On Saturday afternoon, Robbie Ray made what was almost certainly his last start as a San Francisco Giant, throwing six scoreless innings and earning the win. The final tally on his Giants career: 59 starts, 329 2/3 innings and a 3.58 ERA. He had the misfortune of playing for the franchise during one of its more fallow periods, but he will be remembered as a Good Giant™.
Ray should be the Giants player you think about the most this deadline, and not just because he’s likely to be traded. He’s also someone who can remind you of a very important lesson when it comes to this Giants roster, and it goes something like this: It’s hard for a contract to be completely untradeable. Just look at how the Giants acquired Ray.
You can almost see what Seattle Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto was thinking when he traded Ray for Mitch Haniger and Anthony DeSclafani in January 2024. If he was going to pay tens of millions of dollars to someone, he might as well pay it to two players who could help right away, instead of a single pitcher recovering from Tommy John surgery. It’s true that when all of them were healthy, that Ray was the best player, but immediacy counts for a win-now team like the Mariners were at the time.
It wasn’t a complete disaster for the Mariners. Haniger was just as bad for them as he was for the Giants, except he got twice as many plate appearances, but DeSclafani was flipped for Jorge Polanco, who became a helpful player for them. If you assume that Polanco wouldn’t have re-signed with the Mariners without the trade, you can count his WAR from 2025. That brings his value to the Mariners close to what Ray gave to the Giants.
Before acquiring Ray, the Giants were not thinking they could trade either Haniger or DeSclafani. I never thought to write an article about their trade prospects. They were as immoveable as players could be, right up until they were moved.
There isn’t always a Jerry Dipoto to out-wacky your front office in a wacky pageant, but sometimes there is. (And it might even be Dipoto again. The wacky stuff seems to be working for him.)
Consider the teams that might match up with the Giants’ larger contracts (Willy Adames, Matt Chapman and Rafael Devers). There are more potential buyers than you might think. Let’s look at a few. (Note: All salary figures are approximate. I’m not getting a calculator out for you.)
Atlanta Braves
Underperforming positions of note: SS (21st-ranked WAA), 3B (22nd)
Underperforming players still owed a lot of money: Austin Riley, 3B ($132 million), Sean Murphy, C ($30 million)
Players they might consider: Willy Adames, Matt Chapman
You might remember Riley as a young go-getter who was constantly making All-Star Games and such. In a recent article detailing his slump, however, The Athletic commenters weren’t as charitable:
• “He’s killing this team right now”
• “His approach at the plate looks lazy and uninspired”
• “Has he had a vision exam? Would love to know”
• “get a haircut and shave !”
Well, that last one was certainly uncalled for. But you get the idea: Braves fans are past the point of being sentimental. You’ve been there with your favorite Giants. And if you think the Braves’ front office is sentimental, remember they essentially swapped Freddie Freeman out for Matt Olson after winning the danged World Series.
So if they’re looking for a shortstop, and Adames, with $155.7 million left on his contract, is available, and they’re convinced that Riley needs a change of scenery, at the very least … bingo bongo, you got yourself the start of a deal, baby.
Except there are complications stacked upon complications with a lot of these scenarios, so start there. Adames and Chapman have full no-trade clauses, so even if the Braves are interested in either of them, if they don’t feel like going to another team, they don’t have to. This is also the case with a few of the other players on would-be trade partners.
Austin Riley has underperformed the last two seasons in Atlanta. Would the Braves be interested in a change-of-scenery deal involving Riley and either Willy Adames or Matt Chapman? (Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
While Riley-for-Adames makes sense on at least some abstract level for both teams (a younger player in Riley, with Casey Schmitt moving over to short), it’s still ludicrous and far-fetched, of course. Just like Ray-for-Haniger. (Mike Yastrzemski is making a little more money than the Braves might want to pay him next season, if you really want to get weird.)
On a more realistic note: The Braves could look to target Chapman instead, and if they aren’t sure about their willingness to pay for Chapman’s remaining $100 million, Sean Murphy’s remaining salary would be a possible offset. He’d be a fine complement to the assortment of young Giants catchers, buying them time if they need it, especially defensively.
Seattle Mariners
Underperforming positions of note: 1B (29th), 3B (24th)
Underperforming players still owed a lot of money: Luis Castillo, RHP ($43 million), Josh Naylor, 1B/DH ($81.2 million)
Players they might consider: Matt Chapman, Rafael Devers
Acquiring Luis Castillo wouldn’t just be a way to help offset Chapman’s contract; he’d be exactly the kind of comeback candidate the Giants would want to round out their rotation after doing … something more to it. Perhaps a lot more to it. Regardless, it’s not hard to envision a rotation with Castillo in it (and Casey Schmitt starting at third).
That’s boring, though. And Dipoto doesn’t do boring unless he has to. See ol’ Josh Naylor up there, making all sorts of clams? Now match that with the next section, where the Mariners are 29th out of 30 teams in offensive production from first base. If the Mariners aren’t going to get anything for their money, why not pay twice as much for Rafael Devers and get some production out of the position? No, that doesn’t make sense to me either, but Dipoto does his own math, don’t worry about it.
Naylor has a full no-trade clause, and I can’t imagine he’d be thrilled to play at Oracle Park. He might also have trouble making friends, who’s to say? If he were on any other team but the Mariners, it wouldn’t be worth bringing up, but we’re talking about the original architect of the Ray-for-Haniger deal. He’s an ideas guy.
Philadelphia Phillies
Underperforming positions of note: 3B (30th), SS (29th)
Underperforming players still owed a lot of money: Aaron Nola, RHP ($98.3 million), Trea Turner, SS ($190.9 million)
Players they might consider: Willy Adames, Matt Chapman
The Phillies’ lineup is horrible right now. They have the best starting pitching in baseball by WAA, and it’s not that close, but they also have the 29th-least productive group of position players. Most of their everyday players haven’t just been below average, but in the bottom fifth of all players. If they had even the Giants’ lineup, they might win 100 games this season.
They’re also over the luxury tax, so they wouldn’t just be on the hook for however many millions the Giants are sending over, but the penalties on top of that. Luckily (?), they have concerning contracts of their own, namely Nola’s and Turner’s. Nola’s biggest problem — allowing home runs — might be something the Giants are willing to work with.
Turner is two years older than Adames and has almost $50 million more left on his contract. The Phillies could shake things up, save money, get younger and get the higher producing player this season. Perhaps there would be other parts going back and forth, a Robbie Ray here, an Andrew Painter there, things of that nature. Get creative. There are no wrong answers, here, especially considering that it’s the people taking your jobs who will eventually have to deal with the messiest parts.
There’s a lightning round of teams that almost have matching players, but not quite. The Boston Red Sox will pay Masataka Yoshida and Trevor Story about $50 million next season combined, but it’s tougher to stuff two players on a roster that wants to get a lot younger. The New York Yankees don’t owe Ryan McMahon that much, and the Miami Marlins paid down the back end of Giancarlo Stanton’s contract enough to make him a relative bargain in his twilight years. Also, he hates the Giants and would never allow himself to be sullied by this franchise.
Also, please note that the St. Louis Cardinals can just, like, afford all these players. Their biggest contract is Dustin May, and he’s an impending free agent. If they want a Devers, they can simply opt to trade for him and pay his salary. Chapman is so Cardinals-coded it hurts. They might give him a bonus on top of his existing contract, just as a gesture of goodwill. They can trade for both of them and Ray, too. Heck, see if Harrison Bader still has a condo there.
The chances of any of this happening? Low. Really, really low. The Giants’ trade deadline will have some more predictable action, and that should be enough for everyone involved. Still, it’s forever possible to point to the Ray-for-Haniger trade and shrug your shoulders. Remember when that happened? Maybe one of those will happen again.