Rays’ latest signing could open up an interesting trade possibility for SF Giants

The Tampa Bay Rays dipped their toes into the free agent pool on Wednesday, coming to terms with veteran center fielder Cedric Mullins on a one-year deal. Mullins is coming off a disappointing season split between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets but has a long history of solid production, so he’ll undoubtedly be playing every day in Tampa Bay. So how does this affect the SF Giants?

Well, the Rays happen to already have a center fielder who’s been ostensibly displaced by this signing. 25-year-old Chandler Simpson just got done with his rookie campaign with the Rays, tallying 441 plate appearances over 109 games.

To sum up everything that Simpson is, you might call him an extreme player. He’s kind of the anti-Mike Yastrzemski, in fact. Yastrzemski was a solid player – he did everything on the field pretty well, but wasn’t exceptional in any given area. Simpson is the opposite – he has basically no power but does have incredible speed.

SF Giants have a chance to make a trade for Rays' speedy center fielder

The Giants should have less trouble than usual hitting home runs next year with full seasons from Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman, and Willy Adames, not to mention Heliot Ramos who’s good for about 20 and top prospect Bryce Eldridge is knocking on the door with his huge power potential.

That means they’re uniquely positioned to want to take a chance on someone with Simpson’s skillset, because the roster is very much lacking in what he provides. Simpson’s rookie slash line was .295/.326/.345 (88 wRC+), which is the exact definition of a slap hitter. He had zero home runs and just one lone round-tripper in his entire minor league career, so don’t expect any of those, but as a lefty hitter in Oracle Park, maybe it’s not so bad that power is not part of his game.

Instead, focus on what he does well. The batting average is high – sixty points higher than the Giants’ team .235 average last season. It aligned just about perfectly with his expected batting average (xBA) of .294, which was in the 98th percentile for all major league hitters. His spectacular whiff and strikeout rates (11.5% and 9.8%, respectively) were each also in the 98th percentile, and a stated goal of the Giants has been to cut back on how much they strike out as a team. He doesn’t draw walks in addition to not hitting for power, but when you put the ball in play as often as Simpson does, that’s not a huge problem.

And when Simpson puts the ball in play, he’s dangerous. His 97th percentile sprint speed makes him an absolute terror on the basepaths. He swiped 44 bags in his 112 MLB games, and 104 bags in the 2024 season alone between two minor league levels. The Giants' team leader in 2025, Willy Adames, had 12.

It’s not hyperbole to say that the Giants have never employed a baserunning threat like Simpson before. And as far as their present-day roster stands, the slow-footed Giants just got done stealing the second-fewest bases in the majors last season. The team with the most? Simpson’s employer, the Rays.

Aside from how adding Simpson could diversify the lineup, he could also be a big help patrolling the outfield. Despite his excellent sprint speed and slightly above-average (56th percentile) arm, his defensive contributions overall were lackluster (-5 OAA, -9 DRS). This can be blamed mostly on taking some subpar routes and still getting comfortable out in center field. The Giants already have a couple outfielders who don’t take the best routes in Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee, so it’s possible that this offseason’s coaching changes could be a benefit to all three of them. Moving Lee to right field could also lessen the load on his shoulders and strengthen the outfield’s defense as a whole.

So, in summary, what Simpson does well, he does really well. What he doesn’t do well brings his value down enough to where the idea of the Giants trading for him is actually realistic. It wouldn’t cost them Eldridge in a trade, and it wouldn’t cost them any real money, either, since Simpson is still earning the league minimum and under team control for another six seasons. If the Giants wanted to kill two birds with one stone, they could keep negotiating with the Rays and work out a package for both Simpson and Brandon Lowe, too. Lowe has all the power that Simpson doesn’t, and even though acquiring both would start to make the Giants pretty lefty-heavy, it would still be a significant net upgrade.

Simpson’s not Kyle Tucker, and he’s not Cody Bellinger, but watching him on next year’s Giants would be very interesting. And for a team that’s been painfully boring for the last decade now, interesting would be a welcome change indeed.