cueto. The club was also viewed as a dark horse to join the large contingent of buyers as Zaidi hinted earlier in the week the Giants were considering adding a left-handed bat or a righthanded reliever.
“I talked some about righthanded relief or a left-handed bat, but nothing there materialized and we feel comfortable with the team we have,” Zaidi said. “We’re obviously right in the thick of the playoff race so we wanted to be careful with how we evaluated trade opportunities.”
Other teams including two in the National League West, the Padres and Diamondbacks, were active in this year’s trade market, but the deadline came and went without any moves involving a Giants club that still views itself as a playoff contender.
The biggest transaction involving the Giants on Monday was the result of a move from last week as the Detroit Tigers claimed right-handed pitcher Dereck Rodríguez on waivers. Outside of Rodríguez finding a new home and Banda — who will report to the Sacramento alternate site — joining the organization, it was a quiet day for a franchise that has historically been among the most aggressive at the trade deadline.
How did a club that entered the season expected to finish near the bottom of the National League find itself in position to hang onto veteran assets for a possible postseason push at the deadline?
After falling to 8-16 on the season, the Giants won seven consecutive wins to battle their way into contention. The Dodgers halted the Giants’ momentum by sweeping a Thursday doubleheader, but manager Gabe Kapler’s club won its last two games heading into the deadline against
the D’backs to improve to 1719 and now has legitimate postseason hopes with four weeks left.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the clear front-runners in the division, but the Giants’ ability to sneak into the playoffs will largely be dictated by how they fare against a San Diego Padres roster that received a massive makeover over the past few days.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller executed five trades including two that involved seven players or more. San Diego’s rotation now features Mike Clevinger and its pitching staff will throw to new catchers Austin Nola and Jason Castro, but the Giants can finish in third place in the NL West and still earn one of the final playoff spots in an expanded postseason field.
Seven of the Giants’ final 24 games come against the Padres, but the Giants don’t play the Dodgers the remainder of the season and also have one more series against a now-depleted D’backs team they’ve defeated five times in six tries this season.
The D’backs waved the white flag Monday outfielder Starling Marte, starter Robbie
Ray and relievers Archie Bradley and Andrew Chafin, so the Giants will hope to take advantage of a weakened Arizona squad in their four-game set over Labor Day weekend.
With veteran hitters Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt and Wilmer Flores all producing well above league average and Austin Slater likely to return from the injured list and join Mike Yastrzemski in the outfield soon, the Giants have reason to believe they can remain in the playoff race into the final days of the schedule.
With Zaidi and general manager Scott Harris essentially giving a vote of confidence to the current roster on Monday, the Giants will continue their pursuit of a playoff berth today in Colorado against a Rockies team that acquired a familiar face in outfielder Kevin Pillar from Boston in the minutes leading up to the deadline.
The Giants’ 2019 Willie Mac Award winner and the Rockies face the Giants six times down the stretch, including four at Oracle Park during the final week of the season.
At that point, we’ll be able to evaluate whether the Giants’ front office made a smart
decision to keep the team together or if it missed an opportunity to trade away assets when their value was still high.
“We had to listen on everything because I think we recognized that we’re in a bit of a transition organizationally, but at the same time, respecting and valuing where we are in the current playoff picture, the present was a pretty important part of the trade off for us,” Zaidi said.
• The Giants were hoping outfielder Joey Rickard would provide valuable production against left-handed pitchers while Slater recovers from his left groin strain, but the club announced Monday that Rickard’s season is over after he injured his left elbow.
Rickard was placed on the 60-day injured list with left elbow inflammation, ending his season shortly after he received a promotion to the big league club. Slater was expected to report to Sacramento to resume baseball activities on Monday, but isn’t quite ready to return from his injury which means the Giants have an open 28-man roster spot to fill before Tuesday’s game against Colorado.