Larry Baer shuts the door on SF Giants trade deadline approach many fans want

With how bad this season has gone for the SF Giants, there are a fair number of fans who want to see the team tear it all down and start over. While that’s always much easier said than done, team president and CEO Larry Baer recently shot down any notion of a fire sale at the trade deadline.

Appearing on KNBR, Baer said the following when asked about a potential rebuild:

“You're not going to get me to say, in order to be successful you gotta pull the plug and have several bad years. You won't get me to say it because I don't believe it."

The Giants have really never undertaken a full rebuild. Even during dark periods they have still at least tried to remain competitive whether it was the late 2000s after Barry Bonds retired or the late 2010s and the team was struggling following the championship years.

This ownership group just does not believe in rebuilds even if it sure feels like the Giants need to press the reset button. They are one of the worst teams in MLB and they are saddled by several declining veterans who are very overpaid. 

It could be time to decide to build around Bryce Eldridge who has been the one beacon of hope for this team’s future in an otherwise disastrous season. They could press the reset button and look to be competitive later this decade or maybe even in 2030 when some of their more promising minor league prospects could potentially debut in the big leagues.

Giants' upper brass feels no need to rebuild

From Baer and ownership’s perspective though, there’s no need to rebuild. Attendance numbers have been up overall this season, even though there has been a dip since the team’s Pride Night controversy, so they will likely be content to just trade away obvious trade chips like Robbie Ray and Luis Arraez without fundamentally changing the nucleus of the team.

There is an argument to be made for not rebuilding though. If the Giants had pressed the rest button in the late 2010s as many fans wanted them to do then there never would’ve been that magical 2021 season that was powered by resurgent years from Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, and Brandon Belt.

The thing is, it was much easier to remain patient with that core group of players because they helped bring titles to San Francisco. The current core group of Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, and Rafael Devers has delivered either mediocrity or disaster since joining the team.

The Giants are going to make trades in the next week and a half, but don’t expect them to completely start anew and trade everybody. It’s not the team’s modus operandi and Baer confirmed as much.

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