There were no new faces in the Giants’ clubhouse when the doors opened to reporters exactly 24 hours before the league’s Aug. 2 trade deadline.
Carlos Rodón, mind cleared by a fishing outing, was still a Giant.
Joc Pederson’s locker remained, right next to his brother Champ’s.
The Giants, four games out of the wild card before Monday’s rivalry matchup with the Dodgers, must determine whether they want to make a run at the postseason and risk losing players like Rodón and Pederson in the offseason for nothing or trade them to playoff contenders to build for the future.
Earlier in July, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he believes SF has a playoff-caliber roster, and he’d seek to add to it. That was before the Giants’ first 0-7 road trip since 1985 during an 11-17 month overall.
Despite their struggles, and Fangraphs’ 20% playoff odds, the Giants’ clubhouse remain optimistic.
“Everybody in this room believes that we’re still in this thing,” veteran catcher Curt Casali said before Monday’s game.
That room could very well look different tomorrow. Logan Webb, the one player almost certainly not going anywhere, allowed six runs — most in his career against the Dodgers and in a start at Oracle Park — in an 8-2 loss.
The Giants (51-52) will be taking calls through the night and up until the 3:00 horn as a sub-.500 team. They’re 3-7 on the year against their National League West-leading rivals. Monday was the first time the Giants or Dodgers beat the other on the road this year, although Oracle Park was about half-filled with blue anyway.
Shortly before first pitch, a report trickled out that the Giants could hold onto Rodón. During the third inning, the Giants officially completed a trade with the Rays, sending minor league pitcher Jeremy Walker to Tampa Bay for Ford Proctor.
The Giants loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch and two singles in the first. David Villar never needed to take the bat off his shoulder for an RBI walk.
But Los Angeles erased that 1-0 lead quickly, scoring two in the second and three more in the third. Max Muncy smacked his seventh home run at Oracle Park, tied for the most of any visiting player since 2018.
Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith (twice) each doubled off Webb’s slider. By the fifth inning, Webb walked a batter, hit another and allowed more runs — six — as he had in any of his previous starts against the Dodgers.
Wilmer Flores, who becomes a free agent at the end of the season, hit his 16th home run to make it 6-2 in the fifth. He’s been the Giants’ most consistently valuable position player this year, drawing near-daily praise from manager Gabe Kapler.
The image of Flores crying on the field in 2015 serves as a reminder of the human aspect of the trade deadline. Rodón, the Giants’ most likely trade chip, has said he enjoys living in San Francisco and wants to win with the club this year. He also knows that baseball is a business.
“We care about the current state of the Giants, how we can be in the best position to win this game and this series,” Kapler said pregame. “We also care about the future state of the Giants.”
Trea Turner, whom the Dodgers acquired at last year’s trade deadline along with Max Scherzer, socked a homer off Sam Long to put the game away in the seventh.
For the Giants to make those kinds of splashy moves, they have to replenish a farm system that has plateaued at multiple levels this season. If San Francisco moves Rodón and others, it would be with that concept in mind.