The Giants make their first move of the new year by trading for Seattle lefty Robbie Ray. Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani go to the Mariners.
It's no secret that the Giants need starting pitching. Ray was the AL Cy Young awardee in 2021 and has delivered a mostly strong body of work over his ten seasons. He's thrown 1228 innings in 226 games (222 starts) with excellent strikeout numbers (1505 total, 11 K/9, 28.9%). Lifetime he sports a 3.96 ERA and 4.07 FIP. He made one start last year before a flexor strain (followed by Tommy John surgery) ended his season.
It's an interesting risk for the Giants. Ray is 32 and missed a lot of playing time in 2020 as well. He's signed (@$25M/yr.) through 2026. They relieved themselves of some salary by sending away Haniger ($20M) and DeSclafani ($12M). The Giants are sending cash ($3M) to the Mariners as well. If Ray is healthy he will be a solid addition. Unfortunately I'm not clear on when Ray will be available to pitch--recovery from TJS takes a long time. Alex Cobb will open the season on the IL and the other arms after ace Logan Webb are unproven rookies (Kyle Harrison, Keaton Winn, Tristan Beck).
I'm glad to see the transaction wire heating up in San Francisco. I hope they will continue to pursue another starter, and they'll have to do something about shortstop, don't you think?
Meanwhile, welcome to the Giants, Robbie Ray!
--M.C.
18 comments:
I forgot to mention that Ross Stripling is still on the Giants, presumably as a starter!
Ray has had an up and down career, and usually when one comes back from TJ., at first they are shaky. By the second year they are usually good. That would be his 33 Year old season. But he has an opt out in 2025 despite his contract going to 2026. His body of work is slightly better than DeSclafani's and he is a bit younger. This was once again the giants trading somewhat damaged goods, for damaged goods. Looks as if Cobb, and Ray, will not be pitching during the first half of the season. Would like to see Beck and Winn start the year in the bullpen. Have Webb, Harrison, and a good free agent signing to be the top of their rotation. In the second half, Ray and Cobb could fill out the bottom of the rotation, would Ray a 2 or 3 starter next year (2025). All is assuming Webb remains healthy. Haniger is interesting. I was hoping for a rebound year, but we are roster heavy in the outfield and some of the young guys need a chance. Let us see what the rest of the off season brings us.
I have to admit to have lost interest in baseball to the tune of not reading a single article ever since LA signed Yamamoto. Baseball has done a lot to generate interest in their offseason, and this killed it. I suspect many other people in the country feel the same way. Again, not so much because the Giants didn't get him (although that would have been nice) but because LA did on top of Ohtani. Rank capitalism wins! Plus, now we can't root for the premier Japanese players, which is a thing in our house.
I think Ray will be a good pick up, someday, but he will not start the season. Haniger is the one outfielder that I had some hopes for improvement, obviously, the Giants didn't see it that way. So we need more hitting. And to figure out what we are going to do about a rotation which is now shorter, at least to start the season, than it was a day ago.
Note to the Giants: At this point, it is painfully obvious that San Francisco is not an "elite" team. This act of being "in on" each big name free agent, then failing to sign them only to be "in on" the next, is growing tiresome, regardless of whether you offer comparable, or even more money than some other team. The only "elite" teams, apparently, are the Dodgers, Yankees, and Mets if they want to be. The Giants should have approached the off season like the Cardinals. If you need starters, go out and sign some, don't dick around hoping you can convince Yamamoto with a weak offense and one other decent starter. Get out of the queue that you are not going to move to the front of and go out and sign someone.
Conforto is still around and so they have a Haniger-like player, just one who hits from the other side!
It's not the most exciting move but it seems like a reasonable shifting of resources. Ray has more upside than DeSclafani.
The Giants will never have the reach of the Dodgers or Yankees, that's for sure. But they have plenty of resources. They can spend on free agents and build a good farm system at the same time. They don't have to be the Rays! And we all wish we could reveal the Cardinals' secret sauce and use it ourselves.
Ray has upside. At least that gives me some hope.
I'm getting impatient. The hot stove league moves at a glacial pace these days. I'm tired of Boras. He slows everything down. And there is way too much overpaying. Eff Boras. *end rant*
I know Boras is good at his job and his guys get paid and off season progress isn’t his fault alone, but geez… he just makes baseball less fun.
Boras is like a player you hate on another team. You hate him because he's good and beats up on your team. But of course you'd love him if he was on your team!
From MLBTR:
Top Giants prospect Kyle Harrison has been speculatively floated as a trade candidate, especially after reports surfaced last month that the club was considering dealing from its stock of young pitching. However, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi all but officially closed the door on a Harrison swap, telling The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami in a podcast interview that “I can’t imagine any plausible scenario where we would move Kyle. He kind of embodies everything we’re hoping to be the next few years. He’s a local guy, he’s a homegrown talent, drafted and developed in our organization….Is a great kid, great competitor, has All-Star, Cy Young potential in our mind. Works really hard. Those are the kinds of guys you want to build around.”
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/01/nl-west-notes-dodgers-pham-harrison-rockies-dbacks.html
Sounds good to me!
Sean Manaea goes to the Mets for 2 years and $28M, with an opt-out.
He finished strong, getting in some good starts at the end, and he was an intriguing option for next year. But I doubt he was offered that much to stick around. His option was for $12.5M.
And we are left a good deal short of a full rotation. I hope the Giants have something in mind.
rotation looks like Webb, Strippling (puke), Harrison, Beck and Winn, Possibly one of the other rookies will step up in Spring training. I was hoping that Winn and Beck would start the season in relief. Plus it does not give us much back up for starters during the first half. We really do not know if Cobb, or Ray will have any setbacks. Would be nice to sign a good starter in free agency. Maybe someone who does not have a big injury history, and we can expect to be relatively healthy, at least by track record.
They'll need another veteran starter. I'm not sure Manaea was that guy, and indeed Stripling is a big question mark, but at least they have spots open on the 40-man!
Shoto Imanaga goes to the Cubs.
Imanaga's loss. So far we traded 2 guys, who might be able to start the season, for a guy who cannot play probably for at least the first 100 games. So at least until the allstar break we traded for nobody. What we did is lighten up the 40 man roster, and make room for someone yet to be determined. So what is next? Did bringing in Melvin really help in attracting free agents? What next? We may have table setters in Lee and Wade, but who will drive them in? I would have rather they traded Stripling than Deslafani. The fans that were upset with Zahdi last year, are not finding much redemption so far this year.
Good thing the season is still far away!
They need another starter and they need a shortstop and another OF wouldn't hurt, either.
Giants avoided arb with Tyler Rogers, Thairo Estrada, and LaMonte Wade, Jr.
They did not settle with J.D. Davis and will go to arbitration unless they make a deal before then. It's unusual for the Giants to go to arb, they usually work something out.
Giants have been linked to Matt Chapman but obviously there has been no movement. He's a Boras client.
Not sure how I see the Jordon Hicks signing. I have to think about that one for a while. The guy throws hard, but he also walks a lot of guys. Control is more important than velocity.
I just saw that. Interesting. I'll have to post!
Seems as if he is being paid starter type money. A lot of cash for a reliever who is not slated to be the closer.
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