Giants GM Scott Harris put to rest any doubts as to whether the Giants are looking at the 2020 season as an opportunity to compete, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports. He rejected any idea that the club is looking to the mid-season trade period as merely a chance to move some veteran players.
It remains to be seen, of course, just what kind of transactional action we’ll see in the midst of an unusual and truncated campaign. Harris’s boss, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, has already predicted less player movement.
Whatever the landscape looks like, Harris says, the Giants hope — and even expect — not to be on the sell side. The 2020 sprint is in effect an unprecedented chance for “fast-forwarding to July 23 with a guarantee that the team would be tied for first place,” Harris says.
Under the circumstances, the Giants are looking for ways to take advantage of their competitive position. Per Harris:
“It’s paramount that we get off to a fast start, because if we get off to a fast start the trade deadline is only a few weeks away and we have the opportunity through transactions to turn some of our weaknesses into strengths. Farhan and I are certainly going to be eager to do that if the opportunity presents itself.”
Harris certainly sounds committed to the possibility of a surprise run, citing “a shot to win the division” and a shared determination within the organization “to prove a lot of people wrong out there.” Even in a short-season format, quite a few things will have to go right for the San Francisco organization to topple the powerhouse Dodgers or even to snag a Wild Card. But the potential for surprise will certainly add to the intrigue of the 2020 season.
You gotta like these kids…
Lance, that comment brings back memories. What year did the giants use that? ‘86?
Hum baby
87? Geg
Still waiting for the young guys to come up and maybe sign a power hitting outfielder or corner infielder in the next 2 or 3 years to bring back “when the giants come to town, it’s bye bye baby!”
Most teams, each season, no matter how terrible put together a decent 60 game stretch where they are competitive and win some games. Hard to think that won’t happen once or twice or thrice this season. Still though, giants are toast and this is lip service. They are the favorites to make most deals selling off talent.
As they should, they need to ship off Longoria, Sandoval (if anyone would take him) and Belt (if anyone would take him). I’d offer out Shark as well. They could get a few good prospects from that list, though I doubt any of those players would bring in a blue chipper prospect. I’d also try to sell high on someone like Yaz.
I say keep pablo(cause who doesnt like him and his pitching lol), belt, and shark for now. shark is on his last yr and had an above avg yr last yr so give him til closer to the deadline, belt has some of the most pop in the giants lineup and has a solid glove
I mostly agree. I think getting out of the Longoria contract is #1. Pablo is just depth, so what the heck. Belt basically has no (or negative) value, so trading him seems very unlikely. Same for Crawford. Shark and Cueto might find takers, but the Giants don’t have a lot of starting pitching anyways and would likely do well to hang onto them.
Sadly Pablo can’t pitch thus year due to his Tommy John surgery.
The San Francisco Giants…….The Laughingstock of the NL West.
So, Will 2020 make it 4 straight seasons below .500 ?
I think the obvious answer is yes, the Giants will be under .500. But that’s not what’s important about this year for them. They’re furthering the development of the farm system, and trying to find guys that can be serviceable at a major league level, and they’ll be able to return to being competitive in 2022 or 2023.
The laughingstock of the NL West is the Padres – this will be their 10th season of under .500 baseball.
facts
@DunsDynasty who’s your team wagon??
He’s a Yankees fan and just a troll on here who just wants to bash the giants and their fan base for whatever reason
A warriors fan who likes the Yankees… is he even a real warriors fan or is basketball really just that bad in New York? Oh wait New York has the knicks? So the answer is yes haha
@commentinggenious makes sense, Yankees haven’t done anything in the last decade so he hates on the teams that do.
Anything is possible.
KG
They smoke the “good stuff” out there by the bay.
Forget his delusional optimism, the reality is no one wants the old, fading players they want to unload.
I’m not so sure. Shark, at the reduced rate (about 6.5M) , is still pretty attractive. And there’s no long term commitment.
Shark has been a terrible pitcher now for years.
Are you a Giants’ fan?
Perhaps not worth $20mm/year but he’s been good for 3 of his 4 years as a Giant, at his best last year with a 3+ bWAR.
At any rate, Shark is not high on the Giants’ problem list and this is his last year.
Bigger problem is the $$ tied up in 4 unmovable contracts, 3 with No-Trade provisions, but other than blocking the positions for guys coming up, the money isn’t the problem for the giants.
Shark was NOT terrible last year and could certainly help a few teams, not the least of which is the Angels.
That “terrible pitcher for years” had a 3.52 ERA last year with 181 innings pitched.
Jeff Samardzija sucks. A human dinger machine. Dude sets up on a Tee for hitters
In 2015 , Samardzija led the American League in Home Runs Allowed. Subsequently, The Giants brain trust of Brian Sabean and Bobby Evans Rewarded Samardzija with 90 MILLION DOLLARS
Again, nobody is disputing that sabean and evans made some terrible decisions. There are reasons that giants fans continually called for their removal. But to say that Samardzija sucks is either uninformed or trolling. Dude was above average last year, and was pretty consistent too. He’s no ace, but he’d be a solid 3 or an above average 4 on a competitive team.
Shark LOL
Cueto re-emerges and giants will have a slew of buyers for his services. Prob get giants to pay a big chunk of that next year salary and it still won’t cost much to obtain him.
@Tiny ‘Slew of buyers’ ? Huh? Did you see him throw in spring training back in Feb? He looks BAD or what good hitting teams did to him last year?
The Dodgers LIT HIM UP so bad I’m not sure he made it outta the 2nd Inning . It was like 5 earned over 2ip. I think he’s done
if you pay attention to baseball – never look at the first ST starts for a pitcher as a predictor.
Dubsdynasty is the same person as rightyspecialist. I honestly feel bad for this person. He must have some major problems in his life.
I disagree he’s the same guy. Imo, he’s just an inoriginal copycat. Plus, dubdynasty is a gsw bandwagon jumper. He likely loves the Chiefs, the Yankees and will soon be cheering on the NBA champ for this year. Then he’ll change his name. And we’ll figure out who he then is because we’ll see the same whiny ignorant posts
Yeah look I can’t the Giants being competitive enough to buy at the deadline, can’t see many teams wanting their assets either, bit of a holding pattern for the Giants this year. Hurry up tho please I need some baseball :)
I believe they made the most trades of any teams at last year’s deadline. They’ll have plenty of pieces to unload if in fact they’re selling. Cueto, Gausman, Smyly, Samardzija, Watson, Gott, Pence, Billy Hamilton. Lots of possibilities.
Love the spirit, but lord, I hope no team like the Giants goes deep into the playoffs this year. Underdogs are nice and all, but I prefer it when the teams that go deep into the post season deserve to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a championship based on talent.
if a team like the Giants makes it deep into the playoffs then they clearly deserve it. As a Giants fan, they dont have plus talent on the mlb level. a few decent guys but mostly just low cost acquisitions that turned out better than anyone other than zaidi expected
Shark is definitely one player that can be had.
If Brandon Belt has a strong 2020 he’s an off-season trade candidate depending on which contender needs a 1B. Potentially Boston.
Crawford is a no go.
I would like to think so but remember that Shark has full no trade – that is why he didn’t get a ring with the astros who wanted him
As a lifelong Giants fan, I’d rather not see them win this farce of a season. I couldn’t get excited about calling it a championship. It won’t be real, no matter who “wins”
Flags fly forever!
“I couldn’t get excited about calling it a championship.”
I’m not too proud, I’d take it in a heartbeat. May be 5 years plus before this wreck turns around. And remember, their THREE rings came from teams no one assessed as “great”, just good enough at the right time.
what are you talking about? a ring is a ring period. this season will be weird but it could be harder than a normal season. if you get hot earlier than another team, that cold decide it. these 60 games are more important than each game of a 162 game season
I guess if they won we could say 3.5 rings in 10 years…but it’s not going to happen.
they should win and get a half a ring
Cueto, Shark and possibly Belt (if he stays healthy) may have some value at the trade deadline, but the Giants aren’t going to win their division, unless the entire Dodger team comes down with Covid (which I do not wish on any team). And even then, the Giants starting pitching is so thin that they’ll be lucky to be anywhere near .500. The team is rebuilding, and that’s okay.
Even in this sprint of a season it seems it will be a war of attrition .. However long your team can stay uninjured and without Covid the better the chances they can win
Oh nooooo my baseball team is trying to win baseball games instead of intentionally tanking…ohhhh noooo I hate it when my team tries to be competitive and win baseball games!
I’d rather lose now and be competitive in the next year or two for 5+ years than to be competitive now for only this season and then go back to losing 5+ seasons.
Why would you want to lose now in this sprint of a season. get hot early and see where it takes you
When I say now, I don’t necessarily mean this year. This year, I think anything can happen. But I mean more of 2021.
But you could also say “why not try and win in this 60 game season?” as easily as you could say “Why not try and tank in this 60 game season?”.
If you sacrifice the farm to fulfill a long shot postseason dream in 2020, that would set this team back for the foreseeable future. You don’t necessarily need to tank, but it would be unwise to be tempted by false optimism
thats not what i meant. i meant mainly with most of the guys they have
Understandable. I was replying more to the op’s comment
i think we’ve seen a large enough sample size to know that tanking doesn’t necessarily work. the cubs did it (yes they won the WS; now they’re suddenly only mediocre for some reason?) and the astros did it (or did they…….). I would take 7 years of mediocrity and 3 years of wild card contention. Over 5 years of being awful and 5 years of being division winners any day. Especially given that based off past tanking teams that’s a generous ratio. I applaud teams trying to be competitive every year. This can easily be done with a savvy front office and an owner willing to loosen the purse strings.
There’s a difference between tanking and recognizing your window of contention. The Giants shouldn’t be buyers at the 2020 deadline, as their chances of success in the postseason would be slim to none. They simply don’t have the talent or depth to compete beyond a fluke hot streak and could exhaust their future prospects through such false hope. This would set them back from competing when they have a more capable squad in a couple of years
Let’s be clear, no rebuilding team is going to somehow jeopardize their next 5 years by winning a 60 game season this year
The Giants are who they are.
Because they have so many high priced and unmovable contracts they have to dance with who they came with. But with a new manager, don’t expect the unwavering commitment to veterans we’ve seen in the past; we’re going to see a lot more platooning.
Best case scenario: July 2019 x 2 (19-6 record giving them 38-12 with 10 extra games!)
Yes, I’m drinking the Koolaid, even guzzling it. But they’ve proven they can do it before.
“High price and unmovable contracts” like the one Melancon had? hmmmm …
Lip service, everyone tries to win. But Farhan/Harris are too smart to trade good prospects to fill some holes on a team that has no chance to be a playoff force in 2020.
What I can see them doing is taking advantage of teams with less financial strength by trading for established players. Maybe 27 to 31 year olds with a couple years left on their deals that a cost-cutting team would like to jettison in this uncertain climate.
that or taking on money +prospects for guys
As bkaspick said above, and despite what Harris spins out there (which is his job, BTW), the Giants have many pieces to move (Belt, Cueto, Gausman, Smyly, Samardzija, Watson, Gott, Pence, Billy Hamilton, even Yaz and Dickerson) if they don’t get off to a +2 or +3 start by the deadline. For the reasons we all know, Posey, Crawford, and perhaps Longo aren’t movable, although I suspect Longo could move in the right deal to the right team.
Unlike last season, there will be no sentimentality or overestimating of chances this season to stop Zaidi and Harris from backing up the truck if they feel they can net a group of 45FV’s and 40FV’s out of the wheeling and dealing.
I’m anxious to see what Zaidi does this season. I think he is a smart, creative guy and 2020 may be an opportunity for him and the organization to take a giant leap forward.
Their tradable assets won’t bring back MLB ready talent but the Giants could continue restocking their farm system with young, high upside guys at the trade deadline provided they get off to a slow start.
Or, more realistically, Zaidi could do something a lot more imaginative than I am capable of coming up with on my own.
What are the top 3 moves Farhan has made in his 2 offseasons in charge?
there actually were quite a few but off the top of my head yastremski, will wilson and duobon were the best pickups, moving melancon’s salary in full and getting a return was pretty huge
Don’t forget he traded for Pillar.
He traded for Pillar then let him walk for nothing after 1 year and 1 Willie Mac Award. He got rid of Melancon and his 20 million only to turn around and spend half that money on a suspect prospect in Wilson. Is Yaz really a future piece and where is Dubon supposed to play? Dubon is by far the best piece he has gotten and he may not get a chance to play enough to develop. All of this together is the net result of over 100 moves last year. None of these players are likely to be even decent contributors to this team in 3-4 years so what are we doing?
who cares how many moves he made if they delivered quality talent in return. your argument is that some prospects (yaz, dubon, wilson) might not pan out? That’s an argument to literally complain about every team’s minor league/youth development. What’s your point? Factoring in the Melancon and Cozart money, Fahran basically got the Giants Mauricio Dubon, Mike Yastrzemski, Will Wilson, and 10M in exchange for a 35 year old middle reliever. That’s a good get by any standard. That’s also not counting the other prospects in that deal, the Sam Dyson/Jaylin Davis move, or picking up Trevor Gott and Jarlin Garcia for literally nothing.
@pato349 imagine thinking a Minor League player is mediocre after one season smh. Good thing you’re not a GM
The minute Brandon Belt goes on a streak…like he usually does before injury and following it a major slump….they should ABSOLUTELY TRADE HIM!!!!!
If Mitch Haniger is healthy and producing without having missed much of the beginning of this shortened season, he’s controllable through 2022. Luciano would be a nice return for Seattle… a real nice return. Maybe too nice.
San Francisco should probably be trying to rebuild and shed salary, but Mitch would at least be affordable (two more arbitration years left) and could feasibly be extended, or net them a compensation pick.(if the QO is still around).
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH no way SF is giving up luciano for anything – he, Bart Hjelle and ramos are the core that the team is rebuilding around
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, because top prospects are never traded for solid, controllable players that can help them in the postseason, right? And it’s not like other players could be involved, right?
Seriously, was I not clear enough that it would be unlikely? Mitch would have to be 100% and San Francisco would have to be in contention. The former is the biggest stretch.