Alex Cobb trade from 2024 just keeps on getting better for SF Giants

The SF Giants traded away starting pitcher Alex Cobb at the 2024 MLB trade deadline. It seemed like a fairly minor move at the time, but the Giants got two solid prospects in return for Cobb.

Looking back, former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi sort of got a steal in that trade. Cobb did not throw a single pitch for the Giants in 2024 due to injury. He spent all of the first half rehabbing, but the Giants felt fairly set with their rotation which is why they were comfortable trading Cobb.

SF Giants definitely appear to be the winners of the Alex Cobb trade

The Giants traded Cobb to the Cleveland Guardians in exchange for left-handed pitching prospect Jacob Bresnahan and a player to be named later. That player ended up being Nate Furman and he has been a sneaky good addition.

Furman is a utility bat who put up some really impressive numbers last season although they came in a small sample size. In 36 games across multiple levels with him ending the season in Double-A Richmond, Furman slashed .369/.493/.607 with seven home runs and 22 runs batted in.

The 24-year-old is a non-roster invitee to spring training so he will have a chance to show whether those numbers were a fluke or not.

As for Bresnahan, the 20-year-old was ranked as the No. 11 prospect in San Francisco’s system last year. He had a solid season with the San Jose Giants, sporting a 9-3 record and 2.61 ERA in 22 starts and 93 innings pitched. He struck out 124 batters while walking 43.

He is still young and needs to develop a lot more, but he is a promising arm in the system who could potentially be a member of the rotation someday.

Both Furman and Bresnahan are two solid young players to have gotten in the Cobb deal. If even one of them ends up making contributions at the big league level it will prove to be a savvy move by Zaidi.

As for Cobb, he eventually got healthy enough to pitch in 2024 for Cleveland although he made just 3 regular season appearances and a few playoff appearances. Then, he landed a one-year, $15 million deal in free agency from the Detroit Tigers but he did not throw a single pitch for Detroit as he had to undergo season-ending hip surgery.

He has not formally retired yet, but that seems quite likely as no team has signed him this offseason.

We’ll see what Bresnahan and Furman develop into, but the Giants definitely seem to have won the Cobb trade at this point.