5 Trade Candidates The SF Giants Should Pursue with the Universal DH in mind

The universal DH is likely going to be included in the next Collective Barraging Agreement. Now, for the second time in their history, the SF Giants will no longer have a pitcher jam their lineup. With that in mind, who should they go after to be their full-time designated hitter in 2022?

5 Trade Candidates The SF Giants Should Pursue with the Universal DH

The day that some baseball fans have dreaded - or a day that some have even craved - for a long time is likely coming. As of this writing, Major League Baseball is still in a work stoppage, and while a couple of meetings have occurred, with the most recent one being on January 31st, there is no end in sight. However, the conclusion many have come to is that the universal DH is coming to the game. For some players - like Nelson Cruz, for example, this means that all of a sudden pure designated hitters will have 15 more job openings in 2022 than they did the previous 50 years.

The Giants, being one of the 15 teams now, will need to allot future payroll to the position. It's been seen time and time again that if you do not have a sufficient plan at DH, it will be hard to keep up with the teams that do. Designated hitters require a different kind of routine than a position player would. Maybe that's a dinosaur take, but not even 10 years ago it would've been something to watch if a right fielder, for example, play shortstop. Although swiss army knife players are becoming more and more prominent, platooning, or using multiple players over the course of the season on purpose, at DH has never really made sense to me.

With that being said, it would be wise for the Giants to invest in a full-time DH. So, who should they target? I came up with five names, some may be openly available, others may not be moved, but these five would provide serious pop in the lineup.

Honorable mentions that didn't make the list but are players the Giants could look into as a last resort: Robinson Cano, Wil Myers, and Eric Hosmer. Each makes A LOT of money. If they are traded, they would likely be moved to a basement dweller as a salary dump, not to a playoff team like the Giants.

Now, let's dive into the five that made the list.