The Giants big midseason trade acquisition was a 35-year-old coming off injury, hitting .173 with a 51 wRC+.
No offense to A.J. Pollock, but San Francisco fans waiting for a big splash at Tuesday’s trade deadline were left wanting more, as the outfielder and minor leaguer Mark Mathias – acquired Monday from the Seattle Mariners – were the lone additions.
The Giants entered Tuesday with a 58-49 record and in possession of the National League’s top Wild Card spot, 2.5 games back of the Dodgers for first place in the NL West. Listening to Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, the franchise will rely on in-house additions to bolster the squad for its postseason push.
“It wasn’t a super active deadline,” Zaidi said, via Evan Webeck of the Bay Area News Group. “A lot of the bigger names that people thought might be moved at the deadline were not. Teams that were on the bubble decided to push in. I think a lot of teams dealt with the same supply and demand issue that we did.”
San Francisco reportedly was in the hunt for middle infield help and more starting pitching, but infielder Thairo Estrada is slated to return from rehab soon, along with top southpaw prospect Kyle Harrison. Zaidi is hoping those two guys can help the Giants get over the hump and into the postseason.
Zaidi said Harrison was close to earning a big-league call-up before he suffered a hamstring injury in July. For now, Harrison is just building up stamina, as his most recent rehab start lasted two innings.
“He’s sort of on the accelerated rehab program, partly because he was really right on the cusp (of a promotion) when he got his hamstring injury,” Zaidi said. “It’s not gonna take much for us to feel like he’s checked the last box and be ready to come up here.”
After the team’s 107-win season in 2021, the Giants were able to lure Carlos Rodon in free agency. But last trade deadline, the Giants were caught in no-man’s land en route to an 81-81 record. Farhan and Co. then whiffed on Aaron (Arson?) Judge in the offseason before a deal with Carlos Correa fell through due to medical concerns.
Any prayer from a Giants fan to make a high-profile move wasn’t answered by Farhan this week. San Francisco reportedly was in the running for Justin Verlander at one point, but he was traded back to the Houston Astros.
“That’s the group we’re going to need to carry the load for us from a pitching standpoint,” Zaidi said, via Webeck. “If the goal is to do something, we could’ve traded half our farm system for a fifth starter. Somebody would’ve happily agreed to that deal. But we didn’t do something just because there was nothing that made sense.”
Harrison is hoping to jolt the clubhouse like young guys Casey Schmitt, Patrick Bailey, Luis Matos and Marco Luciano have done already this year, though Luciano was optioned to Triple-A Tuesday to make room for Pollock.
You can look at this one of two ways: either Farhan is sold on his team’s status quo, or he is incapable of pulling the trigger on a big deal. With just one playoff appearance in four seasons so far, Zaidi’s legacy with the fanbase could be decided within a few weeks.
