Trade Deadline: SF Giants stand pat, will rely on in-house talent

The non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone. The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers have made no trades on this day, and so Jake Peavy (and cash) becomes the only trade pieces acquired for the Giants in this trade deadline season. Overall, this was a fantastically exciting July 31st, especially for the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers. CSN beat writer Andrew Baggalry called today a “net positive”:

Jul 7, 2014; Arlington, TX, USA; Texas Rangers right fielder

(center) hits a double in the third inning against the Houston Astros at Global Life Park in Arlington. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Tough to argue with that, as a Dodgers rotation with David Price or Jon Lester being added there would probably have been game over for the NL West race. The Giants are hoping to have Brandon Belt and Angel Pagan come back soon, but have optioned Tyler Colvin and still (unfortunately) have Dan Uggla on their roster. Those two roster moves yesterday gave us the impression that the Giants might be on their way to making a move. Maybe their only move will be putting Belt back on the 25-man. Would I have liked to see a move for Alex Rios or Marlon Byrd? Absolutely. As Hank Schulman pointed out earlier in the day, it’d be easier to live with Joe Panik batting eighth and a new OF doing better than Gregor Blanco than trying to have someone like Bonifacio save you with Blanco still in the lineup.

The Giants can still make a move in August on the waiver wire, and can block moves that they think the Dodgers will make unless their record becomes better than the Dodgers in the near future. Any player picked up before the end of August will be eligible to be on a postseason roster.

I didn’t like that the Giants were quiet on July 31st on the transaction counter. I wanted to see an addition to the 25-man in the outfield, heck, even at 2B or something for the bench would have been nice. Apparently though, Sabean and his team didn’t see something they liked enough to pull the trigger come their way, and now I’m guessing the Giants will be watching October baseball from the comforts of their home, missing out on the Wild Card game IF they do not make any moves where they have to add from the outside in the next month. The farm isn’t ready, and ownership can add some money for 2014, but we’ve been told the Giants didn’t want to take on too much extra money for this year and the next.

With Angel Pagan not being healthy all the time, Marco Scutaro‘s back not being cooperative, and Matt Cain being a big, fat question mark, it’s fair to wonder if 2015 is going to be worse than 2014 if the front office takes the same approach to this year as they do next season. If Sabean’s handcuffed and isn’t able to be creative in a trade, I’m not optimistic. 

What do you think? Will the Giants make the postseason in 2014 with the guys they already have? 2015 is a ways away, so it may be unfair of me to look that far off, so let’s start with the 2014 question.