Zaidi Could Sell at Trade Deadline Amid ‘Disappointing’ Giants Season originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area
The Giants don’t have a clear direction less than three weeks before the July 30th MLB Trade Deadline.
San Francisco enters Friday’s series opener against Carlos Correa and the Minnesota Twins with a 45-49 record.
What was supposed to be a bounce-back season – with several free agent additions including Blake Snell, Matt Chapman, Jung-Hoo Lee, Jorge Soler and Jordan Hicks joining the mix – has been a turbulent campaign with very few soft spots.
President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi offered a rigorous assessment of the Giants while speaking with KNBR 680’s Tom Tolbert and Adam Copeland on Thursday.
“Look, we’re four games under .500 right now,” Zaidi said briefly after the Giants lost 5-3 for the Toronto Blue Jays at Oracle Park. “We have great stories, [Heliot] Ramos, Logan Webb making the All-Star team for the first time. But overall it was a real disappointment. I think we invested a lot of chips in this team. We have well over $200 million in payroll. I think we need the players to show us what the right direction is for us.”
Most fans and experts expected San Francisco to buy before the negotiation deadline to make an NL-Wild Card push, but given the way the team is playing, Zaidi did not rule out going in the other direction.
“If we show signs of life and feel like we’re one step away from actually running, that will dictate things,” Zaidi told Tolbert and Copeland. “If we continue to play the way we have over the last five days, we’re going to have to think about selling and looking at some younger players, because when I talk to Giant fans, that’s what you hear a lot about, you know, they’re so excited about the guys that might be here for the next five or six years and we have a lot of those guys coming to Sacramento now than with the guys that are, maybe they’ll be free agents at the end of this year or next year.”
O Giants finish the first half with three games against the Twins and then will have 11 games after the All-Star break before the 3 pm ET trade deadline on July 30.
So they have 14 games to show Zaidi that he is worth adding to this squad.
“These are an important two or three weeks for us and I want us to have strong direction as we head into the final days leading up to the trade deadline,” Zaid said. “And obviously how we play between now and then will determine that.”
The Giants selling veteran pieces at the deadline would be an impressive development, but they have players who could help opponents down the stretch if that’s the direction Zaidi is forced to go.
