Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs just landed the most coveted prize on the trade market, making them an even more dangerous playoff opponent for the San Francisco Giants.
Aroldis Chapman is heading to the NL Central powerhouse — who boast the best record in baseball — and Chicago’s improved bullpen should impact what the Giants do during the rest of the trade deadline. After coasting in the month of June, San Francisco’s coming off a 1-7 road trip. The front office is going to have to look hard in the mirror and assess whether this current roster is strong enough to win a championship.
Ultimately, the Giants did not want to unload a starting player and a top prospect for one of the best closers in baseball. The team have been in a reported wild goose chase to upgrade their bullpen. Santiago Casilla has blown five saves on the season, the unit has battled a beehive of injuries and late inning pitching has been the Achilles heel thus far in 2016.
If the Giants lose in the playoffs because of their bullpen, GM Bobby Evans will take the brunt of the blame. This is a game of chess against the Cubs, and one wrong move could cut the season short.
There’s a new name that has emerged on the Giants wish list and it’s a familiar Bay Area name.
Huston Street, the former Oakland Athletic and current Los Angeles Dodger, is drawing serious interest from Evans and the Giants front office, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle.
There’s a problem with Street: he’s having the worst season of his career, and would arguably be adding more question marks to the bullpen than solutions. He’s got a 5.03 ERA, a 5.03 K/9 (a career-low) and just eight saves thus far. The Angels have been reluctantly using him late in games, and they’ve paid the price when they have. He’s 33 years old and appears like he could be out of gas, or at the very best, inconsistent with his location just like Matt Cain and Jake Peavy have been in 2016.
There are more names from Schulman.
“Among the possible targets are Philadelphia’s Jeanmar Gomez, Milwaukee’s Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith, the Angels’ Huston Street and even San Diego starter Andrew Cashner, who could be converted to relief. The Giants have checked on all of them.”
Again, the problem is that none of these names “move the needle,” which Evans told KNBR would be a priority in a trade. Convincing the fan base on converting Cashner as a reliever without any bumps in the road will be an impossible sell.
Of course the championship-laden Giants love the core of their roster, and it looks like they would not be willing to give up on Matt Duffy or Joe Panik and a top prospect in exchange for a lethal late inning arm. But this time, their road to the World Series will include toppling the Cubs and likely the Washington Nationals, who are flourishing despite a mediocre season from Bryce Harper. These ball clubs are flanked with Joe Maddon and Dusty Baker at the helm. This is going to be a dogfight all the way until the end, including for home field advantage.
Johnny Cueto was a free agent signing, but he was a big risk for the money, and he’s been worth every penny. There are similar big fish the Giants can bring in. It will cost players, but the reward could be another parade in late October.
Evans needs to live up to his words if and when he pulls the trigger on a trade: bring in someone bigger than Huston Street. Bring in a needle-mover.
