SF Giants division rivals steal versatile potential trade target

The archrivals of the SF Giants, the Los Angeles Dodgers, made several trades on Monday. One of them was to acquire the versatile utility man Tommy Edman from the Cardinals which steals a potential trade target from the Giants.

SF Giants division rivals steal versatile potential trade target

The Dodgers gave up some prospects in order to get Edman, but he should be worth it as he can play pretty much anywhere on the field but has a lot of experience up the middle at shortstop, second base, and center field which are weak spots for the Dodgers.

I made the case earlier this month, and in the offseason, that Edman would make sense on the Giants. Given that they did not have an established shortstop going into the year, Edman made sense as a solid player who could provide some stability there. Plus, as a guy who went to Stanford he seemed like he would be a good fit in the Bay Area.

Of course, since then Tyler Fitzgerald has turned into the second coming of Barry Bonds so the Giants probably did not feel the need to go out and make a trade for a shortstop. He has been hitting the cover off the ball and powering the offense for the last week.

Nonetheless, it is unfortunate that Edman is now going to be on the Dodgers. Even though the Giants do not face them for the rest of the regular season, in the unlikely event the two teams meet in the postseason or if he remains on the Dodgers in future seasons, it could come back to bite the Giants that they were not able to land him.

Fitzgerald has looked incredible the last week or two, but we saw Luis Matos go on a tear for a week earlier this year before he came crashing back down to earth. One hopes that does not happen to Fitzgerald too, but it is certainly possible.

It is also no sure thing that Edman will be effective with the Dodgers. He has yet to play in the major leagues this year due to injury, so if he cannot recover from those or if he struggles to find his footing then the Dodgers may well have lost on this deal.

Only time will tell whether the Giants were wise or not to not land Edman in a trade. But it certainly is a contrast to see the Dodgers go out and try to get better while the Giants have remained stuck in neutral.