This season, Major League Baseball has seen a new trend in the National League West. The San Francisco Giants are in dead last and look as though they are ready for a complete rebuild. They sit a monstrous 40.5 games out of first place and have already been eliminated from the division race with more than a month remaining in the regular season. They have struggled at every turn this year, especially after losing ace Madison Bumgarner to a dirt bike accident three weeks (four starts) into the 2017 season. At the trade deadline, the Dodgers biggest rivals elected to keep their team intact instead of trading or selling off some of their aging veterans to begin a much-needed franchise rebuild.

However, this morning it was being widely reported on social media that the struggling franchise is considering a move which, quite frankly, caught the entire baseball world by surprise. It was reported that the Giants were making the “strongest push” to acquire Miami Marlins slugger and Southern California native Giancarlo Stanton this coming off-season.

This news is surprising for a number of reasons:

First of all, the Giants farm system is probably one of the worst I have ever seen. Having only one prospect in the top 100, who has already been in the majors this year, the team is not ready by any means to use what they have in house to get better in a few years. Due to the lack of talent in the minor leagues, the Giants have absolutely nobody that would entice the Marlins and cause them to trade their best player. And should the Giants make a deal that involves prospects, it would decimate a farm that they really don’t even have at any of their minor league levels.

Second, the Giants made one thing very clear this past trade deadline. They would not, under any circumstances, trade any of Bumgarner, Buster Posey, or Brandon Crawford. I get that. They do not want to trade their three best players so as to have foundation pieces in place when they actually begin their rebuild. Giancarlo Stanton is far and away on a different level than any of these three so-called untouchables. He is hitting close to .300 with 50 home runs at the end of August. Any trade that would send him to San Francisco would most definitely involve at least one and perhaps even all three of these untouchable (and franchise) players. Losing any of these players does exactly what the Giants have purposely been avoiding – breaking up the team’s core.

Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton crushed his 50th home run of the season on Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres at Marlins Park. Ironically, the team that once had all-time single-season home run record-holder Barry Bonds (72) is reportedly pursuing the Southern California native.
(Photo credit: Wilfredo Lee – Click on image to view video)

A trade that would involve their core three players would blow up the process of a rebuild. They must keep these three in the system for they are really all the team has at this point. And sure, people may be able to argue that the Giants will trade their other major league pieces in this deal but that to is flawed. Almost all of their major league talent fall into three types of players.

The first is the untouchables. They require no further explanation because we all know who they are and why they are in this category. The second type are players who are talented but have contracts that are well above their level of performance. Someone like Johnny Cueto, who is signed through 2021 with a massive dollar commitment but owns a 4.59 ERA. Then there is the third group. These are the guys who have dirt cheap contracts but are not valuable to any team due to their level of play. So, say the Giants offered a trade with a handful of type two players, some types three guys, and a couple prospects. The Marlins would never take this deal because they would essentially be taking on dead money and players who are honestly worthless.

Finally, while Stanton would help any team he joins, his contract poses yet another issue. Stanton is signed through 2027 and is still owed roughly 295 million dollars. While the Giants would not be taking on all of this money, they would still be liable for a good chunk of it, thus taking them out of the race for other big name free agents for many years to come. By adding Stanton to the checkbook, the Giants would also be left to pay for their contracts that are already on the books as well as a piece of the biggest contract in baseball.

At this point, here is what we are left with. Say they do make this trade. For arguments sake, it is Giancarlo Stanton for Madison Bumgarner and the top three organization minor leaguers. That leaves the Giants without their best pitcher and leaves them with zero top 100 prospects.

For a team that has lost so much this year, adding the most expensive contract in baseball will not make them contenders again. They will lose whatever remaining trade pieces that they have and will be left with one outfielder who will far outplay his surroundings. The Giants will be removed from the free agent market and that, too, is detrimental to the final stages of their rebuild. And even though Stanton is an incredible player, his potential history-making bat alone will not turn a team with a sub .400 win percentage into an instant NL West contender, especially against a Dodgers team – and farm system – that is built for today and for the future.

Stanton trade or not, Dodger fans are probably safe in not being too concerned about the Giants anytime soon. That being said, it sure would be interesting seeing Giancarlo in a Dodgers uniform, wouldn’t it.

Just saying.