SF Giants earn harsh grade from MLB insider for trade deadline strategy

If you are confused by what the SF Giants accomplished at the trade deadline, you are not alone. Bob Nightengale of USA Today assigned the trade deadline winners and losers with the Giants ending up as one of the losers on his list.

SF Giants earn harsh grade from MLB insider for trade deadline strategy

The Giants shipped off Jorge Soler and Luke Jackson to the Atlanta Braves, whereas Alex Cobb was sent to the Cleveland Guardians in a separate trade. In a last-minute move, they swung a deal to acquire veteran outfielder Mark Canha from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for pitching prospect Eric Silva.

Farhan Zaidi told KNBR that he believes that the Giants have the best rotation in baseball with Robbie Ray returning from Tommy John surgery and Blake Snell looking more like the pitcher who took home his second Cy Young Award in 2023. Only time will tell if that is true.

Of course, if the Giants believed that they had the best rotation in baseball, it would have made a lot of sense for them to be buyers at the trade deadline and bolster the lineup. To a marginal degree, they did so with the addition of Canha.

That said, a right-handed-hitting first baseman was barely on the list of needs for the team to address. Sure, it was a need but in the same way that a team needs a solid fifth-inning reliever.

So, it was a confounding statement to a confounding deadline. It is not easy to be a winner or a loser at the trade deadline when you are in the middle. More often than not, buyers who do a lot to adress the roster or sellers who bolster the farm system are seen as winners. The opposite is true for losers.

The Giants were neither buyers nor sellers yet here we are. Nightengale relayed that the baseball industry was confused by the Giants' activity at the deadline:

"Pardon the baseball industry for being completely confused what the Giants were doing at the deadline... It’s nice the Giants are going for it, but they sure had an odd way of showing it."

Bob Nightengale

Nightengale grouped the Giants with the New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota Twins, and Houston Astros are the losers around the league. The Yankees, Twins, and Astros were criticized for not doing enough. On the other hand, the White Sox did not take advantage of the seller's market.

One way or the other, this will be the roster that the Giants have down the stretch. The lack of activity at the deadline might be the final straw in Zaidi's tenure with the organization and the impression around baseball with how he handled the deadline is not too favorable.