Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
First Farhan Zaidi wanted to focus on the additions the Giants will make soon. The ones who won’t require offloading talent.
Evan Longoria should return after his crash with Brandon Crawford; Tommy La Stella is restarting his rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento on Friday; Brandon Belt took ground balls before the game at Oracle Park. On the pitching side, Logan Webb was starting Friday against the Nationals; Aaron Sanchez is expected to take a turn Saturday with Low-A San Jose as his starts-and-stops rehab assignment starts again; Reyes Moronta is progressing and could be a wild card in the next few months.
All of whom are good candidates to require a spot on the 26-man roster, which has been filled with performing players. For a team with the depth that the Giants have flexed, there will be decisions if/when a good portion of that depth has to be stored in Triple-A. Those additions are closer to the front of his mind than potential trade-deadline possibilities.
The 54-32 Giants have risen to the top of Major League Baseball with this group, and shaking it up externally can have repercussions.
“We really like our team. We like how the pieces on this team fit,” Farhan Zaidi said in the Giants dugout during a 25-minute interview with beat reporters. “[This is] some of the best clubhouse team chemistry that I’ve ever been around.
“Anytime you talk about those [trade] moves, it’s kind of fun to speculate, but there’s a very real impact on the clubhouse. Even if something is a move that makes sense on paper, it’s disruptive to the team dynamic, and you just have to think through that.”
Which is not to say the Giants will be idle during the July 30 trade deadline. But Zaidi, with all the caveats that come when club executives talk publicly before the trade deadline, was not signaling big splashes are on the way.
It is still possible, though, and the president of the Giants indicated the rotation is his biggest concern.
Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto have led one of the best rotations in baseball, and options behind them have included the enticing if twice-injured Webb; the enticing if now-injured Sammy Long; the just-activated Tyler Beede and the rehabbing Sanchez.
There is no rush to shore up the staff now. Talks will pick up after this weekend’s draft.
“I would say, projecting out, what I’m most worried about is the starting pitching,” said Zaidi, whose worries could be intensified after last year’s 60-game season. “…That’s the toughest area to cover if you wind up having issues. It’s just the most important thing to maintain continuity.”
The Giants, who recently saw Scott Kazmir leave for the Olympic team, are vulnerable at Triple-A and could use more depth arms. They also could step up and make an offer for, say, Minnesota’s Jose Berrios, Detroit’s Matthew Boyd or, hell, Miami’s Sandy Alcantara. There are a few pitchers out there who could be had and figure into a playoff series, and the Giants have the prospect capital to land significant help. Zaidi allowed the team is in a “different place” than the past couple years, with a club gunning for the pennant and a minor league system that has pieces to cash in. Still, he emphasized they want to be careful with their system.
The added lure of having a starter controllable beyond this season is not an added lure, Zaidi suggested. Gausman, Wood, DeSclafani and Cueto all are set to become free agents.
“That’s not really a priority,” Zaidi said, about a potential starter being under contract for beyond this season. “I think our priority if we go the starting pitching route would be to find the best fit for this team right now.”
What Zaidi and the Giants are seeing is that the group they have now has several members who would be worth retaining, although especially with the All-Star Gausman, there will be a hefty price tag.
“The way we’re playing, I think we’re going to be motivated to keep a lot of these guys beyond this year,” Zaidi said. “We think about that as much as we think about what we might do in the next three weeks — how do we keep this group together that’s had so much success.”