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San Francisco Giants Trade Block: What Might it Look Like?

Daniel Sperry|
May 2, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy (15) reacts in between innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
May 2, 2017; Los Angeles, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy (15) reacts in between innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
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San Francisco Giants
Oct 7, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants second baseman Joe Panik (left) is congratulated by first baseman Brandon Belt (9) after scoring on a wild pitch during the seventh inning of game four of the 2014 NLDS baseball playoff game against the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Overpay if you want them

These two players are probably seen as significant pieces of the core for the Giants in the years to come. They’re both under 30 and won’t get too much more expensive for the Giants. Their team-friendly contracts mixed with who they are as players could be extremely enticing to teams looking to rebuild. However, the Giants would have to be significantly overwhelmed if someone was to pry either away.

Brandon Belt, 1B, 27

Belt may only be batting .234, but he has a near .800 OPS. Not only is his OPS pretty nice, so is his wRC+, which at 118 for 2017, is tied with Ryon Healy and Jose Abreu, and one point better than Miguel Cabrera‘s. Yes, Belt strikes out a ton, but he’s on base a ton. He also plays in the least hitter friendly ballpark in baseball, so his power numbers don’t look as impressive. For visualization, here is his spray chart with ballpark overlays from multiple hitter friendly parks, whose teams could definitely be upgraded by his addition, and we could see as trade partners with the Giants:

Joe Panik, 2B, 26

Panik is really intriguing. Unfortunately I think his price-tag may have gone down quite a bit since last year. While being the focus of the Tigers and Giants initial trade discussions on J.D. Martinez, Panik had the benefit of the doubt when it came to his numbers. His concussion gave him a whole lot of that. Most people just assumed he’d be back to his All-Star level self at the plate. While the gold-glove defense is still definitely there, Panik’s batting average hasn’t been a whole lot better from what we saw last season.

His batting average has been in a free-fall since May 3rd. The question is this on Panik: who are the Giants convinced he is, and if that’s not the 2014/2015 Panik, are they able to convince other teams that he is that 14/15 version? Panik could still be quite a worthy selling piece though depending on what they can get for him. If they’re comfortable putting Arroyo at second base for the forsee-able future, and they can get something really good in a deal for Panik, I might actually pull the trigger. Panik seems to be the most likely of these two to get traded because he’s still pretty cheap, pretty young, and under organizational control for at least four more seasons. That’s valuable.

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