San Francisco Giants: Building a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers

With a sell-off coming for the San Francisco Giants this summer, Marc Delucchi will go team-by-team for a look at how each contender fits as a potential trade partner. Next up, the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

The San Francisco Giants continue to find new lows. Just 54 games into the 2019 season, they are already stranded in the NL West cellar at 12 games under .500 with a minus-88 run differential.

That shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone after back-to-back losing seasons and with the team clearly in the early stages of a rebuild.

The July 31st trade deadline may still seem like it’s a long ways off, but with new rules in place that have eliminated August waiver trades, teams like the Giants may be worried about waiting too long and missing their chance to sell.

Meanwhile, the rival Los Angeles Dodgers continue to dominate the NL West. While they are still searching for that elusive World Series title, they are well on their way to a seventh consecutive division crown.

Much like the New York Yankees—discussed in the last sell-off series piece—the Dodgers have built incredible organizational depth. The Giants poached their general manager this past offseason and made Farhan Zaidi their team president to try to bring those same techniques to the bay.

Given how competitive the Dodgers have been and how often they are buyers at the trade deadline, it’s a testament to their scouting and development teams that they still rank among the 10 best farm systems in baseball.

No one needs to be reminded that the Dodgers and Giants are not friends. The longtime rivals have only completed three trades since 1958, with the most recent coming on Aug. 9, 2007, when Mark Sweeney was swapped for Travis Denker.

However, Zaidi’s familiarity with the Dodgers may give the Giants an insight others lack.

So let’s try to find a deal that both teams can get behind.

The biggest priority for the Los Angeles Dodgers will be upgrading the bullpen.

They could definitely use another high-leverage reliever and San Francisco Giants closer Will Smith might be the best reliever available this summer.

I have already touched on the type of package I expect the Giants to receive for Smith in my Twins sell-off series piece. The Dodgers may have the need, but I’m not sure they will be willing to send the top-tier young assets it will take to get a deal done to their biggest rival.

That said, the Giants have enough bullpen assets to help the Dodgers even without trading Smith.

Nick Vincent may have recently played himself out of being a trade chip, but both Tony Watson and Sam Dyson would be welcome additions to the Dodgers’ bullpen.

For what it’s worth, I also think Joe Panik could be an interesting fit to platoon with Kike Hernandez at second base. However, Zaidi seems to like the St. John’s product and I don’t know that the Dodgers would offer enough to make a deal worthwhile.

While Giants fans may not be fond of Bobby Evans tenure as team president, the deal to acquire Dyson from the Texas Rangers in exchange for Hunter Cole in June 2017 stands out as a bright spot.

The 31-year-old has re-established himself as one of the best high-leverage relievers in baseball. He is posting the best strikeouts per nine innings (9.0) and walks per nine innings (1.3) rates of his career while logging a 2.67 ERA with strong peripherals across the board.

If not for Smith’s dominance in the closer role, we might be talking about Dyson as the Giants’ representative at the All-Star Game.

Dyson also has one more year of team control via the arbitration process. That gives the Giants some leverage in trade talks. If they want to wait until the offseason or even next year’s deadline to move him, they can. His value will likely never be higher than it will be this summer, though.

Watson is not on the same level as Dyson in terms of value, but he is still a solid lefty out of the pen who would help any contender. Furthermore, he is also under team control beyond this season with a club option for 2020.

A package of Dyson and Watson could help solidify the Dodgers pen for the next season and a half.

Now let’s figure out the details.

San Francisco Giants Trade Proposal

To Dodgers: RHP Sam Dyson, LHP Tony Watson
To Giants: RHP Joe Kelly, OF DJ Peters, 1B/3B Cristian Santana, RHP Yadier Alvarez

The Dodgers have a glut of outfielders. The Giants would play a walrus if it could put up a .270/.330/.400 line.

DJ Peters would bring a set of tools that no player in the entire San Francisco organization can match.

The 23-year-old has power on the same level as Chris Shaw, if not better, but he is also a solid center fielder with a plus arm that gives him a prototypical right field profile.

He’s in the middle of his second season at Double-A, and repeating that level is more about the Dodgers ability to be patient with his development than anything else. He posted a solid .793 OPS with 23 doubles and 29 home runs in 2018, so he was by no means overmatched.

The reality is if he had been drafted by the Giants, he would probably already have made his MLB debut. Strikeouts will always be a problem, and he whiffed a staggering 192 times last season, but he has also shown the ability to work a walk and he slugged a combined 56 home runs in 2017 and 2018.

The Dodgers also have a deep pool of corner infield prospects that would improve the Giants system depth. Cristian Santana is holding his own as a 22-year-old at the Double-A level and would be an excellent pickup.

He has great bat speed and a strong arm, but his free-swinging approach will need to be refined in order for him to take the next step.

Matt Beaty and Edwin Rios are similar prospects in the Dodgers system who are already playing at Triple-A, so they should be willing to part with Santana in the right deal.

Finally, after another injury, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Dodgers were ready to move on from Yadier Alvarez.

The 23-year-old received one of the largest signing bonuses in international free agent history back in 2016 when the Dodgers gave him $16 million and paid a matching tax penalty on the basis of incredible stuff.

He still has an electric fastball, a wipeout slider, and a good curveball, but his command remains a major issue and he walked 44 batters in 55.1 innings in 2018.

His upside still leaves plenty to dream on, though, and now that he has slid down the Dodgers prospect rankings a bit, the Giants should target him as a buy-low lottery ticket.

A package of Peters, Santana, and Alvarez would bring the San Francisco Giants a high variable bunch. That group has a lot of loud raw tools, which is exactly what the Giants’ system needs.

The Dodgers aren’t in a place to be particularly patient with prospects and they need bullpen help immediately. Adding a pair of quality veteran relievers while also unloading Joe Kelly’s contract could be enticing enough to get a deal done.

Yes, it’s a bold proposition, but it just might make enough sense for the two rivals to come to terms on a deal for just the second time this century.