Tuesday BP: Trade Deadline Identity Crisis

Good morning, baseball fans.

We’re about a week out from the trade deadline and, well, it’s hard to exaggerate the dichotomy of emotions that fans of the San Francisco Giants have experienced in the last two weeks. After an underwhelming June, the Giants seemed to come to life right before the All Star break, taking three of four against the Milwaukee Brewers.

As Carlos Rodón said at the time, though, the timing was not great. Any momentum the Giants had gained was immediately halted by the break, and the first series back was absolutely abysmal. Like Nelson Muntz constantly laughing at you on a loop in your brain levels of awful.

As understandable as it is to be frustrated by this year’s team, I think it’s important to not be too reactionary. A lot of perceptions about the 2022 team are likely shaped by a recency bias based on how otherworldly good the 2021 team was.

They’re still within striking distance of a playoff spot, even if the division is long gone. So while I can understand people being frustrated and wanting to blow the team up, it’s kind of hard to justify that at this point.

As our former fearless leader, Grant Brisbee, wrote on The Athletic, next season isn’t looking so great either, at least on paper. So this could be the best team we have for a while.

Which, to me, makes the decision of what to do at the trade deadline even harder. Because I’ve seen some truly terrible seasons of Giants baseball where I would have given anything for them to be in the mix for a wild card slot. This team, while lacking in a lot of ways, is not currently that bad.

But it still could be.

Which is a tough position to be in, for the front office. Doing nothing at all is the worst option, so the organization is going to have to make a decision as to whether they take a gamble on this season working out better than it has so far, or if they take a gamble on the future by selling at the deadline, tanking whatever potential is left in the current season in the process.

And I don’t envy that decision. Because I’m honestly not entirely sure which direction would be better.

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants play the Arizona Diamondbacks again today at 6:40 p.m. PT.