On Friday afternoon, the San Francisco Giants announced they traded left-handed pitcher Matt Moore to the Texas Rangers in exchange for a pair of pitching prospects.
The move frees the Giants of an obligation to pay Moore $9 million in 2018, and also allows San Francisco to slide young homegrown pitching prospects like Chris Stratton, Ty Blach or Tyler Beede into the rotation.
On Monday morning, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic joined P-Con and Mac on KNBR and told the hosts that aside from being able to slot cheaper, younger talent into the rotation, the trade of Moore gives the Giants increased flexibility as they work to form a roster with a payroll that will be under the competitive balance tax threshold in 2018. While sliding under the CBT ceiling wasn’t necessarily critical for San Francisco before Giancarlo Stanton was traded to the Yankees instead of the Giants, general manager Bobby Evans now sees the potential benefits it could serve the franchise which explains the trade of Moore.
“You see how important teams recognize it is to reset your penalties because the Yankees are doing it, the Dodgers are doing it, the biggest spenders in the game are doing it,” Baggarly said. “You understand that a lot of smart baseball people know that this is the way to go because you’ve got a ton of really good free agents out there next year and if you can get under the tax and reset those penalties, then you’re not going to be paying 50 percent on your overage and for the Giants it means you’re not giving up as many draft picks with those penalties. So they’re really looking toward the future with this move and it doesn’t mean that it’s a fire sale. It doesn’t mean they’re going to start selling off everybody.”
The Giants are three-time repeat offenders in surpassing the CBT threshold, meaning that they would pay heavy tax penalties next season and be subject to losing draft picks in a year in which San Francisco is slotted to pick second in each round. With several holes to address including at center field and third base, the Giants’ trade of Moore frees up additional salary to deal with some of the team’s issues.
“Basically they held a lot of meeting and they came to this consensus: We have to fix the outfield defense and we have to get a run producer who can hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Baggarly said. “They tried for Giancarlo Stanton and once it didn’t work, it was okay, we definitely have to stay under that competitive balance tax threshold of $197 million.”
By dumping Moore’s salary on the Rangers, the Giants are now working toward building for the future with an eye on short-term and long-term goals. In the immediate future, San Francisco is looking to contend in 2018 and now has more money to throw toward a potential impact free agent. Over the long haul, the Giants are hoping to position themselves with enough financial flexibility to make significant plays for free agents in a loaded 2018 class, which could alter the direction of the franchise for years to come.
“It’s about both,” Baggarly said. “They realize that plugging another hole in the rotation, sure that does create a hole but they feel pretty good about what Chris Stratton did toward the end of the year, they think that Tyler Beede is coming soon, Andrew Suarez, they like him. And they figure, okay, we can find a way to plug that hole in the rotation and this gives us nine more million to plug holes that we absolutely have to plug before Opening Day. Whether it’s trading for Billy Hamilton or getting another defensive center fielder. Maybe they’re in a position where they could sign Todd Frazier or Jay Bruce. Maybe this gives them the ability to sign both of them. We’ll have to see what their markets are. It just allows them to be more competitive in addressing some of the needs that we know they have now.”
To listen to Baggarly’s conversation with P-Con and Mac, click the podcast link below. To hear Baggarly’s comments on the Moore trade, start from the beginning of the episode.