An aside: Ten years ago, hardly anyone cared about the Winter Meetings or the Rule 5 Draft. Today, if a beat writer forgets to put the word "unconfirmed" in big flashing text next to a Winter Meetings rumor, he becomes the mortal enemy of the Yankees Army of Truth, and the Rule 5 draft creates enough buzz to bring down a website (it's back up now). Interesting times.
Back to the main post. If the Giants wanted to trade players from their 25-man-roster players, I'd guess that these are the players who could bring back a B- prospect or better:
Tim Lincecum
Matt Cain
Jonathan Sanchez
Brian Wilson
Bengie Molina
Pablo Sandoval
Fred Lewis
Randy Winn
Nate Schierholtz
Let's see...Lincecum isn't going anywhere...Cain is close to untouchable...the Giants made it abundantly clear that they aren't trading Sanchez...Molina and Winn trades are unlikely, and the possibilities have been talked to death...the Giants need Lewis, Sandoval, and Schierholtz more than other teams, so they wouldn't receive fair value in a trade.... Well, that covers everyone.
Because, I mean, there's no way the Giants would trade their closer.
Right?
Probably not, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun to write about. The Mariners traded their closer, J.J. Putz, yesterday in a 15-team, 43-player deal. Differences between Putz and Brian Wilson:
- Putz is already 30, and he's only under team control for two more seasons.
- Putz has already had two ridiculously dominant seasons. Wilson has had one season that was just fair in every respect except for his save totals.
- Adding Putz to a team boosts that team's jersey sales by 400%. At least, it should.
Maybe it isn't a completely comparable situation. The inclusion of a C+ prospect and Jeremy Reed by the Mariners also screws up any comparison of the two pitchers' respective trade value. Luckily, this site's quality control is in the toilet, so I can ignore all of these concerns.
This all brings us to a long-winded comment starter. Here's the return the Mariners received for Putz, and to a lesser extent, Reed and Valbuena:
That's a lot of quantity, but there's some quality there too. If you're really cynical, you might think that Heilman is a better bet than Wilson just on his own. We don't stand for them cynical, Wilson-bashing types around here, so just keep it to yourself.
Gutierrez is a fantastic defender in center, and he has some power potential. Carp had a high OBP in the Eastern League, though his power and contact numbers will need to improve. Carrera and Cleto are youngsters from the low minors; how they pan out is anybody's guess. Chavez is a great defensive outfielder, and he's a good end-of-the-bench player, while Vargas is an unexciting lefty.
Would you expect more, less, or the same if the Giants were to trade Wilson? Would you even consider trading Wilson for anything less than a young player who would immediately go into the Giants' lineup?