Turns out Farhan Zaidi left a pretty great parting gift for SF Giants

Nick San Miguel

San Francisco Giants v Washington Nationals / Mitchell Layton/GettyImages

Farhan Zaidi's tenure as the president of baseball operations for the SF Giants was controversial, to say the least. However, his trade for Robbie Ray last year has turned out to be a pretty amazing parting gift to the organization that fired him.

Ray turned in yet another outstanding performance on Sunday against the Washington Nationals. He pitched six strong innings while only allowing one run as the Giants hung on to win the game and take the series in Washington D.C.

Farhan Zaidi left a great parting gift for SF Giants in Robbie Ray

The outing gave Ray a 7-0 record in 11 starts on the season with an ERA of 2.56. He has looked nearly unbeatable and is reminiscent of the Robbie Ray of 2021 who won a Cy Young Award with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Giants must feel extremely fortunate that they have a formidable one-two punch of Logan Webb and Ray at the top of their rotation.

However, this never would have been possible without the masterful trade that Zaidi made in January of 2024. The Giants were able to land Ray by sending outfielder Mitch Haniger and pitcher Anthony DeSclafani to the Seattle Mariners.

Haniger is currently not employed by a team while DeSclafani has struggled through several years of injury and was recently signed to a minor league deal by the New York Yankees.

Zaidi takes a lot of flak for bad signings and moves he made while he ran San Francisco's front office. But he also deserves credit for moves he has made that ultimately panned out. It is ironic that Zaidi made this move with an eye on the future, knowing that Ray would miss most of 2024 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery.

Now that Ray is a full year removed from the surgery, his arm seems to be in great shape and he is clearly throwing the ball with a lot of confidence. One hopes he can keep it up because we know that if the Giants are going to have sustained success this season it is going to come on the back of their starting pitching.

Zaidi may have been fired before he was able to get credit for the Ray trade, but he certainly deserves props for pulling off the trade especially with how well Ray is throwing the ball right now.

Nick San Miguel

Nick San Miguel has been writing at FanSided since 2017. He began as a contributor writing about the San Francisco Giants at Around the Foghorn and became a Site Co-Expert for AtF in 2024. A die-hard Bay Area sports fan born 10 minutes from Levi's Stadium, he has also written about the San Francisco 49ers for Niner Noise as a contributor since December 2023. In October 2025, he joined Blue Man Hoop as a contributor to write about the Golden State Warriors. He graduated with a degree in History from San Diego State University and is now based out of Chicago. He is the same age as Oracle Park.