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:
Per source, #Rangers taking on rest of A. Jax’s $3M in ‘18 and $3M in ‘19 to buy SP prospect in Bahr. Also like Gearrin in middle relief with several bullpen arms on DL and others likely to be traded. #SFGiants get luxury-tax relief; Gearrin owed balance of $1.675M. https://t.co/gFnm4Qil6k
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 8, 2018
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.
2017 MLB trade deadline review. Next
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.