SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants might know better than anyone how dominant Yusei Kikuchi can be when he's on his game. The left-hander struck out 13 when the Toronto Blue Jays visited Oracle Park earlier this month.
When Kikuchi was traded to the Houston Astros on Monday night, the industry was stunned by the return for the Blue Jays, who got two young position players and a young starter in return. The consensus over the last couple of days was that sellers did quite well, led by the Miami Marlins, who dealt a mid-rotation lefty to the Baltimore Orioles for two members of their deep stable of young hitters.
As the returns started leaking out, the Giants seemed well-positioned to take advantage of Blake Snell's dominance over his last four starts. Snell was the best pitcher potentially available and the Giants are two games under .500, but they never got close to dealing the reigning Cy Young Award winner.
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"I think the conversations we had with teams, it was kind of going to be that two-, three-, four-player package with nobody that we would say, 'Hey, this guy is going to be our third baseman or shortstop of the future without question,' " president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said on the latest "Giants Talk." "Some nice players, and you never know, the more shots you have with young players, the more chances somebody kind of skyrockets through the system and becomes that guy.
"But it was going to be a package of possibilities and not something where you say, 'Hey, we're locked in with this guy for the next six years.' That's where we never really got close to anything."
The Giants fielded plenty of calls and made some of their own. For as much as Zaidi believes this is the best rotation in baseball, he knew there also was an opportunity to add a big-time prospect to Patrick Bailey, Heliot Ramos, Tyler Fitzgerald, Jung Hoo Lee and others. But nobody met the price and forced the Giants to think about whether they wanted to put up the white flag.
The Giants talked to the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, San Diego Padres and others, per sources, but were met by roadblocks. Several of Baltimore's top prospects were off-limits, and the Padres refused to discuss their top two prospects, teenagers Ethan Salas and Leodalis De Vries. The Astros seemed like a good fit before they made the Kikuchi trade, but they had no interest in dealing with Snell's contract. Even then, the package they sent out for Kikuchi wouldn't have intrigued the Giants in Snell talks.
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Snell signed a two-year, $62 million contract in March that includes an opt-out after this season. He is owed $30 million next year, but the contract was a complicating factor, just as Carlos Rodón's was two years ago at this time.
If Snell keeps pitching as he has in July, he's a lock to opt out. If he gets hurt or struggles, a buyer would be on the hook for next year's deal. Like with Rodôn, it made it hard to line up on a deal.
"Honestly, I just think it complicates the market because teams don't quite know how to view it," Zaidi said. "Maybe there's a really small percentage of a chance of an injury, but then you feel like you're responsible for what's a pretty big salary, so you don't think about the really high percentage that he pitches the way you expect him to pitch and he's probably going to go to free agency.
"I think there was some similarity [to Rodôn]. In this case, again seeing the way our rotation pitched over the weekend, we were more compelled to keep this group together. I think that's probably the biggest takeaway. We were a little bit less motivated. We needed to be a little bit more compelled to do something to move in a different direction."
The Giants left the door open to be blown away. They believe they can make the playoffs behind this rotation, but had certain prospects been offered, they would have dealt Snell and gone in a different direction. The offers were more quantity than quality, though.
They'll now hope to get to the playoffs in part because of veterans who might play themselves into interesting decisions. Like Snell, Robbie Ray and Matt Chapman have opt-out clauses.
"They've obviously got decisions to make about what they want to do," Zaidi said. "I guess you can't get paralyzed by it [at the deadline]. I think in the case of those three guys, they're really good players and I think they're primed to play really well down the stretch."
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