San Francisco Giants: Five Outfielders They Should Trade For

The Chicago White Sox are evidently content to use this season to build for the future, but they have two obvious pieces that don’t fit in that theme: right fielder Avisail Garcia and first baseman Jose Abreu, both of whom will be free agents after the 2019 season.

The asking price for Abreu is probably too high and the Giants already have first baseman Brandon Belt entrenched at the position, so he’s simply not a good fit. Garcia, on the other hand, had a breakout season last year with a .330/.380/.506 slash line adding up to a 4.5 WAR, despite subpar defense.

White Sox GM Rick Hahn justifiably wants a large haul for his stud outfielder and Garcia would fit the all-around above average hitter the team needs in its outfield.

While he wouldn’t solve the problem in center field, his bat would alleviate some pressure off a low cost signing like Jarrod Dyson or an unprepared minor leaguer like Steven Duggar and allow them to focus primarily on defense.

It would be unreasonable to expect Garcia to perform like he did in 2017, which basically accounts for his entire career’s WAR to this point. After all, he posted an unsustainable .392 batting average on ball in play (BABIP) without improving his line drive rate with just a 5.9% walk percentage.

Projected at $6.7MM by MLBTR for next season and with one more season of control beyond that, he fits in the budget and is not simply a rental – which do make him even more valuable in the eyes of both the White Sox and the Giants.

As such, Garcia may end up being a better midseason target if he underperforms somewhat, and in 2019 he can slide smoothly to right fielder after Hunter Pence’s contract ends.

Kevin Pillar

The Toronto Blue jays are somewhat questionably trying to contend, not unlike the Giants are. So maybe there’s a way both teams can help each other.

Despite having several aging, expensive veterans on the roster (sound familiar), they have a little bit of payroll space that they perhaps want to use to add another, Lorenzo Cain.

Simply put, the team is seeking an offensive upgrade, and they may be willing to part with defensive wiz center fielder Kevin Pillar to do so. While he would require a second-tier prospect package or perhaps a Hunter Strickland-type reliever in exchange, that price is well worth what Pillar would bring to the Giants.

The outfielder is entering his first season of arbitration eligibility and has a .292/.332/.439 career slash line against left-handed pitching, with last year being his best against lefties. He also would bring decent speed to a pretty slow team, as he has stolen at least 14 bases each of the past three seasons.

Over those past three seasons, Pillar has also posted an 11.4 WAR (that’s more than Mark Melancon‘s career WAR!). Former Giants center fielder Denard Span over the same period: a 0.7 WAR.

Then, when you consider the Blue Jay will be entering his age 29 season and is projected to cost just $4MM next season, he becomes an even better fit for the Giants.

He would become a free agent at 31, so ideally Giants fans would thankfully not need to suffer through an age-related decline that we have become accustomed to.

Controllability, defense, and an ability to hit lefties should put Pillar near the top of Bobby Evans’ CF wish list.

Nick Castellanos

The Detroit Tigers entered a rebuilding stage this past season when the team traded away perennial All Stars like Justin Verlander and JD Martinez at the trade deadline.

Their roster is mostly filled with immovable contracts (Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Jordan Zimmerman) or young players they should want to keep through the rebuild (Michael Fulmer, Jeimer Candelario), so 3B-turned-RF Nick Castellanos stands to be one of their most tradeable assets.

He only has two more seasons left of arbitration eligibility and is coming off an impressive two year run, in which he batted .277/.325/.493 with 44 home runs, good for a 114 OPS+. He would be a prime middle of the order candidate for the Giants, and is only going to be 26 years old going into next season.

However, when you get to his defensive stats, there is certainly reason for pause. He was never a good defensive 3B, and his move to the outfield seems to be an even worse defensive fit.

That could change with an offseason of practice, but the outfield at AT&T Park does not forgive poor defenders, as the Giants have certainly learned over the past few seasons. Having Pence and Castellanos in the corners would beg for a strong defensive CF, or else the defense might actually be worse next year.

But any player in the Giants price range would probably come with some qualms, and Castellanos’ are of the defensive variety. If the team believes in any way that his offensive skills outweighs his defensive liabilities, I would be all for making this trade.

Castellanos has a career WAR of 1.3 after four seasons, yet is predicted cost $7.6MM in arbitration – surely Tigers GM Al Avila can’t place too high of a value on him?

Corey Dickerson

Honestly, when the Evan Longoria trade news came in, I was a little bit disappointed that the Giants would not also be acquiring one of the Rays talented outfielders. While Kevin Kiermaier or Mallex Smith may be a bit too valuable in the long term to get rid of, I was dreaming about one of corner outfielders Steven Souza or Corey Dickerson.

However, for the Giants’ purposes, the powerful and defensively gifted Souza is likely way outside of their range. He is also probably someone the Rays want to keep around in their retool/quick rebuild stage, as he comes with three more years of control.

Dickerson only comes with two, and he could well be the expendable outfielder with the aforementioned Mallex Smith being younger and requiring more playing time.

The 28-year old Dickerson bats lefty but doesn’t need to be shielded against southpaws, as he didn’t have discernible platoon splits in 2017 (.273/.320/.493 vs. RHP and .308/.339/.481 vs. LHP).

The first time All Star is also not as much of a defensive liability as Castellanos would be and he has been a consistently above average offensive performer, despite not drawing many walks. As such, the Rays may feel obliged to request a fairly substantial package for their outfielder, but Dickerson would be a nice high-floor acquisition for the Giants current lineup.

Projected to earn $6.4MM in 2018, the Rays are not one to turn away the right package for veterans who are nearing free agency. However, it would probably take even more young talent going to the Rays to get that done.

Randall Grichuk

The St. Louis Cardinals may be done shopping their stable of young outfielders with last month’s trade of Stephen Piscotty to the Oakland Athletics, but that shouldn’t stop the Giants from inquiring about Grichuk – who will likely be relegated to fourth outfielder duty in the wake of their acquisition of stud OF Marcell Ozuna.

While they may be incentivized to wait for the right package, I’m sure they want to give capable prospect Harrison Bader some playing time and could still stand to add some bullpen help, which the Giants may be able to afford for the righty Grichuk.

Consistently a 20+ homer threat, the 26-year old would seem to benefit from regular playing time since he lost his lineup spot to the late-blooming Tommy Pham last season. And lo and behold, the Giants have a gaping hole in their outfield that could use a talented youngster.

It also helps that Grichuk has some experience in CF and is at least an average to above average defender, yet he’s projected to only cost $2.8MM in his first round of arbitration.

Next: Giants Farm System Will be Great Again

These “change of environment” type players should be ones the Giants pursue. Grichuk is not the only young outfielder who fits this mold, as names like Keon Broxton, Delino DeShields, and Aaron Altherr also come to mind.

Within the price range the Giants are looking in, these are players whose current teams may be willing to move on from for a variety of reasons, which could lead to the best opportunities to find value on the current market.