SF Giants seeing dividends from trade that sent Alex Cobb to Guardians in 2024

The SF Giants swung a trade at last year's deadline in a deal that sent veteran hurler Alex Cobb to the Cleveland Guardians. The Giants added a pair of prospects, including Jacob Bresnahan, in the trade, and that move is paying off nicely this year.

SF Giants seeing dividends from trade that sent Alex Cobb to Guardians in 2024

Cobb was coming off his lone All-Star appearance but had not pitched all year due to injury. He ended up making three starts for Cleveland in which he was solid. Cobb was good for a 2.76 ERA in just over 16 innings pitched.

The righty pitcher also started two games for the Guardians in the postseason, with one coming against the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS and one against the Yankees in the ALCS. He ended up taking the loss in both starts and gave up a combined 5 earned runs in 5.2 innings pitched.

On the other side of things, the Giants got two young prospects in return. One was a player to be named later, which ended up being infielder Nate Furman. Furman has not played yet for the Giants, as he is currently listed on the 60-day injured list. The main piece coming to San Francisco was left-hander Jacob Bresnahan.

The 20-year-old southpaw has turned into an impressive return in what was seen as more of a salary dump. Up until the deal, he had spent the majority of his time in the Arizona Complex League with Cleveland, pitching to a 2.54 ERA in 46.0 IP.

While he had a rough debut season with the Giants organization, posting a 10.98 ERA in over 19 innings, he has completely turned it around in 2025. Bresnahan has spent the entire year with the San Jose Giants and has started turning some heads. In the most recent updates of Giants' prospect rankings, the lefty was ranked 24th by MLB.com and 11th by Aram Leighton of justbaseball.com.

The rise in prospects lists is clearly due to the numbers he has put up in 62.0 innings throughout 2025. He's started 19 games and currently holds a 2.90 ERA with just under 12 (11.76) strikeouts per nine. He's also limiting the long ball at the best clip of his young career while posting an impressive 3.16 FIP, also a career best.

There's no doubt that Bresnahan is putting together a superb season in his first full year with the Giants. For a young prospect who was seen as more of a flyer, the organization couldn't ask for much more from the young southpaw.

While Alex Cobb had a good career as a Giant and saw his first All-Star appearance with San Francisco, this looks like a solid move by the previous regime..

The system got a talented arm in return, while moving Cobb to the Guardians. While we don't know what the 2025 deadline will look like for San Francisco, it looks like deals done at the 2024 deadline were an overall success.