The Giants pulled one their biggest overhaul at the trade deadline by trading away the following players:
- Luis Arraez: to the Phillies
- Caleb Kilian: to the Phillies
- Tyler Mahle: to Atlanta
- Robbie Ray: to the Padres
- Heliot Ramos: to the Yankees
- Eric Miller: to Boston
- Carlos Gutierrez (MiLB): to Boston
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In all, the Giants acquired many teams’ Top 5-10 players. Here is the haul:
- Ramon Marquez RHP, assigned to High A (From Phillies)
- Marty Gair RHP, assigned to High A (from Phillies)
- Antony Molina RHP, assigned to AAA (From Atlanta)
- Miguel Montez RHP, assigned to High A (From Padres)
- Jonial Hernandez SS, assigned to DSL (From Padres)
- Henry LaLane LHP, assigned to High A (From Yankees)
- Kaeden Kent IF, assigned to High A (From Yankees)
- Marcelo Marquez IF, currently on IL in (From Boston), but once healed, he should be starting at 2B or 3B for the Giants.
The Giants have not, to my memory, ever traded away so many MLB roster players at the deadline. And most of them are in A-ball, or basically lottery tickets for the most part, though they have shown some potential to be major leaguers and hence are top 5-10 prospects for their former team. . And some are likely prospects who could have been DFA or put through Rule 5 draft in the offseason instead of holding a 40-man roster spot.
What’s Going On?
Reading the tea leaves, the Giants is adjusting the roster to align better with Bryce Eldridge’s (hopeful) ascent to superstardom in the coming seasons. Ray, Mahle, and Arraez are typical pending free agents trade targets, but Ramos, Kilian and Miller all have 3-5 seasons of control for their new teams. Basically, they become free agents before or around the next great wave of prospects (Level, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Martinez, Cayama) reaches their MLB peaks.
They each have reasons for the Giants to trade them. Money is an obvious answer for Ramos and Miller. Both should be arbitration eligible after this season. Kilian is already old, for a baseball player.
Heliot Ramos is good but not great, and there are many outfielders here (Bericoto, Cox, Gilbert) or coming (Davidson, Jordan) who will need opportunities to learn how to play in the MLB. And with Lee now handling RF, the Giants needed to open up LF for all these prospects. And CF already open due to Bader’s poor health and then his poor judgment by drunk scootering and running into a fire truck that then ran over his foot. Moreover, Ramos still has potential to be better, he made the All Star game with great hitting, which is part of the reason why the Yankees gave up so much for him.
Caleb Kilian and Erik Miller are relievers with enough skills and experience to warrant good prospects in return. Miller has been injury prone, but very good when healthy, and that’s very valuable, especially being a lefty. Kilian is showing good skills and has performed well in his first full season. But he’s already in his late 20’s, how much longer does he have? Both will boost their new teams’ bullpen backend this season.
Next Competitive Team
The next competitive era for the Giants will be commencing in the 2028-30 timeframe, hopefully. Our top prospects should be either up or learning how to be an MLB player, then hopefully in a few years more, reach their peak performance level. The list is long, longer than I can remember ever happening before: Gonzalez, Hernandez, Level, Kilen, Davidson, Jordan, Bresnahan, Martinez.
And Eldridge just left the rankings recently. Plus, we have other young major leaguers in Whisenhunt, Birdsong, Butto, Randy Rodriguez, Peguero, Tidwell, Susac, Cavanaugh, Gilbert, Bericoto, Cox, Jesus Rodriguez, all vying for playing time in 2027 and beyond.
2027 is Transitional
And that’s why I see 2027 as another transitional season, where the main objective is developing young players further. I should have realized this for 2026 when both the rotation and the bullpen were full of question marks. You could not rely on any of them for a good floor of production in 2027, other than Butto maybe, who has the most MLB experience of this bunch, but is coming off a serious injury (blood clot) and that affected Beck a lot.
Meanwhile, hopefully Eldridge takes another step forward. Less strikeouts while still hitting well are the things he should work on. Being more consistent with his hitting is another. If he can make steps like these, he’ll turn into our next superstar player who the team can build around. But some rookies go through a sophomore jinx and have a down season, so we will see. The good news is that StatCast expected stats says his hitting is real, so the question becomes this: can he continue to do this well?
We also have no set expected rotation beyond Webb and Roupp. Unfortunately, McDonald is likely to be out for most of 2027. Prospects like Tidwell and Whisenhunt, will be fighting to win rotation spots the rest of this season. And perhaps one of the prospects acquired in trade.
They have been starting Harris, stretching him out, so he might be getting a chance to start in MLB. Maybe the Giants pursue a SP in free agency who is a good middle rotation SP. Or trade for one in the offseason. Schmitt should be healthy by then, so he might net a SP in return.
Same with the bullpen, it is in flux. Foley, Hentges and Smith are the obvious incumbents for now. That’s five reliever spots to find. And I would not bet against them trading Hentges in the offseason, he’s been up and down this season.
Best New Prospects
I am not going to cover all of the players acquired, just the ones who are the jewel of each trade or look interesting (ranking is per The Athletic):
Ramon Marques RHP (Phillies): The 20 YO #4 prospect had a great season in A-ball, and a 1.68 ERA in a couple of levels, with 93 strikeouts in only 59 innings. That’s great for a 20 YO, who is much younger than the league.
The Giants are excited, as he was targeted but they were not sure a deal could be worked out. His repertoire includes a good fastball/changeup combo, accentuated by above average command. This FB/CU combo gives him a high floor, at worst a solid reliever, but if he can add another good pitch, a solid starter.
Antony Molina RHP (Atlanta): The 24 YO was in the AAA this season,after Atlanta picked him up in a waiver claim from Colorado. He has had an okay season with AAA this year, 3.64 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 54.1 innings pitched. He has pitched in the majors and did not do all that well. Perhaps he will be better as a reliever. Still, not a bad return for Mahle, since the free agent didn’t do much for the Giants.
Miguel Mendez RHP (Padres): He was the Padres #4 prospect. He has missed time this season due to injury. And this shoulder problem could be a problem long term. His calling card is reaching 100 MPH last season, but again, shoulder problems could prevent him from reaching that again. He is already on the Padres 40-man roster, due to his breakout last season.
Joniel Gonzalez SS (Padres): He was their Top 10 prospect, #9, and signed to a $1.4M contract in the 2025 IFA. He is only 17 YO, and played in the DSL this season. They feel like he’s on par with Gonzalez and Hernandez, in terms of potential. As with any teenager in the minors, he’s a lottery ticket you hope you can cash in on. With Mendez, that’s a good haul for Ray.
Henry LaLane LHP (Yankees): he was their #5 prospect. Another prospect missing time with shoulder problems, but is only 22 YO, so there’s still time to develop. He’s 6 foot 7 inches, and (a theme with Posey) has average or better command, ie just throw strikes, which appears to be Posey’s motto.
Kaeden Kent IF (Yankees): he was their #13 prospect. The 22 YO is the son of Hall of Famer Jeff Kent, and is now with the team on his father HoF cap. He has solid tools but nothing that sticks out, other than that he’s a contact hitter (a skill that Posey has been collecting in the minors). And his season in A-ball is okay but not great, even though the league average age is also 22 years. He will need to prove it at each level, in order to make the majors.
Marcelo Mayer IF (Boston): he was ranked the 15th best prospect in Top 100 rankings last year, and in Top 15 for the prior 3 years. Given this constant ranking amongst the Top 100 prospects, he’s the biggest get of these trades. Unfortunately, injuries have set him back, and he has been injury prone thus far. Plus he hasn’t performed well in the majors so far.
He is likely to be out of options soon, having spent some time in the majors so far. He probably gets to start at 2B or 3B for the Giants once he plays some rehab games over the next week or two. He could win the starting 2B role next season, allowing the Giants to continue to use Schmitt as a utility player.
Giants Farm System Improvement
Overall, this greatly helps restock the Giants farm system with pitcher prospects who could be back of rotation starters or relievers with one or two really good pitches. There are now a lot of lower minors pitchers with potential, to go with a lot of lower minors position players. There is more of a balance now.
The system was filled with interesting position players, but pitchers who are on the Top 30 has been sparse. These trades, plus the draft signings, helps replenish the lower levels of the minors with interesting pitchers, with the trades nabbing 5 interesting pitchers both in the upper minors, as well as the lower minors, looking for an opportunity to show what they can do in MLB .
