SF Giants Morning Commute: trade rumors abound

It’s the time of year for trade rumors and there are plenty of them around. The San Francisco Giants made a move over the weekend for a starting pitcher with the acquisition of Jake Peavy from the Boston Red Sox. The price was two of the Giants top pitching prospects, Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. With a move like that, you may be wondering if Brian Sabean is done with any big moves. Well, the answer to that questions is, no.

Alex Pavlovic talked to Giants GM Brian Sabean who made it clear that while there aren’t enough players out there, the Giants still have plenty of bargaining chips to work out a deal for a second baseman or another bat before the July 31st trade deadline.

"“The good thing from a pitching department, and the reason we thought these two are expendable, is that’s our deepest group. I think the rest of the teams we’ve been dealing with have proven that as we’ve come back with names,” he said. “(The 15 names being asked about) is interesting and that bodes well. Now, they’re all in different forms, whether that’s a lower minor league level or they’re in higher minor leagues where we try to decide if they’re going to be starters or relievers, but we have depth in this organization.“That’s a strength we’re going to deal from…."

According to Sabean, the Giants pitching is deep and teams have expressed interested in 15 players, though he didn’t say who specifically. Another factor that gave the Giants some breathing room is they only have to pick up about $2 million of Peavy’s remaining $5 million owed this season. That not only gives the Giants some potential trading pieces, but also some cash to work with.

Now that starting pitching is in the bag, who might the Giants have their eyes on? Well, we all know the Giants have been hot after getting a second baseman. Despite the Peavy trade, the Giants consider themselves still to be in the running for Tampa’s Ben Zobrist. According to Jon Morosi, they had two scouts at the game this weekend watching him.

Zobrist is primarily a second baseman, but can also play short stop and the outfield. He’s hitting .265/.358/.409 this season in Tampa with 8 home runs and 6 errors in 58 games at second base.

Another name making the rounds is Alex Rios, an outfielder with the Rangers. It may be a longer shot with Rios though as several teams are interested in making a deal for him, according to Ken Rosenthal.

Rios is hitting .299/.328/.426 with an AL leading 8 triples. Considering the dimensions of AT&T Park, I’m betting he could leg out a lot more triples in San Francisco. He also has 16 stolen bases.

This is also not the first time the Giants have expressed interest in Rios. The Giants were thought to be in on him last season at the trade deadline before the White Sox sent him to the Rangers. The Giants obviously have a right-fielder in Hunter Pence, but Rios has played some center field in his MLB career and could fill the hole left by Angel Pagan. Rios has been hitting 3rd with the Rangers, but I’d imagine he could fill the #1 or #2 spot pretty easily as well.

Of course, if the Giants are hot and heavy about getting Rios, what do that say about how Pagan is progressing during his time on the disabled list?