San Francisco Giants: 3 untouchable players in trade talks

The San Francisco Giants won’t be trading any of these players any time soon.

Right now, MLB transactions are frozen. Very soon, that might change. When they do, the San Francisco Giants may start to hear some trade offers.

In the past, we wrote about a couple of players they’d probably like to trade this year. (Whether they’ll be able to is a totally different question.) But there are always a handful of players that could be considered untouchable — whether because of what they mean to the franchise right now or what they can do for it in the future.

Clearly, the Giants have far more players they’d like to trade than players they’ll certainly want to hold on to. That’s just where they are in the arc of the franchise: cutting costs now while waiting for those prospects to begin contributing at the major league level.

Here are a couple of names that Giants president Farhan Zaidi would probably shut down the conversation over right now.

Untouchable San Francisco Giants: Honorable mention

Most of these players are going to be young, naturally. The only way you trade a young player is if you’re pretty certain you’re getting another one back every bit as good at a position you need a little bit more.

So we’ll kick off the list with a couple of prospects who probably won’t be going anywhere: outfielder Hunter Bishop, shortstop Marco Luciano, and outfielder Heliot Ramos.

The trio were named No. 71, No. 35, and No. 65 among the top 100 by MLB Pipeline. They were a big reason Keith Law said the organization’s farm system is one of his favorites to break out in the coming years.

You don’t build your future by trading your prospects now, and the Giants aren’t in danger of contending too soon, so it seems unlikely they’ll be going anywhere.

Untouchable San Francisco Giants: Mauricio Dubon

Mauricio Dubon hasn’t played in a full season yet. After coming over from the Brewers last year (having taken all of two at-bats in the majors) but the 24-year-old middle infielder probably isn’t going to be going anywhere but the Giants’ lineup card any time soon.

Last year, he hit .306/.434/.740 for the Giants in 111 plate appearances while playing 22 games at second base and nine at shortstop.

Giants president Farhan Zaidi spoke about him in February:

"“He’s a confident kid and we saw him do some nice things at shortstop last year,” Zaidi said Monday on KNBR’s “Murph & Mac Show.” “He knows the more spots that he can play, the more options he’s gonna give Gabe and the staff and the more at-bats he’s gonna get, so he’s fully embraced that.” (via NBC Sports Bay Area)"

Dubon might even get some starts at center field — though a lot remains up in the air right now.

Untouchable San Francisco Giants: Joey Bart

Joey Bart seems like the most obvious of these. The superstar-in-waiting draws comparisons to Buster Posey. Two-way catchers are one of the rarest commodities in the sport. MLB Pipeline ranked him No. 1 in the Giants’ system and No. 14 overall in baseball entering 2020.

Bart can hit — he had a .316/.368/.544 line with nine extra-base hits in 87 plate appearances at Double-A in 2019. In the prospect-heavy Arizona Fall League last year, he went .333/.524/.767 with four home runs in 42 plate appearances.

Bart’s work behind the plate wins praise too. In 2019 he was named the top defensive prospect by MLB Pipeline.

Untouchable San Francisco Giants: Buster Posey

Is that the heart talking? Maybe a little. But who’s to say. But we’re calling him untouchable not just for that reason, but because he has a full no-trade clause on his contract as well. That’s pretty good insurance.

With Bart knocking on the door, and Posey needing to rebound in 2020, you could certainly argue it makes Posey at least a little expendable from a roster standpoint — though the Giants have said they’re happy to find room for both Posey and Bart in the future if both of them are hitting. That’s a pretty good problem to have.

Even though teams have traded their Hall of Fame caliber players in the past — usually disappointing their fanbase in the process — it’s just hard to even picture Posey in another team’s jersey even if he couldn’t veto it.

So we’re not going to.

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