San Francisco Giants: What were the worst moves of the 2010s?

The 2010s were a great decade for the San Francisco Giants. But not everything went well. Here’s our look at five deals they could use a do-over on.

The San Francisco Giants played in the postseason four times, winning the World Series three of them. They also won the National League West title twice in that span.

Whenever it comes to building a roster to compete, a team always wants to get the best players available at that time. Unfortunately, though, there are always a few moves that would’ve been better had they not happened at all because it didn’t help the player or the team. Those are the moves we’ll be taking a look at here.

To make things easier, we’ve made it very broad by saying it could be a free-agent signing or trade.

Now with all that down, let’s get into it.

SF Giants’ worst deals, No. 5: Carlos Beltran for Zack Wheeler trade, 2011 trade deadline

Many people might be wondering why this trade ended up on here. But looking back on the move, it might’ve been a move that would’ve done the Giants a little better had they not pulled the trigger.

Given, at that time Carlos Beltran was one of the best power hitters in the game. However, after coming to San Francisco he was very injured and not in the lineup most of the time. It also didn’t help that Beltran was only a rental, meaning the Giants only had him for half the season. Sure enough, he turned down the teams tender to instead sign with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Then, there’s the fact the team traded away the No. 55 prospect in the game at the time. Even though he wasn’t quite what he was touted to be, he still was a welcome addition to the New York Mets pitching staff in his time there.

Given the fact that the Giants have lost the majority of their pitching staff like Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Madison Bumgarner, and Ryan Vogelsong in the years after, it doesn’t help that the team go rid of Wheeler.

For a better breakdown of the trade, read Jeff Young’s story from September of 2019.