2017 FanSided Winter Meetings Sim: San Francisco Giants Results

Big Trade Number One

If I wanted to make a lot of moves to shore up all of the deficiencies the team had, I first had to clear salary. The Rangers stepped up to the plate and were willing to not have to enter the sweepstakes for Yu Darvish and Wade Davis. So what did the Giants get in return? Well, Alex Claudio immediately steps in and helps fix the Giants issue of no lefty relievers in the bullpen. The Giants are down a closer sure, but Sam Dyson costs significantly less, and did an admirable job in that role when Melancon went down. My money would be on Sam Dyson to get back to himself.

Claudio pitched 80 innings, but wasn’t used as a closer until the latter part of the season. In 160 innings at the big league level, he’s never posted above a 3.00 ERA, has a career WHIP of 1.152 and a career K/BB ratio of 3.34/1. Claudio gets the job done and would be a great addition to the Giants pen.

Yohander Mendez was the prime prospect in this deal. He’s the Rangers number four prospect according to MLBPipeline, and the number 10 LHP prospect overall. The 22 year old is about ready to hit the big leagues and brings a nasty fastball/changeup combo with solid offerings of a slider and curveball. He’s 6’5″, lanky and has a whole lot of promise in him. The Giants would do well to add some legitimacy to their pitching prospects, and Mendez does that while potentially contributing at the back end of the rotation in 2018.

The remaining prospects added were Pedro Gonzales, a toolsy young outfielder who was originally an international signing by the Rockies. He was acquired by the Rangers in the Lucroy trade. The 20 year old outfielder stands at 6’5″ and put up really good numbers with the Rockies’ Short-A team in Grand Junction, Colorado. He played in only six games with the Indians organization.

Josh Altmann was a late round pick out of an NAIA school named Olivet Nazarene University in the 2015 draft. That’s the same school where Ben Zobrist came from. Altmann, like Zobrist, can play almost every position except the battery positions, and has a decent bat. If he can find consistent success at the plate, he could very well be another Zobrist.