Past moves provide insight into Zaidi’s deadline strategy
With the Giants leading by five runs and wrapping up a much-needed win over the Pirates on Sunday at Oracle Park, Pittsburgh second baseman Adam Frazier grabbed his bats and headed back for the visitor’s clubhouse.
At least temporarily, the Giants were happy to see him go.
Frazier is a bit of a pest to compete against. The 29-yearold is hitting a career-high .324 with a .836 OPS. He works long at-bats, can hit almost any pitch and is a great tone-setter atop a lineup.
After Sunday’s game went final, the Giants learned they’d see a lot more of Frazier. The first-time All-Star was headed to San Diego to join the Padres in one of the first big deadline moves.
It comes as no surprise that Padres general manager A.J. Preller plans on being aggressive ahead of Friday’s trade deadline as the executive is feeling the heat. Preller was the most active frontoffice leader in the majors at last year’s deadline when he swung deals for Mike Clevinger, Austin Nola, Mitch Moreland, Trevor Rosenthal and a few others, and it wouldn’t shock anyone to see San Diego make a flurry of moves this week.
Preller was even more aggressive in the offseason as he pursued high-profile pitchers Yu Darvish, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove to front a revamped rotation while signing right-hander Mark Melancon to fortify the bullpen.
As the Padres continued to make moves, Giants fans wondered when Farhan Zaidi was going to make a splash.
The Dodgers were coming off a World Series victory and had plans to eventually
add starting pitcher Trevor Bauer. The Padres appeared best positioned to challenge Los Angeles atop the National League West.
The Giants? Well, at least Zaidi talked about making the postseason. How he planned to help the Giants end a fouryear playoff drought remained a mystery.
As spring training approached, the Giants revamped their rotation by adding Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani on one-year deals, signed a veteran relief arm in Jake McGee and acquired several under-the-radar pitchers on minor league deals such as Dominic Leone, Zack Littell and Jay Jackson.
Tommy La Stella earned a three-year contract from San Francisco and LaMonte Wade Jr. arrived via a trade from Minnesota, but at the time, these transactions didn’t exactly move the needle.
That’s the funny thing about the way Zaidi operates. Fans didn’t know who Wade, Mike Yastrzemski or Alex Dickerson were before the Giants acquired them, but all three have played pivotal roles for the club during their tenures in San Francisco.
So for anyone wondering if Zaidi saw the Frazier-to-San Diego move and hit the panic button, the answer is no. The Giants’ top baseball executive operates in a much less exciting and much more methodical way. His approach to roster building has focused on adding at the margins and surrounding veteran talent with supplementary pieces who help cover up the team’s biggest weaknesses.
Does that rule out a possible Max Scherzer to San Francisco deal? Of course not. It just doesn’t mesh with how Zaidi built the 2021 roster.
The strategy the Giants used created a well-rounded, versatile group that’s withstood key injuries and can guarantee it will hit the trade deadline in first place in the NL West with just one victory over the Dodgers at Oracle Park this week.
The trade deadline and the days leading up to it are often incredibly exciting for a fan base and that’s particularly true in San Diego. Giants fans may not be familiar with a player or two Zaidi acquires this week, but that shouldn’t immediately lead to disappointment.
As Zaidi has proven, his way works too. Perhaps better than Preller’s.