San Francisco Giants: 15 greatest MLB trade deadline deals of all time
2. Hunter Pence becomes an offensive catalyst and fan favorite
Date: July 31, 2012
To Giants: RF Hunter Pence
To Phillies: OF Nate Schierholtz, C Tommy Joseph, RHP Seth Rosin
In teams of immediate impact, Hunter Pence landed in San Francisco with a bit of a thud.
He hit just .219/.287/.384 with seven home runs in 59 games after the trade and then batted a forgettable .210/.231/.290 with four RBI In 16 games during the team’s run to the 2012 World Series title.
Luckily, he was more than just a rental. The Giants brought him back on a one-year, $13.8 million deal in his final year of arbitration and he hit .283/.339/.483 with 35 doubles, 27 home runs, 99 RBI and 22 steals for a 3.8 WAR season.
The Giants didn’t wait for him to hit the open market that winter, signing him to a five-year, $90 million extension on Sept. 29.
He made the NL All-Star Team in 2014 and hit .444/.500/.667 with three doubles, one home run and five RBI in the World Series to effectively erase his disappointing 2012 postseason performance.
Injuries set in from there and he averaged just 97 games over the final four years of the contract, but he was always a fan favorite and a positive clubhouse presence.
As one of the driving forces offensively during the 2014 title run, he earns the No. 2 spot in the rankings.