Buster Posey’s post-trade deadline comments suggest SF Giants are stuck with ‘big 3’ contracts

The SF Giants traded six players ahead of Monday’s trade deadline. There was a lot of action but the Giants went short of a full-scale rebuild and opted for more of a reset as evidenced by the fact that they held onto their “big three” contracts belonging to Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Rafael Devers.

President of baseball operations Buster Posey was asked about those three players and whether there was an attempt to move them ahead of the deadline and his response was: “We made it known to teams that we were willing to talk about any player, but I don't think it does any good to say one way or the other for us. We're still excited that we've got those big three guys."

The Giants made it known well in advance of the trade deadline that they were willing to talk about Chapman, Adames, and Devers. Reports came out in June that San Francisco was open to those discussions and you can bet those reports came from people within the organization.

Given how large and complicated all three of those contracts are, it was smart to try to get the ball rolling early but even with over a month to potentially make a deal it’s clear that there probably weren’t many takers as the one report about the San Diego Padres having interest in Devers sounded like it may have just been an idea of A.J. Preller and not based on discussions with the Giants. There were no other major rumors linking teams to any of those players.

Matt Chapman has been banged up this year and when he’s been on the field his production has not been all that great. Maybe there would have been a little interest if he was healthy but the lingering abdominal issue likely prevented any real discussions. He also has a no-trade clause which complicates things.

Adames has underperformed both at the plate and in the field this year. He has been trying to play through a back injury and also has a no-trade clause so he is probably the toughest of the bunch to move.

Devers has come on strong after a rough start to the season so just from a pure baseball standpoint he would probably get the most interest but he has the most onerous contract of the three which lasts until 2033.

Giants are going to have to eat money to trade any of the 'big three'

The only way the Giants would have been able to offload these contracts is by eating money in any sort of deal and it’s clear that they have not reached that level of desperation yet with the trio.

That may be true now and maybe they will be forced to run it back with those guys for at least one or two more seasons but if the struggles persist and young players in the minors start knocking on the door then the Giants may be forced to get rid of them and eat money in the process.

That’s not something the Giants will do even though the results on the field with those three on the roster has been pretty dreadful to say the least.

Posey’s comments suggest that San Francisco is stuck with them for now. One hopes they all play better and power the Giants back to the playoffs next year but if next season, which could be heavily impacted by the lockout, is similar to this one then the Giants are going to have to have some tough conversations and should start trying to break apart the “big three.”

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