© Kyle Terada | 2020 Sep 27
The Jock Blog needs serenity. Now.
Too much stress in the world, as I was just saying to Kyle Shanahan as he looked over his depth chart for the Packers game.
What we need is a good old-fashioned Hot Stove League session, chewing that baseball winter fat — even though it’s not winter, and chewing fat is unappealing, unless you’re Spalding Smails, who famously asked of a dinner mate at the Bushwood CC dinner: “You gonna eat your fat?”
So I’m just sitting there last night on the phone, doom-scrolling, and I come across an SNY piece headlined: “Pros and Cons of Yankees Trading for Giants SS Brandon Crawford.”
Needle scratch.
Wait, what?
I hadn’t even considered the possibility of the Giants trading Brandon Crawford, who of course has a no-trade clause; and who of course is as Forever Giant as any of the Gigantes of the World Series era.
But, times change. Hairstyles change. Interest rates fluctuate. And the next thing you know, I’m taking my eyes off CNN’s John King enlarging the map of Fulton County, GA and I’m reading how the Yankees want to make a change at shortstop, and how Crawford’s veteran presence is valued, and how Crawford is coming off a career-high OPS and how Crawford, with one year left on his contract, would not be a long-term cost.
Wait, what?
I know, I know. It’s just one beat writer’s Hot Stove spitballing, but it got the Jock Blog thinking: Would Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris trade a fan favorite like Crawford — especially if they got a nice prospect in return, to further burnish what they are building for the 2020s in San Francisco?
And would Crawford OK that trade? We put it to Mike Krukow this morning, and he immediately noted that Yankees ace Gerrit Cole is married to Crawford’s sister, and they are close. That would make it a softer landing for Crawford, if he wanted to grant the trade.
To repeat: I am not endorsing this trade. It just started the thought process of what bold moves Farhan could do to continue to build after a relatively successful 2020. Crawford, at 33, is not the team’s long-term shortstop. Farhan did draft Dallas Baptist shortstop Jimmy Glowenke with the 68th overall pick in 2020; and Louisville shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald in the fourth round in 2019.
And then there’s Frankie.
Francisco Lindor, one of the bright stars of the game, is set to be a free agent after 2021, and the Cleveland Indians have put out word that they are willing to listen, given that the smaller-payroll club will not ink him to a big-money deal as a free agent. The Giants are a big money club that will clear a ton of money off the books in the next two years.
Might Lindor, who turns 27 this month, be the apple of their eye? And what package of prospects would it cost? Would you be willing to move prospects from a system that is being rebuilt for one player, albeit a major force who could help you compete against the big, bad, rollicking, swaggering Dodgers — and Padres?
This is just a Jock Blog to get you thinking. Hot Stove stuff. Fat-chewing stuff, but not the Spalding fat-chewing stuff.
Such a necessary distraction from all the rest of the world, baseball chatter.