Giants beat writer extraordinaire Andrew Baggarly of the San Jose Mercury News joined Murph and Mac on Monday morning, to give a look ahead on what is sure to be an extremely important offseason for the Orange and Black.
Coming off a 98-loss season and in a division that sent three teams to the playoffs, the Giants will have to make significant changes to their roster if they have any hope of being competitive in 2018. Adding the likes of Giancarlo Stanton would certainly be a significant move, and it’s been rumored for months that the Giants are one of the favorites to land the league’s best power hitter.
Baggarly called a Giants trade for Stanton a possibility — though a bit of a longshot — but did say if a deal is going to be done, don’t be surprised if it happens sooner rather than later.
“Anything can happen at anytime in terms of a trade,” Baggarly said. “I think the Giants have done as much as they can to set the groundwork by letting the Marlins know that we are very, very interested. The trick is they were doing it with the old administration before the sale went through. Now that Derek Jeter has operational control I’m sure they’re going to be reaching out and talking even before the GM meetings and we’ve seen the Giants when they want to do something, they strike. Whether it’s something really good or really bad, however it turns out.
“I think the A.J. Pierzynski trade was made at the GM meetings way back in 2003. So I wouldn’t rule out something happening at the GM meetings to be honest, maybe even something big, because the Stanton trade might hold up all of baseball, all of the free agent market, and I think the Marlins are probably going to be aggressive and try to flesh out this market and see where it stands relatively quickly. They’ve got no reason to wait around.”
Baggarly also threw out another big name from the Marlins that San Francisco could look to add to the deal.
“I’ll tell you what else,” Baggarly said. “If the Giants can get Dee Gordon, and find a way to add him to the mix, cause he’s a guy that the Marlins are looking to trade, he could be a great fit as well. They need to get more athletic.”
Gordon, 29, played primarily at second base for the Marlins. So what would that mean for Joe Panik?
“Well I think he’s a second baseman and then maybe you have Joe Panik who could be possibly expendable,” Baggarly said. “Not that you would look to do that but you look to see how these pieces fit and how one move can dovetail into the next and you think well gosh if they want to get a little less left handed, and a little faster, and add some more power, then maybe there could be something that makes sense there.”
Gordon is coming off a decent season at the plate where he hit .308/.341/.375 and led the league with 60 stolen bases. Gordon is a two-time All-Star and excellent defensive player, winning both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger in 2015.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Baggarly’s comments on Gordon, skip to the 8:30 mark.