Blockbuster Nolan Arenado trade proposal for Giants, Rockies

Let’s Make a Deal

First things first, if the Colorado Rockies are rebuilding, the San Francisco Giants should take full advantage.

I’ve already made the case for Heliot Ramos to be the centerpiece of the return package, and that’s where we’ll start things.

Ideally, the Giants would also find a way to include Longoria in the deal, but it might force them to take on a bad contract from the Rockies in order to avoid giving up another major prospect.

With all of that in mind, here is the first trade idea:

What this boils down to is the Giants give the Rockies Heliot Ramos and Shaun Anderson in exchange for Arenado, while swapping the bad contracts of both Longoria and Desmond.

It’s not a bad idea and it gets rid of two birds with one stone, replacing Evan Longoria with a significantly better player, while eliminating the need to find another trade partner for him.

The other option the Giants have is to hang on to Longoria, wait out the Josh Donaldson market, and then make a deal with whoever misses out on signing the free agent third baseman. comes out a “loser” in the Donaldson market.

Here’s the deal I would try to execute if Longoria is not part of the trade:

Jake Wong is good young pitching prospect and gives the Rockies package a second quality piece. The Giants could also explore sending the Rockies one of the MLB-ready arms that winds up on the outside looking in this spring for a spot in the rotation.

Meanwhile, Aramis Garcia has no clear path to playing time in San Francisco. He’s a better catcher than what the Rockies have in their system and he can also play first base.

For those of you who are likely Rockies fans or bloggers looking to hate-read this, baseballtradevalues.com considers this to be a slight overpay on the Giants side:

The values take in expected performance per dollar of value over the life of each player’s contract into account, so Ramos alone is worth more than Arenado.

Adding a top-15 prospect and a controllable young piece who doesn’t have a place in San Francisco should be enough to land Arenado.

If the proposed opportunity presents itself, the Giants should absolutely pull the trigger. For now, I’ll keep dreaming of Nolan Arenado wearing orange and black, knowing the reality of that happening is slim. However, if the Rockies get serous about rebuilding, there is a clear avenue to it becoming a reality.