The San Francisco Giants are heading into sell mode, and Robbie Ray is the biggest piece they have to move.
Ray has bounced back nicely from the injury issues that derailed his Mariners tenure. He has been throwing well, putting up the kind of strikeout numbers that made him a Cy Young winner with Toronto. The Giants are getting real value from him, and that value is now likely to be cashed in by August 3.
The Giants are not where they want to be. The roster is expensive, the production has been uneven, and the front office is exploring ways to move major contracts. Jung Hoo Lee, Willy Adames, Rafael Devers, and Matt Chapman have all been mentioned in early offseason trade chatter. Ray is the one most likely to actually move at the deadline.
This is the cost of all-in spending without playoff results. The Giants pushed hard the last two offseasons and built a roster that was supposed to compete in the NL West. The Dodgers and Padres have been better. The Diamondbacks have been pesky. San Francisco has finished outside playoff position more often than not, and now the front office has to recoup value before the contracts get even harder to move.
Ray’s appeal is that he is a left-handed starter with strikeout stuff and a Cy Young pedigree. Contenders pay premium prices for that combination. The Dodgers would love another lefty for their playoff rotation. The Yankees need any starter they can get. The Blue Jays would consider a reunion. The Phillies are always looking for left-handed depth.
The Giants’ challenge is timing. Ray needs to stay healthy through July. He needs to keep posting strikeout numbers. The asking price drops dramatically if he has a soft outing or two in mid-July.
Logan Webb is the bigger conversation San Francisco needs to have. He is the franchise. Trading him would be a full rebuild signal. The Giants reportedly are willing to listen on Webb, but the bar is going to be much higher than what they would accept for Ray.
The Devers situation is its own headache. He is on a long-term contract with a partial no-trade. He has not produced the way the dollars suggest. Moving him is going to require eating money or accepting a return that is mostly salary relief.
For Ray personally, this is a chance to land somewhere with playoff stakes. He has been good but stuck on bad teams for much of his career. Going to a contender for the last two months and pitching well in October would set him up for another big payday in free agency this winter.
The Giants get the prospects they need to start the next contention window. The contending team gets a real starter for October. Ray gets a chance to chase a ring. That is a clean three-way win.
San Francisco fans should brace for a busy month of July. The Giants are not going to dump every contract, but they are going to take real swings at moving the guys who do not fit the next iteration of the roster. Ray is the headline name. Others will follow.
The deadline is August 3. The clock starts now.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
