Why The Giants Can Still Compete After Selling At The Deadline

While the San Francisco Giants have been one of the worst teams in baseball across the last month, they aren’t out of it…yet. While it seems like a long shot, there’s still a fighting chance for San Francisco to sneak their way into the 2025 playoffs.

At the deadline, the Giants committed to a sell and shipped off two of their best bullpen arms and their longest tenured player. When hearing that, many are quick to assume that the team has thrown up the white flag for the season and have no shot at October baseball.

However, in this situation, we might just see a seller at the deadline get hot at the right time and make some noise. Here’s why it’s too early to count out the San Francisco Giants, even after selling at the trade deadline.

The Offense Moves Everything

Earlier this season, the Giants shocked the league as they were one of the best teams in baseball to open the year. They did this with one of the bottom-third offenses in the game. The pitching carried them and there was no sense of consistency in the lineup.

While guys like Heliot Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, and Matt Chapman carried the lineup for the early part of the year, outside of them, there wasn’t a lot going on. Willy Adames got off to an abysmal start after signing a huge contract, while Opening Day starters Lamonte Wade Jr. and Tyler Fitzgerald were so bad, they aren’t even on the Major League roster anymore.

Even a guy like Rafael Devers, who was acquired to push this team into surefire contention, got off to a slow start in San Francisco.

Fast forward to now, and it’s a completely different story. The Giants have won two series in a row, with one coming against a good, but struggling, New York Mets team. While the pitching has been a bit better as of late, it’s been the offense stealing the show.

An encouraging note for this group is that it basically went untouched at the sell of the deadline. Only Mike Yastrzemski got shipped off, and he had been underwhelming for north of the last month.

Right field now looks like a revolving door for young outfield options to show what they can do at the big league level. Drew Gilbert (acquired in the Rogers deal) and Grant McCray are two toolsy, left-handed hitting prospects who should see the majority of the time there.

Now, since July 20th, the Giants have had the sixth-best offense in baseball, per FanGraphs. The group has accumulated 3.3 fWAR and put up a 116 wRC+ during that span. The combination of Willy Adames getting hot with guys like Jung Hoo Lee and Rafael Devers picking it up after slow stretches has resulted in an above average offense.

Willy Adames has been the main driver during this stretch. Since June 15th, he’s been one of the best hitters in all of baseball. Slashing .282/.369/.521 with 10 home runs and 29 RBIs, he’s been good enough for a 151 wRC+. While he’s struggled in August, you expect him to pick it up again.

To add to the fun, there hasn’t been a ton of power, but both Jung Hoo Lee and Heliot Ramos have been amazing since July 25th. Both are hitting well over .300 with Lee slashing .356/.431/.556 and Ramos slashing .327/.421/.347 during that span.

Rafael Devers has also really gotten going since the last week of July with role players like Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt making some nice contributions.

This offense finally looks like the one Buster Posey was dreaming on when he pushed all the chips forward to acquire Rafael Devers.

Lastly, the Giants top prospect and #13 prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB.com, Bryce Eldridge could come up and provide another offensive spark. He’s been tearing up Triple-A since returning from the IL showcasing elite power and the ability to hit to all parts of the field.

The Rotation

This is something that nobody would’ve suspected in May or June, but the pitching is where it gets interesting for San Francisco. While there weren’t any subtractions from this group at the deadline, there also weren’t any additions.

Logan Webb and Robbie Ray have been awesome at the top of the rotation for the majority of the year. For this team to go anywhere, they need to continue to pitch like the All-Stars they are.

However, after them, there’s a few questions marks. Landen Roupp has been out for a couple of weeks with elbow inflammation and should be starting a rehab assignment in the next week or so.

If he can pitch how he had been prior to injury, that pushes this team even further. For a month long span from June 21st to July 22nd, Roupp had the 4th best ERA in baseball among starters (1.37). However, with elbow injuries, it’s hard to predict how somebody is going to come back.

42-year old Justin Verlander is another piece of this puzzle, and has actually thrown the ball pretty well as of late. He recently became just the 10th pitcher in Major League history to reach 3,500 strikeouts. However, he still has just one win to boast across the entire season.

Verlander and whoever slides into the fifth rotation spot, whether it’s Carson Whisenhunt or Kai-Wei Teng, would really have to stabilize the back-end of the Giants rotation for this team to finish strong. Blade Tidwell, who was acquired in the Tyler Rogers deal, is another option to slide in at some point. He’s had an inspiring two starts in Triple-A since joining the organization with a 1.80 ERA in 10 innings with 16 strikeouts.

But with an offense finally looking capable of scoring runs, the Giants don’t need them to do much more than eat innings and keep them in the game through five or six innings.

Webb and Ray do enough of the heavy-lifting for this rotation that you can start believing in this team if a few things go right behind them, and the bats keep clicking. The question then, is if the Giants are going to regret the trades they did make if their bullpen becomes their Achilles heel down the stretch.

Do They Have Enough Left in the Pen?

This group is where the most questions arise for the San Francisco Giants. While they didn’t sell a ton at the deadline, the bulk of it came from the bullpen. They sent off two of their longest tenured players who also happened to be two of their best arms to close a game in Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers.

Giants’ Bullpen Before Play on 8/12:

Now that the chaos of the deadline has settled down, this bullpen looks fine. It doesn’t look bad by any means, but also doesn’t look great. Randy Rodriguez leads this group as he’s been arguably been the best reliever in baseball this year and was named the closer post-deadline.

Ryan Walker and Joey Lucchesi seem to be the high-leverage guys for San Francisco right now, which seems unsettling, but roles will likely change throughout the next month or so. Jose Butto and Matt Gage have both been excellent since putting on the orange and black later in the year and provide the ability to go multiple innings out of the pen.

However, the back three of this bullpen is where things get questionable. Can Spencer Bivens find the success he had earlier in the season? Can Tristan Beck and Carson Seymour establish themselves as real big league pieces?

Erik Miller, who has been great this year (1.50 ERA), is set to return in the next week or so and will provide some much needed help. However, these are real problems. What once looked like the best bullpen in baseball this year is now hanging by a thread and the real question is, is it enough to help propel this team into October?

Final Thoughts

The San Francisco Giants’ margin for error is as slim as ever, and nobody is acting like this is the most talented team in baseball. However, between a surging offense, top-heavy rotation, and some young pieces that can provide a spark, the Giants aren’t quite ready to fall out of contention.

With a Mets team that entered this week coming off a stretch where they lost 11 of 12, and the Reds and Cardinals being who they’ll likely need to pass in the rankings, it seems doable for San Francisco. They have arguably a better roster than the Reds and Cardinals, and need the Mets to continue to struggle for a few weeks. That is, if San Francisco can start piling some wins, of course.

Selling at the trade deadline might have lowered some expectations, but it also put a chip on this team’s shoulder. If the bats stay hot and the pitching can piece it together, the Giants might be able to turn a “lost” year into a surprising run in October.