The middling Giants could do a little bit of everything, or nothing, before the MLB trade deadline on July 30.
San Francisco enters Saturday’s matchup with the 37-37 St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium trailing the 47-31 Los Angeles Dodgers by 10 games for first place in the NL West and the Arizona Diamondbacks by two games for the last wild card spot.
While out of the NL playoff picture at the moment, the Giants aren’t far out of it, and they have over a month to decide whether to try and make a playoff run or to retool for next year, with no one truly aware of their plans, via ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and an anonymous scout.
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" 'Who knows?' Might be the best way to sum up what our experts thought of the Giants' most likely deadline plans,” Rogers said. “Under Farhan Zaidi, San Francisco has kept things close to the vest. The Giants have landed in the muddled middle because they are void of stars in a competitive NL West that includes fellow wild-card competitors in the Diamondbacks and Padres, all of them well behind the division-leading Dodgers.”
"Maybe San Francisco does what Seattle [Mariners] like to do," one scout said (h/t Rogers). "A little buying and selling, but I'm not sure of their direction just yet."
The Giants essentially stood pat at the 2023 trade deadline, and they did for fair reason.
San Francisco was 59-49 and in control of the highly competitive NL wild-card race. However, the Giants would hit a long dry spell, losing 34 of their last 54 games, dropping out of the divisional race and wild card chase.
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Also in 2023, San Francisco was 43-33 through 76 games. Today, the Giants are 36-40.
It’s uncertain whether the Giants will be as aggressive in the trade market as they were when pursuing free agents this past offseason.
Then, Zaidi acquired the likes of Matt Chapman, Jorge Soler, Jung Hoo Lee, Blake Snell and Jordan Hicks. Sure, San Francisco lost out on Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Los Angeles, but the Giants cleaned up nicely.
San Francisco has struggled as of late, but it has shown fight. Only time will tell what the tight-lipped Giants will do before the July 30 trade deadline.