Checking in on the guys Bobby Evans traded

The trade deadline is upon us, and so as the Giants navigate the space between being contenders and not wanting to embarrass themselves by admitting they’re not contenders, we start to hear about trades. Who could the Giants get? Who might they give up? Will Bobby Evans commit one of his trademark blunders, or will he make one of his should-be-trademark Totally Fine Deals That Still Won’t Breathe Life Into A Corpse?

But there is one more question: who could the Giants have kept? Who could have been on this team if Evans (and the entire front office) hadn’t traded him away? To answer this question, let’s go through all the guys the Giants have traded away since Evans took over to see how they’re doing now.

Side note: I won’t be including anyone who the Giants wouldn’t have had team control over this year (Eduardo Nuñez) or anyone who left and came back and then left again (Cody Hall, Stephen Johnson). This is plenty long enough.

The Casey McGehee trade

Luis Castillo: 108.2 IP, 5.30 ERA, 4.65 FIP, 78 ERA+, 0.8 fWAR, -0.4 bWAR

Kendry Flores: N/A

Castillo’s having a bad year, but he was excellent in 2017 and remains a promising young arm in the Reds rotation. As far as I can tell, Flores has not pitched professionally since failing a Cardinals physical before the 2017 season. But hey, when you’re getting a .300 hitter like Casey McGehee, you gotta give up some talent!

Mike Leake

Adam Duvall: 358 PA, 15 HR, .202/.282/.399, 81 OPS+, 0.5 fWAR, 1.2 bWAR

Keury Mella (AA/AAA): 102 IP, 3.09 ERA, 97 K, 37 BB

Duvall rebounded a bit after an extremely rough start to the year, but his overall numbers are still way down from where he’d like them to be. Still, his strong defense in left field helps him have some value, which, considering that he was an offense-first third baseman when he was a Giants prospect, sure is a surprise.

People don’t remember this now, but when the trade happened, there was a general feeling around here of, “Oh, the Reds did it to get Mella and Duvall was almost a throw in.” And now Mella just might be coming along too. After a great start to the year in AA (9.21 K/9), he’s moved up to AAA, where in his first three starts, he hasn’t had the same strikeout numbers (5.29 K/9), but also, it’s three starts, and he still has plenty of promise.

Also, Mike Leake had a great start against the Giants yesterday.

In conclusion, that trade could have gone better.

Alejandro de Aza

Luis Ysla (AA): 60.2 IP, 4.60 ERA, 69 K (nice), 39 BB

Ysla’s bounced around several times since the Red Sox acquired him, which makes sense because, well, he was the prospect who went in a last-minute August deal for Alejandro de Aza. He was never gonna be the crème de la crème. And now he’s in AA with the Orioles, showing his live arm with his strong strikeout numbers, but also showing his wild side with his high walk numbers.

Eduardo Nuñez

Adalberto Mejia (AAA): 62.1 IP, 3.32 ERA, 61 K, 20 BB

Now, Mejia’s also made two starts in the majors this year, totaling 9.1 innings (he has a 4.82 ERA, but again, 9.1 innings), so those aren’t his only numbers. But he’s been a solid starter in AAA so far, and his only barrier to entry is that the Twins don’t have a spot for him in the rotation. With Ervin Santana coming back soon, they still might not, so back to AAA for him, even though that’s probably not where he should be.

Will Smith

Phil Bickford (A+): 17 IP, 5.82 ERA, 20 K, 10 BB

Andrew Susac (AAA): 158 PA, 6 HR, .256/.405/.456

The Brewers have turned Bickford into a reliever, and the results have not been stellar thus far. The Brewers also, in February, traded Susac to the Orioles for a PTBNL. Susac mashed for the Orioles’ AAA team in Norfolk, got called up to the majors, hit .115/.115/.154 in 26 PAs, and got sent back down to Norfolk. The good news for him: possibly still better than being on the Orioles.

Matt Moore

Matt Duffy: 361 PA,4 HR, .301/.355/.392, 111 OPS+, 1.5 fWAR, 1.7 bWAR

Lucius Fox (A+): 379 PA, 2 HR, .282/.363/.354

Michael Santos (A): 26.2 IP, 4.05 ERA, 33 K, 14 BB

I don’t think Giants fans are too hung up on this trade, so I won’t waste too much time on it.

Kidding! Jokes are good. I like jokes. Duffy’s having a very 2015 Duffy year, though defensive metrics don’t like him now quite as much as they liked him then. Fox isn’t struggling in High A, but he isn’t not struggling either; the Giants have Jalen Miller in San Jose, who’s just six months older than Fox and is having a better season, and also isn’t going to touch a Top 100 Prospects list this offseason. Their scouting profiles are different, but please remember: even though the Giants spent a lot of money on Lucius Fox, that doesn’t mean he’s guaranteed to be anything in the majors.

Santos was the wild card in the trade, and after the Rays released him in March, the Angels picked him up.

Sam Dyson

Hunter Cole (AA/AAA): 386 PA, 15 HR, .299/.370/.487

Cole was raking for the Rangers in AA, and it’s been a bit more of a struggle for him since his promotion to AAA, but it’s not like he’s doing terribly.

Dumping the salary of Matt Moore

Matt Moore: 71.1 IP, 7.70 ERA, 5.06 FIP, 0.2 fWAR, -1.6 bWAR

Hey, remember Matt Moore? Remember how he was, uh, not great at pitching last year? Well, he’s even more not great at pitching this year, and the Rangers moved him to the bullpen. Things ... haven’t gone well for him.

Still got some pretty sweet eyebrows though.

Evan Longoria

Denard Span: 328 PA, 8 HR, .261/.348/.417, 1.5 bWAR, 1.0 fWAR

Christian Arroyo: 59 PA, 1 HR, .264/..339/.396, 0.3 bWAR, 0.2 fWAR

Matt Krook (AA): 54.2 IP, 4.61 ERA, 65 K, 36 BB

Stephen Woods: N/A

Span’s offensive season has been a lot like last year’s. His offense is thoroughly cromulent, but his defense has improved from Bad all the way to Less Bad. Now, a big part of that is the fact that he’s not playing center anymore; he’s played one inning the all year, compared to 584 in left. Still, he was a nice player for the Rays, and then got traded to the Mariners, and has been a nice player for the Mariners.

Despite the fact that I included his major league numbers above, Arroyo’s actually spent more of the year in AAA, and he hasn’t been all that good there. There, in 114 PA, he’s hitting .198/.246/.315, which is probably not what the Rays were hoping for when they made him the centerpiece of the Longoria deal.

Krook is still showing the same great stuff-no control dichotomy he did in the Giants organization, and Woods has been injured all year.

Andrew McCutchen

Kyle Crick: 38 IP, 2.13 ERA, 2.74 FIP, 1.0 bWAR, 0.9 fWAR

Bryan Reynolds (AA): 219 PA, 4 HR, .269/.356/.414

Crick is having a great year out of the bullpen, and while xFIP doesn’t like him quite as much as some of those other stats — it’s certain his home run rate is bound to tick up — he has still been exactly what the Pirates have been hoping for. Reynolds is having a very Giants Outfield Prospect Gets To AA For The First Time season, with his numbers starkly declining from his time in San Jose. It’s very nice of him to remember his roots.

PTBNL or cash

Sweet, sweet Engelb Vielma (AAA): 43 PA, 0 HR, .184/.256/.289

Vielma was also in the majors this year, getting 8 plate appearances and having a single and a walk to show for them. But he’s been on the minor league DL since mid-May with a knee injury, and so all the many fans that Vielma collected in his two different stints in San Francisco will just have to wait for him to return, and hope that when he does, he’s back to the electric talent that they fell in love with in the first place.

Dumping the salaries of Cory Gearrin and Austin Jackson

Austin Jackson: N/A

Cory Gearrin: 7.1 IP, 3.68 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 0.1 bWAR, 0.0 fWAR

Jason Bahr (A+): 8.1 IP, 4.32 ERA, 8 K, 3 BB

Jackson was DFA’d by the Rangers pretty much immediately, and was just picked up by the Mets today, so he hasn’t played yet (Sorry about all the metsiness, Austin). And as much as you might want to try to drag some meaning out of what Gearrin and Bahr have done, they’ve pitched a combined 15 innings, so discussing them like their stats matter would be on the Mount Rushmore of not understanding small sample size. But if you’re wondering how they’re doing, well, there are numbers for that. Feel free to look at them and pretend they have any predictive or analytic value.

And that’s it! As always, if I missed someone, it’s because I put that particular bit of content at the site of one of our ad partners. Feel free to click on all the ads to go find it.