San Francisco Giants: 2018 MLB trade deadline review

In the days leading up to this year’s MLB trade deadline, we’ll take a look back at San Francisco Giants deadlines past. Next up, the 2018 trade deadline.

After a 98-loss season in 2017, the San Francisco Giants took a surprisingly aggressive approach to the offseason with the additions of Andrew McCutchen and Evan Longoria.

They were just 3.5 games back in the NL West standings with a 44-40 record at the beginning of July, but things quickly went south from there.

In the end, they wound up making just one cost-cutting move ahead of the deadline.

Here’s a look at their July activity:

July 8, 2018: OF Austin Jackson, RHP Cory Gearrin, RHP Jason Bahr traded to the Texas Rangers for PTBNL or cash

On the surface, this was an odd move.

However, for a Giants team up against the luxury tax threshold, it was a chance to shed some salary.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports explained:

Reliever Cory Gearrin ended up posting a solid 2.53 ERA in 21 appearances following the trade, and the Texas Rangers flipped him again to the Oakland Athletics on Aug. 31 for a pair of low-level prospects.

Outfielder Austin Jackson was released six days after the trade without ever playing a game with the Rangers. However, the inclusion of his salary in the deal allowed the Rangers to acquire a decent prospect in right-hander Jason Bahr.

The 23-year-old had a 2.55 ERA with 103 strikeouts in 84.2 innings between Single-A and High-A at the time of the trade, and he’s been solid so far this season with a 1.57 ERA and 9.6 K/9 in 63 innings between High-A and Double-A.

While he was unranked among the Texas Rangers top 30 prospects by Baseball America at the start of the year, he has a chance to be a solid back-of-the-rotation starter.

Summary

The big move by the San Francisco Giants came in August when they shipped Andrew McCutchen to the New York Yankees.

After an 11-14 month of July and a 13-14 month of August, the Giants had a .500 record going into the final month of the season. However, a brutal 5-21 September erased any hopes of a run at a wild-card spot and finally kicked into gear a long-overdue rebuild.

Check back here in the days and weeks to come for more San Francisco Giants trade deadline reviews, all culminating in what promises to be a busy 2019 deadline.