With Major League Baseball’s trade deadline now two weeks away, the San Francisco Giants will be fielding as many calls as they can from now until July 31.
Though San Francisco won’t part with building blocks like Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Brandon Crawford, the Giants could part with a number of different assets that interest contending teams, and that includes 28-year-old reliever Hunter Strickland.
According to a report from Chris Haft of MLB.com, the Tampa Bay Rays are showing interest in the Giants’ right-hander, as the organization had a scout in attendance for Strickland’s outings at Petco Park on Friday and Saturday evening.
Strickland tossed back-to-back scoreless outings coming out of the All-Star break to drop his earned run average down to 1.91 on the season, and he could become redundant in the Giants’ bullpen when closer Mark Melancon returns from the disabled list.
After San Francisco acquired former Rangers’ closer Sam Dyson at the beginning of June, Dyson has revitalized his career with the Giants and now looks like he could be the set-up man moving forward when Melancon comes back from a lingering elbow issue. If the Giants are comfortable parting with a bullpen asset, Strickland could yield an intriguing return in a deadline deal.
The Rays’ bullpen ranks 20th in the Major Leagues with a 4.37 ERA this season, and are tied for second place with the New York Yankees in the American League East. Both the Yankees and Rays are 2.5 games back of the Boston Red Sox, and all three AL East teams are expected to be buyers at the trade deadline.
