The San Francisco Giants sit 3.0 games out in the National League Wild Card, and the expectation is for them to be buyers.
There are multiple areas the Giants will have to improve, but landing pitching, in the rotation, and bullpen, should be the priority. If San Francisco can find an impact bat, that’s also a great idea to pursue, but after all of the injuries they’ve dealt with on the mound, there’s a clear need for adding arms.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been the hot name on the market, and someone often linked to the Giants. However, he isn’t expected to be traded.
Despite that decision from the Toronto Blue Jays, that doesn’t mean they won’t sell other pieces. There are a few players on the Blue Jays roster who can help contending teams, and San Francisco was urged to land one of them.
TJ Ruckus of FanSided listed three players they should target from Toronto, including relief pitcher Yimi Garcia.
“The options for Blue Jays players with expiring deals remain sparse, however. Of those expiring contracts, Yimi García should intrigue the Giants most.
“With the amount SF has struggled on the mound this season the 33-year-old righty makes sense. Though the sample size is small, his 0.78 WHIP is astonishing and his career mark of 1.05 would place him amongst the best in the NL.”
Ruckus alluded to the Giants bullpen pitching way too many innings, which is due to a few different reasons. With all of the injuries they’ve dealt with to their rotation, starters haven’t always been able to go deep into outings.
“The Giants certainly have a need for bullpen help. They lead baseball with 379.2 innings pitched by the bullpen in 2024.
“Though, that number is skewed to some extent with the use of bulk-innings pitchers. That said, they have struggled to the 4.34 ERA. Bullpen help is an area nearly every team looks to address at the trade deadline.”
In the 2024 campaign, Garcia has thrown well, posting a 2.57 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and has 37 strikeouts in 28.0 innings pitched.
Adding an arm like him helps the bullpen, but also shouldn’t require them to move high end prospects along the way.
That should be the plan for the front office with the deadline approaching unless they get a package they can’t refuse. With multiple impact players potentially being traded, they could find themselves having to move some of their top prospects for those players.
Wasting it on a relief pitcher wouldn’t be a great idea.
