One neat trick SF Giants could use to get better prospects for Robbie Ray, Luis Arraez

The two most obvious trade chips for the SF Giants are Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray. Both are going to be free agents after the season and teams in need of starting pitching help or a contact bat will certainly give Buster Posey a call.

Rentals don’t always net the biggest return in trades these days as analytics have taken greater hold and teams weight the risk and reward of acquiring a guy for just a couple months. But the Giants could employ a nice trick to try to milk better prospects out of any teams willing to trade for either Arraez or Ray.

Andrew Baggarly noted this in a recent column when he wrote: “And if the Giants can get better prospects by kicking in some money to cover the prorated portion of the $12 million owed to Arraez and $25 million owed to Ray, they absolutely should do it.”

Usually any chatter about the Giants eating money in trades has centered on their big-money contracts to Willy Adames, Matt Chapman, and Rafael Devers. The Giants would have to eat serious money to deal any of those players but maybe the smarter move is eating some money in potential Arraez and Ray trades to get higher-quality contracts.

It’s looking more and more like the Giants will hang onto the “big three” of Adames, Chapman, and Devers. There are just too many complications in moving off those guys even if they’ve underperformed this season.

Look out for some potentially surprising trade chips to be dealt by SF

Trading Arraez, Ray, and Tyler Mahle seem like obvious moves since trading Arraez, even though he’s an All-Star and has had a great year, will open second base up for Casey Schmitt and trading Ray and Mahle will open up spots in the rotation for younger arms like Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell.

Some wild cards in any trade talks could be guys like Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee for any teams in need of an outfielder. They would be rentals as Lee can’t opt out of his contract until after 2027 and Ramos won’t be a free agent until after the 2029 season.

But if the Giants want to get some better prospects out of a deadline that should be at least a garage sale if not quite a fire sale, throwing some money into deals involving Ray and Arraez would be a nice little hack they could employ.

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