Last week, Craig Mish of Sirius XM in South Florida reported that the Giants had made an official trade offer to the Marlins for NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton. That offer apparently included second baseman Joe Panik, as well as Tyler Beade and Chris Shaw, the teams’ No. 2 and 3 prospects respectively.
Veteran MLB reporter Bob Nightengale doesn’t buy that report, and told Gary & Larry on Monday morning that the Giants guffawed when they saw it.
“I know those reports came out last week about Panik and two of their top prospects and the Giants laughed at the report saying it was completely off base,” Nightengale said. “That there was absolutely no truth to it. So why guess around?”
Nightengale speculated that because the Giants are both willing and likely to eat a large portion of Stanton’s $295 million contract, what they send to the Marlins in return will likely be minimal.
“I think it’ll just be some fringe type guys,” Nightengale said.
“The bottom line is if you take on this kind of money, you don’t have to give up so much at all in terms of prospects. All the Marlins are trying to do is get him off the books. They don’t really worry about the players coming back, just the money coming off their checkbook.”
Nightengale was the first to report that the Giants were frontrunners to land Stanton this offseason over a month ago, and doubled down on that opinion Monday, saying if he had to bet he’d say that Stanton either goes to the Giants or stays in Miami, and that the Dodgers are not a real factor in landing the outfielder, despite his wishes to play there.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Nightengale on what the Giants would give up for Stanton, skip to 13:50.