© Joe Nicholson | 2018 Jul 25
Two days before the trade deadline on July 31, reports surfaced that the Giants had placed Andrew McCutchen on the trading block, and that a number of teams, most notably the Cleveland Indians, were interested in his services. But the deadline came and went, and McCutchen, nor any of the Giants other big name players, went anywhere.
That doesn’t mean McCutchen will still be a member of the Giants when the season ends, however, according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. In fact, Baggarly believes that if San Francisco falters this weekend in their crucial series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, they will look to move McCutchen immediately.
“I’ll tell you what, they lose the next three here, I think they’re done and they probably trade Andrew McCutchen pretty quick,” Baggarly said. “They know they’ve got to do this, every single day. They can’t afford to have a bad series or a bad week anymore.”
While the trade deadline has passed, the Giants can still trade McCutchen as long as he clears waivers, or if he’s claimed, can elect to trade him to the team that claims him.
“There was a lot of discussion around him before the July 31 deadline, nothing compelling enough to make a move, especially when they’re still not out of it. I think if it does become clear that they’re treading water two weeks from now or they haven’t made up ground, or they fall further behind, they have had a number of conversations with teams. Now he would have to get through waivers, but I think there have been enough discussions to where they would have a pretty good idea of where he would be heading, depending on what would happen with a waiver claim, and I do think he would get through most of the teams on the waiver claim.”
Baggarly also explained why the Giants stood pat at the deadline.
“I think that it’s pretty clear that the front office wanted to go into this year to make sure that fans were engaged and they had a team that would give you some hope, but this is not a year they’re going to go all out. They’re not going to mortgage the farm system. Development is the most important thing this year and winning was just a byproduct to sell tickets. Winning as so far as being interesting and not losing 90+ games again.
“I think the front office was definitely in a box. They weren’t going to go over the tax line and they weren’t going to give up prospects to try to support what they have because you know the odds aren’t very good. So it’s just up to these guys to do with what they have. I don’t think that was deflating so much, as much as they thought maybe pieces would be sold off.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Baggarly on McCutchen, start from 2:38.
