In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR. Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams. You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.
So far, we’ve covered the Rangers, Mariners, Athletics, Angels, Astros, Twins, Royals, Tigers, Indians, White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Orioles. The Giants are up next.
We’ll start by removing free agents Hunter Pence, Jeff Samardzija, Tony Watson, Drew Smyly, and Kevin Gausman.
Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Brandon Crawford will make the protected list by virtue of their no-trade clauses. I’ll also protect Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson, Mauricio Dubon, and Logan Webb out of the gate. So these seven players will be protected:
Buster Posey
Brandon Belt
Brandon Crawford
Mike Yastrzemski
Alex Dickerson
Mauricio Dubon
Logan Webb
That leaves eight spots for these 26 players:
Shaun Anderson
Tyler Anderson
Abiatal Avelino
Tyler Beede
Sam Coonrod
Johnny Cueto
Jaylin Davis
Steven Duggar
Wilmer Flores
Enderson Franco
Aramis Garcia
Jarlin Garcia
Trevor Gott
Jandel Gustave
Evan Longoria
Conner Menez
Reyes Moronta
Wandy Peralta
Dereck Rodriguez
Tyler Rogers
Sam Selman
Chris Shaw
Austin Slater
Donovan Solano
Andrew Suarez
Kean Wong
With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly eight players you think the Giants should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.
I think the Giants would gladly let expansion team take on the salaries of Longoria and cueto if the team was stupid enough to do so. The Giants actually gave more talent then is appreciated but also a lot of below average guys.
100% agree. If they could get those 2 guys off the books they would open up quite a bit of room. Plus, I would be shocked if an expansion team took Longoria, cueto maybe not so much but he’s expensive
Plus the extremely low likelihood of an expansion team taking on that amount of salary would make me leave them unprotected so I could protect a younger player.
The Giants. Lol
Keep talkin trash on the Giants. Let’s see your yanks clutch up in october. Back with all the new york legends it was easy but not now
Don’t feed the trolls. This particular one is exceptionally boring, so the sooner the one joke wonder starves, the better!
longo yes, cueto no, the giants have a lot of money and an insanely low payroll starting next year. the rotation is fairly thin behind cueto so i would think holding him and making a QO would make sense since he was ineligible last FA as a mid season trade
I’d put Moronta as a lock. He and Yaz probably have the most value of anyone on their MLB roster in my opinion
I would have to agree with that. It’s too bad they didn’t give abiatel avelino a shot before dubon Came over. I think he could have had a decent career…
Well they gave him a small shot in 2018 and he was a september call up in ‘19 as well, in which he wasn’t as successful as i think anyone hoped.
Yeah, I felt like they saw enough of him to realize he wasn’t the answer up the middle.
Avelino can’t hit in the majors, no way you protect him when there are only 8 spots left to protect.
Shaun Anderson, Jaylin Davis, Jarlin, Moronta, D-Rod, and Suarez. stacking the deck with young pitching talent again here. Davis doesn’t excite me as much as others but i like him over the tired Dugger and Slater.
Derick Rodriguez. Lol. He’s terrible
he has a good track record outside of last year. i think he can bounce back some.
He is in fact terrible. What good track record are you referring to? The one where he was DFA’d before the Giants picked him up? Or 2018 when the advanced metric / Peripheral numbers said he was LUCKY
He’s a small frame soft tossing RHP . A minor league arm. Best projection is a new off speed pitch that gets outs and allows for possible low leverage innings outta MLB pen. Maybe
– a salty athletics fan that will see his favorite players traded away in less than three years
Maybe Beane will go for another power move and trade Chapman to the Blue Jays in exchange for Teoscar Hernandez and a bag of baseballs. Worked out well with the Josh Donaldson trade right?
One of the Jay’s best moves.
Sorry Chief. I’m a Giants fan
A bandwagon one at that, considering your constant comments about never watching them play
BandWagon ? GTFO I grew up going to games at the Stick. And I watch everything.
Why do you find it necessary to Insult and name call people with a different view point than yours? You remind me of the POTUS. Now, You can put on your MAGA hat and sip your Lysol cocktail with pride.
chill. with some of the comments you make…..
so are gardner and andujar
Tim Andrew Suarez is not a poll option
The worst move they made was dumping pillar. He was their best hitter and should have won 2 gold gloves with the Jay’s. It was just the voters being bias that he didn’t.
i dont see that. he’s in his 30s and the Giants really dont have a chance of contending in the next few years.
I agree. He hit with some of the most power on the Giants in 2019. I think what they didn’t like was all his strikeouts. He chases way too many pitches. Other than that, great player
You sound like a typical low-information Giants fan.
Pillar sported a .287 OBP last year. He was part of the problem in Frisco. Not the solution
First of all I’m a pillar fan so eat it. Second of all pillar is a gold glove candidate and he steals some bases and hits some Homer’s. Usually none of those things are valuable but in Centre field they are. Look past the stats moron.
Kevin Pillar has been in the league for 7 years and has a career.296 OBP
Now, who is the Moron here ?
Did you not read anything else I wrote? Smh. Pillar has an above average hit tool fringe average power speed and has so far been cheated out of 2 gold gloves. In today’s game especially obp means little even more so when you are a Centre fielder who can hit. Obp means little look at reigning batting champ Tim Anderson. So why don’t you go back to the bowling alley you came from OK?
An above average hit tool? He had a 93 OPS+ with the Giants and a career 78 OPS+. I get he hit a 21 home runs and stole 14 bags, but it’s not like his overall value wasn’t replaceable. Pillar had a 1.5 fWAR wich wasn’t even in the top 140 of players with at least 350 plate appearances. In terms of defense, he’s still a fairly rangy guy, but not the outstanding defender he was like 3 years ago. He had -4 DRS, and .3 UZR.
100% there are better options in Centre field and his defense isn’t what it was in 2015-17 but competent Centre fielders are hard to come especially with all the health concerns these days. Considering the Giants home grown outfield curse and that they have no decent replacement. At least you make a reasonable argument unlike that dick “rightyspecialist” who just makes unfounded comments just because they feel good to crap on decent conversations.
Centre Fielder ? What position/ sport is that ?………Cricket?
I mean yea, good CF’s are hard to come by, but it’s not like the Giants absolutley need a good CF right now, nor was Pillar the best option to go after. They’re a team in a rebuilding process. If your best free agent option is a 1.5-2 fWAR, 85-90 OPS+ CF, you’re better off running out someone like Duggar just to see what they have rather than spend $5 million on an overall replacement to below replacement level guy.
OBP means little? Wow OK. And what does Tim Anderson being the batting champ have to do with anything?
First of all you commented under the wrong post. Second it means that if someone with one of the lowest obps in the league wins a batting title it means that obp actually doesn’t mean much.
A local writer enabled their over attachments by giving an MVP vote to Pillar
Local writer? LMAO. Im a high-schooler from Canada and yet I still make more sense and am better written then most of the adult dumb-ass Americans. (that’s right! Not all Canadians are nice!)
Watch A Dose of Buckley on YouTube.
Lol that’s the best the Americans can come up with in 40 minutes? Send me a postcard from Putins butt crack.
Tracer, afk is referring to the Giants beat writer that gave Pillar a 9th or 10th place vote for MVP when he says local writer. Just because he replied in the portion of the thread that you started does not imply that he is talking to you. Do your homework before hurling insults.
Tracer –
You didn’t have to tell us that you were a high schooler…your age shows in your comments
I don’t need too. I insult who I want.
Especially if I think you’re starting things with me.
Tracer, you sound like one of those ¨edgy¨ kids who tries to be cool at my high school
I can see you’re trying to be “edgy” with your profile picture.
calm down bro
I really thought I’d go my whole life without seeing “Kevin Pillar” and “best hitter” in the same sentence
Where did you see that?
I don’t get why you’d protect Yaztrzemski?
His is a great story, but as rule how far do 29 year old rookies actually go?
Who else would they protect?
Michael Yastrzemski is a 29 yr old career minor leaguer
He doesn’t even have a roster spot as a 5th outfielder on a contender like NY, LA
Giants fans are way too quick to anoint hero worship and sentimentalist value to marginal players
His name doesn’t hurt either.
yea well if you’re a yankees fan and love talkin trash on the giants like we’ve seen you do, of course youre going to say that he wouldn’t have a spot on NYY. personally, I think he beats gardner
Gardener provides better patience and defense but yazstremski has better power and a better hit tool.
lol. Gardner and patience dont go together. He busted his lip after getting mad at an umpire
GTFO……Yastrzemski couldn’t hold Gardner’s jock strap
Gardener has been in the league for 12 years. Last year in his age 36 season he posted a 4.1 WAR
You are a buffoon
I can’t believe you suggested that Yaz is better than Brett Gardner.
It’s comments like that, that give Giants fans such a bad rap as being baseball stupid
Stop it
Gardener is old and washed-up Yaz isn’t better they both have things they are good at.
as if! the only time gardner hit over .277 was when he played 16 games in 2012!!!
Exactly!! He can’t hit. Yankee fans need to move on.
Gardner can’t hit? Since 2013 he has a .251/.338/.413 line, and a 104 OPS+. While it’s not going to win any silver sluggers, that’s still about 4% better than league average production. Last year he hit .251/.325/.503 with 24 home runs and a 117 OPS+.
Good job Gardener you are 4% better than most. For most teams that’s fine but for a team like the Yankees… I’m surprised they didn’t move on 10 years ago.
balls were juiced so homers arent a very accurate stat to look at and judge. and last year he was not above average
Yaz’s lifetime OPS is .109 higher and his BA is .012 higher than Gardeners. He had 7 less HR because he had 120 less AB. And Gardener set his all-time high in HR by 7 over his old high last year AT AGE 36! Hard to believe that is going to continue. Yaz tied his Gardener’s previous career high in HR last year in only 371-AB. Yaz seems to be the better hitter by far if he continues like he is.
And I am most definitely not a Giants fan.
thank you
Tward09-
The fact that you are using batting average as your only barometer explains a lot. A player who accumulates 4.1 WAR at any age is a good player, and especially for a 36 year old
Mike put up solid numbers that a lot of OF’s would be happy to claim. We’ll see if he can do it again.
Because he was productive and it’s not like 29 is old.
Some players take longer to develop or simply don’t get a great opportunity early for a variety of reasons.
Austin Nola is in the same boat. 29 year-old rookie (now 30), but he would most certainly be protected.
Tim wasn’t wrong to mark Mike as a lock. He isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Shaun Anderson, Steven Duggar, Jaylin Davis, Austin Slater, Reyes Moronta, Chris Shaw, Trevor Gott, Connor Menez are my picks.
I agree with gott, Anderson, moronta and menez but I just don’t see enough from Duggar or Davis to suggest that they will be above average players. I see some potential in shaw but he needs to either hit for more power, trim the strikeouts or both.
I wouldn’t protect shaw. I feel like we saw enough of him to know that he isn’t good enough to survive in the bigs
Giants fans can hope but 78 strikeouts in 75 AAA games last year in the hitters environment last year followed by 8 in 18 big league at bats. The Giants and their fans need to move on.
Davis has barely played at the MLB level and Duggar has had injury problems that have prevented us from seeing a full season of him. Don’t see any other stand out names on that list that would warrant protection over those two, maybe Selman or D-Rod but definitely not both.
In my humble opinion: Lou Seal and Crazy Crab for sure. Probably John, Dave, Kruk and Kuip. Next maybe Marty Lurie and that nice usher named Alison.
Ok, I need a Giant’s fans opinion, I chose:
Solano
D. Rodriguez
Moronta
Gott
WILMER!!!
J. Garcia
I need two more spots filled but I seriously have no idea who else I should choose. I’m not picking Cueto or Longo BTW.
Yaz and Beede
No need to protect Beede, he just had TJ surgery. No one would pick him in a draft.
I think someone would take him because he’s a 26 year old who is finding it as of the end of 2019. long career ahead i would imagine
I wouldn’t pick Flores he’s only on a 2 year deal and is almost certainly a platoon. I’m not a Giants fan but i think I would also pick coonrod and either J gustave or Tyler Rogers
I am a Giants fan, and I think flores is a good pick because he plays all IF spots and the Giants need a righty 1B. Also, he had a great year last year
I think Flores is a terrific player who would be of more help on a contender. On
A non-contender I would focus on long term assets and because of his s contract he’s just not that. For a rebuilding club in an expansion draft to protect him makes little sense.
I’m basing my picks almost fully off of value. Value in a trade and value right now. Flores is on a multi year deal, cheap, and he’s an above average hitter, he has good value. Same goes for guys like Gott and Moronta, I mean look at what they got for Pom last deadline.
Solano is a questionable pick. I think they’d protect Menez over D-Rod, and they’d definitely protect Selman over Jarlin Garcia. 2 of Duggar/Davis/Slater would likely be protected as well.
Actually scratch Selman. Thought he was a lot younger, had no idea he was 29.
Solano is a free agent soon, so I think I’d leave him off. I said this below, but imo Tyler Rogers is one of the Giants’ most valuable pitchers rn so I’d protect him.
Why are we doing this anyway. Is there an expansion in the works. That I have not heard of.
I don’t think so, but what else do you want them to do? There’s no baseball on besides kbo, meaning there’s very little news to write about
They’ve said they’re planning on doing an expansion team once they’ve gone through all the teams
so they’re going to have odd numbers?
The one thing this exercise shows me is that expansion teams will be no better off than when the Metropolitans and the Colt .45’s drafted.
This may be the most mediocre protection list. Even worse than the Tigers.
Personally, I see no world in which Tyler Rogers isn’t protected. Yeah, he’s barely pitched in the majors, but that guy has serious talent. I’d bet he’s the closer once baseball returns.
I agree
The Giants are one of the worst teams in MLB . Subsequently, Most the players on this protection list are terrible. The better part of the list is mediocre at best
But Stupid overly sentimental fans insist on arguing about which turd to save. It’s embarrassing
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re stupid you’re an American and a warriors fan. (BTW I clapped when Durant when down in the finals) and now golden state is the worst team in the league with a lot of bad contracts. Enjoy!
get a life dude
Was I talking to you? No? I wasn’t? So mind your own business.
chill homie. You’re lucky toronto gets teams in american sports
Canada doesn’t need American sports leagues. We have our own. I’m actually annoyed that we have any association with the U. S at all because I have yet to meet 1 intelligent, decent person from the U. S. Plus weed is legal here so another plus.
is that really a plus?
if a team can’t win a lot of games that doesn’t mean all their players are terrible. Look at will smith last year. Amazing closer on a sub .500 team
and aren’t you a giants fan?
That’s what they said earlier so Idk what’s going on.
He’s an athletics fan pretending to be a Giants fan so he could validate his opinion as non-biased.
Ah I see.
makes sense
Wait, Now, Because I’m critical of the team, you’re gonna to throw conspiratorial theories around regarding my fandom?
People that disagree with your point of view you ‘Name Call’ and now create a conspiracy theory about me?
I’m critical of the Giants because I care. Period.
GTFO you weirdo. take your hydroxychloroquine pills, go ahead and wash that down with about 16 oz of lysol, then go kiss the first person you see wearing a MAGA cap
Yes , Since the Stick.. But I’m not a KNBR / Larry Baer robot that toes the party line and believes everything is wonderful.
This team hasn’t finished above .500 since 2016. They’re BAD. That’s just the truth
Top 5 Giants Players of All Time:
5. Will Clark
4. Matt Williams
3. Tim Lincecum
2. Willie McCovey Cove
1. Willie Mays
Honorable Mention: Rod Beck
Posey?
Or kent and bonds?
I put bonds as number 1.
not before mays, but he should be over timmy. Love him, but he’s not better than bonds
mays is probably the best player in baseball history
May’s is definitely in the top 15 but I still say bonds. In his day he had it all speed, pop, hitting, defense, patience
Bonds was a heck of a player no doubt(and should be an HOFer) but Mays is one of the top 3
STEROIDS♂️
accidentally
Damn they’ve had some good ones… Kevin Mitchell Robby Thompson…Bobby Thompson Bonds Kent BWill
Posey? Bumgarner? Bonds?
What a list !!!!!
MLBTR- Great Idea lets do a 25 man all time team for each Org!!!!
Credit to Op Jessaumodesto
Put a min must have played 5 years with org
Give us your top 40 we will make the spring training cuts down to 25 filling out a typical squad (Sp 1-5, bullpen, by position in field,Bench of 5 etc-) 13 Offense 12 Arms
Giants would be amazing OF Bonds MAYs Mccovey
Imagine the Cuts you would have to make on the Yankees if you could only carry 5 Of on the 25
that is a GREAT idea
@Human Rain Delay, McCovey was 1B not OF. The official MLB team websites have been doing a top 5 for each position.
As for the other argument Bonds is definitely either #1 or #2 for the SF Giants. Giants organization all time though it is Mays there is no argument to be had.
Mays is in my opinion the greatest of all time to play in the MLB, however some would argue for others (like Aarron or Ruth) either way if Mays isn’t in someone’s top 4 their list is ridiculous.
SF Giants top 10:
10: Cain
9: Kent
8: Lincecum
7: Cepeda
6: Bumgarner
5: Posey
4: Marichal
3: McCovey
2: Barry Bonds
1: Mays
Some good players off that list include Nen, Wilson, Beck, Romo, Williams, Clark (Will and Jack), Bobby Bonds, the Alou family to mention just a few.
How and why would the Giants protect possey,lame Crawford, lamer belt, and the biggest of dung’s longo. You smoke more crack than, crack been had. Take our garbage, please.
Hope you read a book somewhere on your travels.
They’re required to. Longo doesn’t have a no-trade clause(I’d imagine they leave him open anyway) but the other 3 have no-trade clauses
-Giants fan
If I have to watch another poor excuse of that sabean team. I’ll be sad. Bring on the zaidi regimen
Brian the Foley, your comments just show me you’re not a true Giants fan just someone who jumped on the bandwagon.
The Giants WANT to be the expansion team that cherry picks the other rosters. Quicker way to improve than the route they are currently on….
Eh i dont think so
um no.
Reyes Moronta
Trevor Gott
Tyler Beede
Wilmer Flores
Tyler Rogers
Shaun Anderson
Jarlin Garcia
Jaylin Davis
the fact that derek rodriguez is polling so high shows that people don’t know what they are talking about. I like rodriguez but he benefited from favorable conditions in his rookie year and has since come back down to earth. I would like to still have him in the system but if it means not protecting anderson or rogers or wong or gustave, it is a mistake
^
In D Rods defense I think he is a guy that can over-perform his peripherals and be a 5 inn #5 starter – Hes got the rag arm to go longer, you just probably wont want him to if the games tight- I would expose him, but I do think he has value to an org
Or in short he’s the anti Ricky Nolasco
……a number 5 on a Sh**t team. He doesn’t even come outta the pen with a contender
Shaun Anderson
Beede
Coonrod
Jaylin Davis
Gott
Gustave
Tyler Rogers
Chris Shaw
Correction: Moronta, not Gustave
Moronta Gott Rodgers- Easy
Rodgers Beede Anderson- Mas o menos
Wong and you pick the OF for 8, (they really liked Duggar for a while, but your going to have to duck with his ceiling, I might wander in a different direction today here)
* Jaylin Davis was Rodgers in column 2 –
It might amount to nothing but they need to follow a liittle upside- There is a lot of grass they need to fill up there in SF
yeah davis is on my list, I feel like you need to see what he’s got if you are on a rebuilding team
Yea hes a little old but it wouldnt be the first time someone cracked thru in the second half of their 20’s….. odd career arc but sometimes thats a good thing in these cases…
Boy what a year he had last year though in the minors 35 hrs 468 abs!!
Im having trouble even selecting 3.
S. Anderson
Beede
Davis
Menez
Moronta
Shaw
Slater
Then either Coonrod or Duggar
As a few people stated, you likely don’t have to worry about a team taking on Cueto or Longoria’s contracts, and while there are definitely question marks with the players I chose, there are just as many or more with the ones I left off.
This one was pretty tough, too. As a White Sox fan who lives in Carson City (NV), I’m almost forced to follow the Giants and in that time, have started rooting for them in the NL West. That said, I wouldn’t say I follow their prospects much.
Anyway, here are my picks:
#1 Shaun Anderson
#2 Reyes Moronta
#3 Dereck Rodriguez
#4 Samuel Coonrod
#5 Trevor Gott
#6 Jaylin Davis
#7 Johnny Cueto
#8 Andrew Suarez