Buster Posey has a shiny new trade chip as SF Giants sign top international prospect

While it does not come as any surprise after it had been reported for quite awhile, the SF Giants officially signed shortstop Luis Hernandez from Venezuela, the top international free agent on the market.

This comes one year after the Giants signed Josuar Gonzalez, the second-best international free agent of last year's class after Roki Sasaki. With the addition of Hernandez, the Giants now have a shiny new trade chip for president of baseball operations Buster Posey to use.

SF Giants have a shiny new trade chip after signing Luis Hernandez

Ever since Posey took over the front office in 2024, the organization has not been shy about adding shortstops. One of Posey's first moves was to sign Willy Adames to the largest contract in franchise history.

Then, the Giants signed Gonzalez, a young shortstop prospect out of the Dominican Republic. With the team's first-round pick of the 2025 MLB Draft, the Giants selected...you guessed it, a shortstop in Gavin Kilen who played under new manager Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee.

With Adames now 30 and unlikely to finish his Giants career at shortstop, it is not a bad strategy to load up on young shortstops who could one day take the reins at that position. At the same time, the Giants also have a number of interesting trade chips now should they want to use them.

Gonzalez is an especially interesting one. He is ranked as one of the top 100 prospects in MLB and some executives view him as a prime candidate to break out in 2026.

It is important to keep in mind though that with these young prospects, so much is still unknown. Gonzalez just turned 18 and Hernandez is 17 years old. These are kids who are not even finished growing yet.

It is easy to get excited about their potential down the road, but at the same time a lot of these guys do not work out. Look no further than Marco Luciano, who was once seen as a borderline untouchable Giants prospect and the heir to Brandon Crawford at shortstop.

Luciano did not pan out at all and he is now with the Baltimore Orioles. At the same time, maybe you luck out in international free agency and land yourself the next Juan Soto.

It's a crap shoot, but that doesn't mean these signings are pointless. Prospects matter at the very least because you can trade them to get more established players.

The Giants have been connected to Nico Hoerner of the Chicago Cubs in trade rumors. Maybe the Giants are willing to trade a Kilen or Gonzalez or a Jhonny Level to land a player of his caliber.

Or maybe the Giants wait to see these guys develop and see what they have. We'll see how Posey chooses to operate, but at the very least he has a nice new trade chip after the team's latest international free agent signing.