San Francisco Giants: Sam Dyson trade in the works?

One relief pitcher was notably absent from the San Francisco Giants 16-inning win over the New York Mets on Thursday. What’s going on with Sam Dyson?

The San Francisco Giants had seven different pitchers throw a combined 211 pitches over 16 innings in a 3-2 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday.

Madison Bumgarner gave them nine innings of one-run ball. Then Will Smith pitched an inning. Then Reyes Moronta pitched an inning. Then Tony Watson pitched an inning. Then Derek Holland Trevor Gott combined to get six outs.

Then recent call-up Williams Jerez took the mound and the eyebrows started to raise.

Jerez ended up pitching two innings, while Sam Dyson and fellow veteran Mark Melancon both watched from the sidelines.

Melancon pitched on Tuesday and Wednesday, so he may have been unavailable from the start, but Dyson didn’t pitch in Wednesday’s game.

If it’s not an injury, the most logical explanation for Dyson not pitching is that there’s a trade in the works that is close enough to the finish line that they weren’t willing to risk him getting hurt.

For a San Francisco Giants team that has been charging toward a wild-card spot, trading someone like Dyson for some MLB-ready help makes a lot of sense.

The bullpen has been the team’s biggest strength all season, and there is a wealth of reinforcement talent waiting in the wings in Triple-A with the likes of Sam Selman, Fernando Abad, Jandel Gustave and Sam Coonrod.

Which brings us to this under-the-radar transaction from earlier in the day on Thursday:

It seemed a bit peculiar at the time that the Giants would add Gustave to the 40-man roster, only to option him to Triple-A.

If Dyson is on his way out the door, it suddenly makes a lot more sense.

With a year of control remaining beyond this season and strong numbers in a setup role this year, a case can be made that Dyson’s trade value will never be higher.

If the San Francisco Giants have decided to stand pat with the current group, flipping Dyson at the peak of his value is a good forward-thinking move that improves the team for the long-term without robbing them of a chance to make a run here in 2019.

We’ll see how this all plays out, but the Sam Dyson situation will be worth keeping a close eye on until we get some clarification on why he didn’t pitch on Thursday night.