I’m a Josh Osich fan. That is, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be an excellent reliever for a long time, and he just needs a little polish. That written, I’m not sure about him facing Adrian Gonzalez with the bases loaded in Game 5 of the NLDS. Also, you know the Giants are facing the Dodgers in the first round of the postseason, right? Good, good. Start drinking now.
Point being, it’s entirely reasonable to expect the Giants to get a new left-handed setup option. It’s extremely unlikely that Javier Lopez goes anywhere — he has tenure and has given at least some indication that he can have sustained success in the majors. That would leave Osich (along with his 4.13 ERA and bullpen-high six homers allowed) as the odd arm out.
And it’s why this rumor makes sense:
#SFGiants focused on relievers right now. Boone Logan of #Rockies is one of them. (Would be an in-division trade, of course.)
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 21, 2016
The only two times that the Rockies and Giants have swapped players, the Giants came away with Ellis Burks and Marco Scutaro. If you’re a things-happen-in-threes zealot, you’ve already made the deal in your mind.
Logan is a large 31-year-old having a very nice season, striking out 31 of the 100 batters he’s faced, which works out to a strikeout percentage of ... uh ... well, that’s not important. He has strikeout stuff, and he’s had it for a long time.
If there weren’t a downside, he would be Andrew Miller, so here’s the downside: He can get froggy with his command, usually walking four batters for every nine innings he pitches. This is his first good season since 2013, too, with some injuries mixed in between, so it’s not like he’s been a paragon of consistency. We’re 25 innings into the Boone Logan renaissance. He's a free agent after the season, too.
As you might expect, he has substantial platoon splits. We appreciated Jeremy Affeldt’s ability to pitch well to both lefties and righties while he was here, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have appreciated it just a little bit more.
Conclusion: Eh, if nothing else pans out, fine, whatever. As in, this would be a 11:59 trade, the one that’s agreed to in principle in case the big fish get away from the Giants and the other teams flake on the Rockies. Logan would probably make the bullpen incrementally better, and a minimal improvement would be no more than a consolation prize right now.
Back that hypothetical scenario of the 2016 NLDS, with Adrian Gonzalez and Corey Seager coming up. Is Logan the pitcher who would make you suddenly comfortable in that situation? No one would. And maybe that’s the point. It might be why the Giants don’t do a thing at the deadline, after all.