Centerpiece of controversial SF Giants trade from 2016 lands with new team

The SF Giants traded fan-favorite infielder Matt Duffy to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for pitcher Matt Moore back in 2016. The move is one of the most controversial trades in recent memory for the Giants. Now, Moore has landed with the Boston Red Sox.

Boston is signing him to a minor league contract and he will likely have a chance to make the team at spring training in Florida. The 35-year-old southpaw has bounced around a lot in his career. The Red Sox will be just the latest stop on his tour of seemingly every team in MLB.

SF Giants pitcher involved in controversial trade signs with new team

Drafted in the eighth round of the 2007 MLB Draft by Tampa Bay, the Rays were the only organization he knew until the Giants acquired him. He did alright for the Giants that season, recording a 4.08 ERA in 12 starts after the Giants traded for him. He also had a great start in Game 4 of the NLDS against the Chicago Cubs that was ultimately squandered by an epic bullpen collapse.

He followed that up with a rough 2017 for the Giants which was on par with the team as a whole. He had a 5.52 ERA in 174 and 1/3 innings pitched. Following that season, he has bounced around all over the league.

Most recently he pitched for the Los Angeles Angels which was his second stint with the club. He had a 5.03 ERA last season as a reliever which was a rough year compared to his other recent campaigns. Yet, he has still done enough in his career to warrant a team taking a flier on him to see if he has anything left in the tank. 

He could have made some amount of sense on the Giants considering their dearth of left-handed pitching options, but they did already sign veteran lefty Joey Lucchesi to a minor league deal so adding Moore would have been a bit redundant.

Giants fans still have strong feelings about the Matt Moore-Matt Duffy trade nearly a decade after it happened. Nonetheless, Duffy still may have helped the Giants after he left by talking up the city of San Francisco to current Giant Willy Adames who already has impressed in camp thus far with the team. 

Despite the feelings that trade inspired, it is good to see Moore is still active and keeping his career alive. We will have to see if he can make the Opening Day roster and add yet another notch in his impressive belt of big league teams he has pitched for.