Giants Rumors: Interest in Stanton strong, AL East team interested in Strickland

It’s offically silly season! The Giants rumors are starting to fly, and it’s certainly lining up to be an intriguing run up to the deadline. The hottest of them all have the Giants as the lead interest in Marlins slugger, Giancarlo Stanton.

The Giants have some work to do. They have an aging, expensive roster, that is currently sitting second to last in baseball, with a worse record than a team spending $140 million dollars less. Seemingly everything has gone wrong, and players like Brandon Crawford and Hunter Pence have vastly underperformed. The Giants are looking to get better, cheaper, and younger on the offensive end, and will certainly be making calls all over the trade market. But they’ve possibly been presented with the opportunity to get in on Giancarlo Stanton.

The first rumor the Giants have been involved in was pretty lame for the most part. J.P. Morosi reported that the Astros were doing background work on Jeff Samardzija, which is somewhat like a “well duh.” You could almost be certain that the Astros aren’t the only team doing background work on them.

The biggest of them all dropped a little bit later on, and that the Giants were the team showing the strongest interest in Giancarlo Stanton.

This was completely out of left field (ha! That’s where he’d likely play), but could be quite worth it. The Giants do have a good competitive core within them, they just need a big time bat to take pressure off the others, and help punch runs across at a higher pace. Stanton certainly fits that bill, and the Giants would be stupid to let an opportunity to get him slide.

The biggest off-put for most Giants fans is that enormous contract. Here is how Stanton’s contract is slated to pan out over time according to Spotrac,

Year

Age

Salary

2017

26

$14.5 Million

2018

27

$25 Million

2019

28

$26 Million

2020

29$26 Million202130$29 Million202231$29 Million202332$32 Million202433$32 Million202534$32 Million202635$29 Million202736$25 Million202837$25 Million

 I certainly think a trade like this could be what lands Stanton in San Francisco:

Crazy? I don’t think so. For one, if the Marlins are moving Stanton, they’re likely looking to shed salary. If Cueto goes to Miami in a trade, there is a really high chance he opts out. They’re also looking for a decent pitching prospect to take on in a rebuild, and Jordon Johnson and/or Sam Coonrod would fit that bill.

You could also include Tyler Beede in this, or Andrew Suarez. I’m more opposed to the idea of Suarez being involved, and actually am OK with Beede getting a change of scenery. C.J Hinojosa has really come around as a shortstop prospect as well, and is always a good throw in. The play of Jordan Johnson hasn’t entirely made Hinojosa expendable, but it sure gives them room at that position.

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The big thing here is how the Giants can take on that contract. The worst years are going to be 2021-2026, however 2023-2025 are truly going to be the worst. The big thing there is that prospects like Jacob Gonzalez and Heliot Ramos, will hopefully still be on team controlled, cheaper contracts during that stretch where he’s making $32 million a year. Throw in the inflation of the tax line, the Giants should be able to take on that type of contract, EVEN WITH the additions of a mega Bumgarner deal.

Overall, I definitely think the Giants have the ability, both financial and in terms of prospect depth, for the Marlins to make a deal happen.

It’s a matter of if another team could do it as well and provide competition. The Cardinals are obviously interested, and I wouldn’t count out another squad as well.

Strickland to the other Florida team?

The other rumor coming out of the weekend is Giants reliever, Hunter Strickland drawing interest from the Tampa Bay Rays. Of course, the first thing that comes to mind with the Rays is Matt Duffy.

While it would be funny to get him back in a trade like that, Jesus Sanchez is the prospect who stands out to me. He’s an all-around type prospect, with speed, ability to hit for average and power, and is a plus fielder, but he’s only 19. He’s just in Single-A ball so he’s got a few years to get ready for the bigs, which is just the type of move to make when dealing a reliever.

Next: Samardzija gives up 7 runs, Giants lose

Sanchez screams the type of player the Giants love, and would be worth asking about in return. Again, this is a deal the Giants should try and pull off if presented with. Stay tuned to Around the Foghorn as much as possible! We’ll keep you updated on all your Giants rumors