Andrew Baggarly just described today's activity as "frenetic," and he's right. The past two trade deadlines have been practically Zaidian for Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, and the San Francisco Giants. For as much as the franchise has oversteered from the 2019-2024 days, the new regime is a lot like the old one in that no matter what they've done to improve the team, it's been stuck in the zone of mediocre-to-bad. But Zaidi was (seemingly) constrained by ownership in how he could rebuild on the fly. Posey doesn't seem to have any constraints. Does that automatically make today's deadline deals great? In a moment, I'll grade them.
First, though, let's contextualize this ******* ysis. It helps that these 2026ers will go down as one of the worst teams in franchise history, something Zaidi's squads never came close to even suggesting. Trading away a chunk of the roster, then, would seem like a mercy killing. But also, with free agency and the regular season being such busts, the only real excitement these days seems to come from acquiring hope in the form of prospects. The Giants have done that in their past two drafts, at last year's deadline, and now, possibly, this year's deadline, too.
Take a look at this graph of Farm System Values (via FanGraphs) that was compiled by Sky Kalkman:
I admit that my eyes darted far to the right by sheer instinct. I've seen farm system rankings for decades now and have become accustomed to the Giants being down, down on the list. And yes, I'd forgotten that I'd written up FanGraphs' farm rankings back in June. The Giants have been on the rise for some time now. But heading into the trade deadline ranked #9 ? Cool! And that was before the majority of the trades.
Second, I hope people have internalized that trade deadline deals are usually not great deals. Yes, headliners are moved, but rarely does the team getting prospects in return get equal (future) value. But, like, in the case of say, the Detroit Tigers, it was going to be hard to get back fair value for Tarik Skubal whether they traded him before the season or at the deadline, and the fact that they decided to try to go for it this season with Skubal is a very reasonable one on their part that just didn't work out in the way they'd hoped.
#like
First, though, let's contextualize this ******* ysis. It helps that these 2026ers will go down as one of the worst teams in franchise history, something Zaidi's squads never came close to even suggesting. Trading away a chunk of the roster, then, would seem like a mercy killing. But also, with free agency and the regular season being such busts, the only real excitement these days seems to come from acquiring hope in the form of prospects. The Giants have done that in their past two drafts, at last year's deadline, and now, possibly, this year's deadline, too.
Take a look at this graph of Farm System Values (via FanGraphs) that was compiled by Sky Kalkman:
I admit that my eyes darted far to the right by sheer instinct. I've seen farm system rankings for decades now and have become accustomed to the Giants being down, down on the list. And yes, I'd forgotten that I'd written up FanGraphs' farm rankings back in June. The Giants have been on the rise for some time now. But heading into the trade deadline ranked #9 ? Cool! And that was before the majority of the trades.
Second, I hope people have internalized that trade deadline deals are usually not great deals. Yes, headliners are moved, but rarely does the team getting prospects in return get equal (future) value. But, like, in the case of say, the Detroit Tigers, it was going to be hard to get back fair value for Tarik Skubal whether they traded him before the season or at the deadline, and the fact that they decided to try to go for it this season with Skubal is a very reasonable one on their part that just didn't work out in the way they'd hoped.
#like
3 months ago
