Eduardo Nunez plays at the hot corner. His name, too, is burning on the hot stove as teams across the league have are reportedly interested in trading for the Giants’ third baseman.
The Giants, surely, are picking up the phone and listening to offers. It’s the natural thing to do when your team is 25 games under .500, out of the playoff hunt, and Nunez is an upcoming free agent.
However, if the Giants make a move before the July 31 trade deadline, Nunez should NOT be the player that the organization deals. Instead, he should be part of the retooling the Giants will undergo for the 2018 season.
“We’ve never discussed tearing this thing down,” Bobby Evans told Gary Radnich and Larry Kreuger on KNBR last Wednesday. “The question is whether we can readdress issues this offseason to get us back to where we need to be. To tear it down is just a hard thing to consider since these guys are in their prime.”
When Evans is talking about “these guys,” he may be focusing more so on homegrown talents like Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and Madison Bumgarner. Additionally, Nunez may not be part of the long, long-term vision for the Giants.
But it’d be a mistake not to have him in the orange and black when the Giants take the field in the 2018 season.
For a lineup that has struggled as mightily at the plate like the Giants have this season, it’s not a terrible idea to bring back the guys that are hitting .300. The Giants only have two such players. Buster Posey is one of them, and he’s not going anywhere.
The other? Nunez. After going 2-for-5 on Monday, Nunez bumped his average up to .307. Without taking away from the All-Star season Posey has put together, he knows when he heads to the ballpark that he’ll be penciled in the No. 4 spot in the batting order.
Nunez, on the other hand, has started games in five different spots in the batting order. Not knowing how the rest of the 2018 lineup will shake out, knowing that Nunez can be placed near the top or bottom of the order and still produce is valuable for manager Bruce Bochy.
Nunez is just as dangerous on the bases as he is in the plate. San Francisco is 20th in the league this season in stolen bases. Nunez has 17 of the 47 bags the team has swiped this season, 10 more than the next highest player (Gorkys Hernandez has seven). The Giants will hardly be burning rubber in 2018, but losing Nunez removes a threat on the basepaths that opposing pitchers constantly keep an eye on.
His versatility at the plate carries into the field, as well. Although he’s played primarily at third base, Nunez has taken the field at shortstop and at both corner outfield positions. In fact, Nunez has played more games in his career at shortstop than he has at third base. One hopes it doesn’t happen, but if Crawford goes down for an extended time on the disabled list, Nunez can transition over to short. The same can be said for Joe Panik at second base, where Nunez has experience playing as well.
If all goes to plan next season for the Giants, 2017 will out to be just a down year and they turn it around in 2018. Even so, it’ll take some time to find the right combinations to make it work. Having a player like Nunez that can hit in multiple spots in the order and be able to play all over the field makes it much easier to find that right fit.
One of the central arguments for trading Nunez is to make room for young and upcoming prospects like Christian Arroyo, Ryder Jones and Austin Slater. That’s fair, and bringing back Nunez doesn’t mean the Giants won’t give these young guys a chance to contribute on the big league club.
Bringing back Nunez doesn’t leave the door wide open for a prospect to take a starting spot, but instead creates a healthy competition that will result in the best players taking the field.
Arroyo is still believed by many in the organization to be the long-term answer at third. But if the Giants are looking to retool as contenders in 2018 like they’ve expressed, they know what level of production they’ll get from Nunez. The same can’t be said for a player like Arroyo or Jones.
Nunez told The San Francisco Chronicle in June that he hopes to return to the team.
“I really like the team,” Nunez said. “I really like the group we have right here. I really like how they treat me here. It’s first class, everything.”
The Giants have been in a year-long slump since trading for Nunez last season. So it says a lot that he has still enjoyed his time with the organization and wants to stick around. Of course, it’s a business, and the Giants might not bring him back. But for a team, again, that is looking to “retool,” having a productive veteran that would like to stay is an asset they should want to hold onto.
Additionally, Nunez has dealt with hamstring issues that have surely hurt his value in possible trades. The Giants likely won’t be getting top-tier prospects in return if they decide to trade Nunez. If there’s any scenario in which the Giants see them bringing back Nunez, they should hold onto him.
With all this being said, the Giants can’t be blamed if they get a couple teams in a bidding war and deal Nunez. His trade value has been increasing since the All-Star break, and it’s natural in the baseball life cycle to look to deal a player in Nunez’s position.
But the Giants shouldn’t force a Nunez trade. The veteran is a versatile player who wants to return to the organization, willing to play the “super-utility” role, and most importantly, do whatever is asked of him to help the team win.