A Jake Odorizzi Trade Makes Sense for the San Francisco Giants

A report from Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic says that Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Jake Odorizzi is drawing trade interest, which makes sense for the San Francisco Giants.

The 27(soon to be 28)-year-old former first round pick has established himself as a very reliable, middle-of-the-rotation pitcher in the big leagues.

Many people might still be upset about the last pitcher we got from the Rays, but this one isn’t coming off major surgery.

In 705.1 big league innings he has a career ERA of 3.83 with 643 strikeouts for a K/9 of 8.2.

The only negative on Odorizzi is that he’s yet to throw over 200 innings in a season. However, he’s made over 30 starts in a season twice.

The right-handed pitcher is also coming off a bit of a down year posting a 4.14 ERA over 143.1 innings pitched and 28 starts.

Over his career he’s only averaging 5.5 innings per start. He has to be able to learn how to go deeper into games more consistently.

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Still, he’s in his first year of arbitration so he will be cost effective and controllable for 2018 and 2019. He’s asked for $6.3 million in arbitration, while the Rays have countered with $6.05.

This would push the San Francisco Giants over the luxury tax unless they are able to dump a big contract in the move. Of course, if they do that they’ll have to include a good prospect.

My ideal trade would be Hunter Pence, Tyler Beede and a B-level prospect for Odorizzi.

I think Odorizzi is already better than Beede will ever be at the major league level, but he’s still a solid prospect.

We still may have to send some money over for Pence, but the offset between he whatever Odorizzi gets in arbitration should still be enough to keep us under the luxury tax.

As I’ve mentioned recently, I believe the offense will be much improved in 2018 with the lineup we have right now. My biggest concern is in the starting rotation and bullpen.

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Odorizzi would certainly help stabilize the rotation, and we can fix the bullpen issues during the season.