So…What Now?

Aug 8, 2026 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field

by DrLefty

It’s been an extremely eventful and emotional week for the Giants:

  • a frenetic trade deadline which saw six major league players (and one low-minors prospect) leave the team while eight new players–seven prospects and one major leaguer–joined the organization
  • too many roster moves to list (which led to a cascade of promotions at the minor league levels, too); this also resulted in major league debuts last week for Nate Furman and Eddys Leonard, with another one coming for Trent Harris, who was promoted yesterday
  • announcements of season-ending surgeries for both the starting third baseman (Matt Chapman) and the backup third baseman (Casey Schmitt)
  • the firing of long-time Bay Area sports broadcaster Greg Papa from KNBR (Papa, who has been battling leukemia for the past year, was a former studio host for Giants games and also has done some play-by-play for them over the years)
  • the retirement announcement of beloved broadcaster Mike Krukow.

Greek Giant already covered Krukow’s retirement, and I recommend the tribute by John Shea in the SF Standard, The Athletic pieces by Andrew Baggarly and Grant Brisbee if you can access them, this video tribute from former KNBR host/current podcaster Tom Tolbert, and this video compilation of some great Krukow (and Kuiper) moments.

During last night’s game, they did a special moment at the ballpark (one of many, I’m sure) honoring Krukow, and fans responded with a two-minute standing ovation. At home, we got to watch K&K experiencing it together, and both of them getting teary-eyed. It got a little dusty in my house, too. I will say that I’ll probably watch a lot more Giants games (at least home games) than I might have otherwise for the rest of this season.

 

The Trade Deadline

As noted, the Giants were extremely active at this year’s deadline. They had already traded Gold Glove catcher and former first-round draft pick Patrick Bailey in May, and Tyler Mahle was traded to the Braves on Sunday (one day too late to save my birthday game, unfortunately), but the rest of the deals happened on Monday, and a couple at the last minute. Greek Giant covered the Mahle trade, and I’d covered Bailey’s back in May, but let’s break down the entire list.

  • May 9: Giants trade Patrick Bailey to Cleveland for a late first-round draft pick and left-handed pitching prospect Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. The extra draft pick turned into Carson Boleman, a left-handed pitcher drafted out of high school in South Carolina. Wilkinson pitched very well in AA (for both Akron and Richmond) and was promoted to AAA Sacramento, where he’s scuffled a bit but has also had some good outings, and his underlying metrics are good (K/BB rate, WHIP, etc.).
  • August 2: Giants trade Tyler Mahle to Atlanta for right-handed reliever Anthony Molina. This sure looks like a pure salary dump because there’s nothing about Molina’s major league or even minor league track record that is impressive on paper. That said, having traded a bunch of players, the Giants have opportunities to go around, and Molina’s on the 40-man roster, so we’ll see. He’s currently assigned to AAA Sacramento.
  • August 3: Giants trade Luis Arraez and Caleb Kilian to the Phillies for two pitching prospects, Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair. Marquez, by all accounts, is an impressive addition. He was the Phillies #4 prospect and is currently the Giants’ top pitching prospect (at least until recent first-round pick Jackson Flora is added to the list). Gair is a reliever who throws triple-digits and strikes out a ton of hitters but also walks too many. Both pitchers have been assigned to High A Eugene.
  • August 3: Giants trade Robbie Ray to the Padres for right-handed pitching prospect Miguel Mendez and SS Joniel Hernandez. Mendez had gotten as far as AA this year after a breakout 2025 season but was rehabbing at High A for the Padres when he was traded, and he’s been assigned to Eugene. Hernandez, the Padres’ highest-paid 2026 international signee, is just finishing up his first DSL season, where he acquitted himself well at age 17.  And yes, that means the Giants now have four (4) teenage SS in their pipeline (Josuar Gonzalez, Luis Hernandez, and Jhonny Level are the other three). Can’t have too many, I guess(?).
  • August 3: Giants trade Heliot Ramos to the Yankees for left-handed pitching prospect Henry Lalane and SS Kaeden Kent. Lalane is a solid prospect who has already made his first start for Eugene. We watched a couple of innings, and his delivery reminded us a bit of CC Sabathia, but he reportedly idolized Randy Johnson. Lalane is tall (6’7″) like both Sabathia and Johnson. Kent, of course, is the son of our newest Hall of Famer, and resembles his father as a bat-first middle infielder who will probably find his best defensive fit at 2B. However, the younger Kent bats lefty. Both players were assigned to Eugene, though Kent is currently injured.
  • August 3: Giants trade Erik Miller and OF prospect Carlos Gutierrez to the Red Sox for infielder Marcelo Mayer. While most of these trades are pretty intriguing (OK, maybe not the Mahle trade), this might be the most interesting one of all. Mayer was a #4 draft pick in 2021 and a top-25 prospect going into the 2025 season. Along with Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell, Mayer was considered to be part of the young core the Sox planned to build around. But his first two seasons in the majors have been interrupted by injuries and marred by ineffectiveness. Still, he’s only 23 and has a strong prospect pedigree. A lot of observers, including Keith Law, were shocked by the Red Sox punting on him for an inconsistent lefty reliever. Mayer attended the same high school in Chula Vista, CA, that Casey Schmitt is from.

So there you have it: A total of six trades from May to August that brought seven new pitchers (if you count the draft pick that landed Boleman) and three position players into the organization. All are still prospects except for Molina and Mayer. Five of the eight prospects (Marquez, Mendez, Hernandez, Lalande, and Kent) are already on the Giants’ top 30 list, and one would expect that Boleman will join that list once MLB.com updates team lists to reflect draft selections. That is a lot of new quality depth in the organization.

Going into July’s draft, it was clear that the Giants needed to prioritize pitching both in the draft and at the trade deadline, and they did so. Their top three draft picks were pitchers, and they added more new pitchers in trades. To do so, they offloaded all three of their expiring contracts (Arraez, Mahle, Ray), two of their better bullpen arms (Kilian and Miller), and their Opening Day left fielder (Ramos). Ramos was arguably the only one of those to even be a slight surprise. Given the Giants’ terrible season, it would have been ridiculous to hold onto any rising free agents who had value to other teams. As for the two relievers, a bad team doesn’t need a good bullpen–and the Giants have a bad bullpen that had a couple of pieces that contenders valued. Ramos, on the other hand, was a former first-round pick, a homegrown All Star, and under team control for three years after this one. But it appeared that he’d possibly hit his ceiling at age 26, the Giants have other outfielders waiting for opportunities, and it was smart to sell high on Ramos for a good return. Lalane is listed as their #9 prospect right now, and Kent is also in the top 30, so that is, on paper, a good return.

Overall, the Giants did a nice job with their trades. Yes, we might wish they had been able to shed one of their huge infielder contracts (Chapman, Willy Adames, Rafael Devers), but that was always going to be a tough road, so I can’t criticize them too much for not getting one of those done. They also could have really committed to a rebuild by trading Logan Webb or Jung Hoo Lee, but it was clear pretty early on that they didn’t want to do that.

 

What’s Next?

Well, besides a two-month-long goodbye to Krukow and watching more minor league games than usual, there are a few things to pay attention to in what remains (46 games) of this tumultuous Giants season.

  1. Are there any starting pitchers who could be in next year’s rotation? We can assume that Webb, Landen Roupp, and Adrian Houser (in some capacity) will be around, but after that? Trevor McDonald will miss the whole 2027 season after he had Tommy John surgery this past week. Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell are getting auditions. Will there be others? Trent Harris and Carson Seymour were both called up from AAA this week. Seymour has mostly pitched out of the bullpen in AAA this year. Harris had also been a reliever in AAA but was being stretched out as a starter in his last three appearances for Sacramento. In those three starts, he threw 10 innings, gave up 0 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 16(!).
  2. Rule 5 considerations–pitcher edition. One very important point to keep in mind is which players are eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Two AAA pitchers–Wilkinson and lefty Joe Whitman–will be eligible, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if one or both of them got a look. They traded for Wilkinson, and Whitman was a second-round draft pick for the Giants in 2023 and is on their top-30 list, so it would be surprising if they left either pitcher exposed to the Rule 5 draft. That doesn’t mean that either will get called up necessarily–the Giants can simply add them to the 40-man roster after the season–but it means that they could get called up without messing up future inventory.
  3. Are there any relievers worth keeping? My short answer is “No,” but I guess that also depends on what kinds of opportunities guys like Harris, Seymour, and maybe Whitman might receive and how they do. I’ve seen enough of Keaton Winn and Tristan Beck, and I’m not a huge fan of Dylan Smith, either (maybe because I was in Petco on my birthday a week ago watching him get walked off). I guess I’d like to see more of Jason Foley. JT Brubaker or Sam Hentges? Meh. I found it interesting that with all the post-deadline call-ups, neither Spencer Bivens nor Ryan Walker was recalled. Walker, Foley, and Hentges are arbitration-eligible after this season, and Brubaker will be a free agent. I see Walker as a pretty strong non-tender candidate at this point.
  4. What position players will get playing time? This is where it gets complicated. In the past two weeks, the Giants have traded their starting 2B and LF, and their 3B (Schmitt) had a season-ending injury. The lineup is being filled out with Osleivis Basabe, Buddy Kennedy, Nate Furman, Christian Koss, Grant McCray, and Leonard. With the possible exceptions of Basabe and McCray, these seem like fillers rather than serious options for the future. Jonah Cox and Victor Bericoto will likely get added from Sacramento at some point, and it’s worth remembering that Cox had started to play some 2B before his injury. We also shouldn’t forget Jesus Rodriguez, who could return this season.
  5. Rule 5 considerations–position player edition. With both Chapman and Schmitt out for the season, the obvious name to consider is Parks Harber, who just hits and hits and hits and can play 3B and corner outfield. But here’s why we may not see him this season. Harber is not Rule 5 eligible this year, so the Giants would not need to protect him on the 40-man roster for another year. Perhaps that wouldn’t matter in a different season, but with a looming and possibly lengthy lockout, you don’t want to add minor leaguers to the 40-man roster unless you must. Why? Because the minor league season will still continue during a lockout–but minor leaguers on a major league 40-man roster will not be allowed to play or have access to coaching or facilities. This dynamic, you might remember, disadvantaged Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart the last time there was a lockout (before the 2022 season). So as much as we’d like to see Harber, or even 2025 first-round pick Gavin Kilen (who’s in AA), it doesn’t make sense to mess with their trajectories in the final weeks of a lost season. On the other hand, AAA outfielders Bo Davidson, Scott Bandura, and Turner Hill will all be first-time Rule 5 eligible this fall.
  6. The Marcelo Mayer factor. Mayer has been out since late June with a stress fracture in his left forearm, but he’s reportedly almost ready for a rehab assignment. If he can play, it certainly would be interesting to see what they might have in him before next year.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Other than cherishing every syllable that comes from Mike Krukow’s mouth on Giants home broadcasts for the rest of this season, there’s not much about the what remains of the 2026 Giants that’s compelling. But there are at least a few storylines to watch.

 

MyNewGuy™ Mini-Contest!

Because the Giants have added so many new players via trades, HaakAway generously offered to run a short contest for us. On the ballot you’ll find the names of the nine players added via trade. Pick any two (can both be pitchers if you like) that you think will show the biggest year-over-year improvement–same rules as usual. The deadline is Monday, August 10, by midnight, so get your ballots in!

Here’s the link:

Today’s Game

Tigers at Giants, 4:15 p.m. at Oracle Park (TV: FOX)

Jackson Jobe (0-0, —) vs Landen Roupp (7-10, 4.34 ERA)

Not that it matters that much, but the Giants lucked out seeing the Tigers after they traded Tarik Skubal and Casey Mize, and they’re also missing Framber Valdez.

Remember that there will be a pregame Wall of Fame ceremony honoring the homegrown 2014 infield: Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Brandon Crawford, and Pablo Sandoval. Fans attending the game have been told to be in their seats by 3 p.m. Hopefully they’ll show it in real time on NBCS-BA, but if not, it will certainly be on their YouTube channel later.

Oh, and happy anniversary to Crawnik and Mrs. Crawnik, who are celebrating at the game today!  Lefty out.