There are likely to be some trades amidst an interesting offseason in San Francisco. As Buster Posey looks to put his stamp on the roster, a few veterans could find themselves in trade rumors. Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote this morning that the Giants are making LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski available. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly similarly wrote last week that Wade, Yastrzemski, and former closer Camilo Doval could be in play on the trade market.
All three players stand as logical trade candidates. The hitters are headed into their final seasons of arbitration and are one year from free agency. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Wade for a $4.7MM salary, while Yastrzemski is projected for a lofty $9.5MM sum. Doval is projected at $4.6MM for his first of three arbitration seasons. Dealing him would be selling low on a talented arm, but the righty pitched himself off the MLB roster in the second half. If he doesn’t rebound next season, he’d be a non-tender candidate going into 2026. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the Giants had received interest from multiple teams on Doval.
Of the two hitters, Wade would have greater appeal. The 30-year-old first baseman is more affordable than Yastrzemski and gets on base much more consistently. Wade is coming off a .260/.380/.381 showing through 401 plate appearances. He has a .258/.376/.401 slash over the past two seasons. The lefty-hitting Wade has posted plus OBP marks against left-handed and righty pitching alike.
Few players draw more walks or get on base as consistently. While there’s value in that plate discipline, Wade doesn’t have the power associated with most first basemen. He hasn’t topped 18 home runs in a season and hit just eight longballs this year. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes that some within the organization view first base as an area for upgrade. They’d presumably look for a more traditional power bat.
It’s a solid free agent class for first basemen. Pete Alonso and Christian Walker headline the group. They’d certainly add power, but both players would require draft pick and international signing bonus forfeitures as qualifying offer recipients. Alonso and Walker are on track for multi-year deals — potentially five or six years in Alonso’s case — which doesn’t fit well for San Francisco. The Giants’ top prospect, Bryce Eldridge, reached Triple-A before his 20th birthday and could get to the majors by the end of next season. Signing one of Alonso or Walker would lock up designated hitter once Eldridge arrives.
If San Francisco wanted a short-term stopgap, Paul Goldschmidt or Carlos Santana are one-year options. Goldschmidt is coming off a middling offensive season. Santana had a nice year for the Twins but has some similarities to Wade as a first baseman without massive power. Josh Naylor, Ryan Mountcastle, Nathaniel Lowe and Yandy Díaz are potential trade candidates who are down to their final year or two of club control.
The Pirates, Astros, Yankees, Reds and Nationals are some of the teams that could gauge Wade’s availability. San Francisco should be able to net a mid-level prospect if they move him. They might have a harder time matching up on a Yastrzemski deal. The left-handed outfielder could just as easily be a non-tender candidate before next Friday’s deadline.
Yastrzemski hit 18 homers with a .231/.302/.437 slash through 474 plate appearances this year. It was the fourth straight season in which he was around league average offensively. He grades as a solid right field defender but is stretched in center. Yastrzemski is a reasonably productive player, but there might not be much of a market for an arbitration salary pushing $10MM in his age-34 season. The Giants wouldn’t get much in return if they did find a team willing to tender him a contract.
Trading or non-tendering Wade and Yastrzemski would knock around $14MM off next year’s payroll projection. A Doval trade could push that to roughly $19MM. Baggarly reported last week that the Giants planned to reduce payroll after exceeding the luxury tax threshold in 2024. They can do that without trading any of their arbitration-eligible players. RosterResource calculates their tax number (including arbitration estimates) around $183MM, nearly $60MM shy of this year’s spending level. A few trades would create more room for free agent strikes for a shortstop and potentially top-end starting pitching.
At shortstop, San Francisco has already been connected to Ha-Seong Kim and is one of the best on-paper fits for Willy Adames. They haven’t been closely connected to any pitchers, though Passan suggests they’re likely to be in the mix for Max Fried. San Francisco has been loosely floated as a potential suitor for Juan Soto, but Jayson Stark of the Athletic reports (on X) that they’re not among the teams that currently have a meeting scheduled with the market’s top free agent.
The Giants have a history of doing some strange things in the offseason but perhaps with Zartan gone things will be different.
Are they gonna try and compete in 2025? If not yeah trading those 2 makes sense. I think they will trade Doval regardless.
Please explain how trading doval makes sense
Him and the team were having some problems and they were made public. The Giants can trade him and then sign someone else. It would help team chemistry.
They weren’t though. He got demoted to triple a with no issues. Please explain where you heard this
There were issues. Ask Giants fans.
So you’re lying lmao. What’s the next lie?
Ask a Giants fan. Give it a shot someone will clear up your confusion.
I know that Giants announcer Mike Krukow slammed Doval a couple of times. I think Melvin was more concerned about results than tantrums. I would expect him to get traded.
The issue was with Melvin. If you watch the Giants and I watched almost every game, you’d learn from Kruk and Kuip that Melvin wasn’t pleased with Doval’s demeanor or results.
Doval was sent down and came back a new man, said he’d do whatever the team asked.
With the rise of Ryan Walker and the plethora of good young arms Doval has become expendable.
I would argue the problem is Melvin. Doval was struggling but there was no good reason to demote him to the minors. Melvin allowed more stink to fester for longer on the team this season.
To save money for better players. We have pitching depth
The Giants are going to start operating like a small market team and there fans won’t be able to do a single thing about it.
Mid-market team more like. You basically have 3 types of teams, big, mid and small- big is like 100mm over the tax, mid floats around 50 below and small are ungodly low like the A’s that pretty much are the cost of one player on a big market team
If you remember the Giants in the late 70’s and early 80’s then you know. Never been this depressed as a baseball fan. None of it matters with the Dodgers being able to do whatever they want and get all the best players
Never been this depressed? You have 3 rings in the last 15 years Mariners fans will take your depression with joy
I see this as more of a reset. They see the writing on the wall with the Dodgers and Padres being arguably the 2 most talented teams and the D-Backs just a year removed from a pennant. The Giants probably understand it’s going to take a few years to build a team capable of competing with that. No sense in keeping guys on the wrong side of 30 if that’s the case. Whenever their window re-opens, I’m sure they’ll start spending again.
Sure, there’s going to be a bit a payroll reset but they will still try to contend this year. And I think that reset is for this year – not for a “few years”. They’ll continue to develop from within, but they’ll also spend to compliment building a contender as those opportunities arrive – both this year and beyond.
Posey wouldn’t have signed up for anything less than a full commitment to winning. Screw the Dodgers, Pads, and Snakes, it’s going to be on for the rest of this decade – count on it.
So they’re gonna do something they’ve literally never done. Got it
Every time I see LaMonte Wade’s name I get the Sanford and Son theme song stuck in my head.
Hopefully they don’t call him dummy.
That should be his walkup song.
Late Night Lamonte WELCOME TO SAFECO! Exactly the kind of band aid Jerry goes for
“”Jerry goes for”…Jerry Dipoto did not become the “King of Lateral trades” for nothing and yes Lamonte is the kind of player that’s right up his wheelhouse.
Your expression at the end there gave me a chuckle.
Pretty sure you were going for ‘in his wheelhouse’ or ‘up his alley’.
“right up his wheelhouse” sounds like a colourful way of expressing shoving something up someones hindquarters.
“Shove up your wheelhouse!” In the Stanley Office meme format.
Sub .400 slugging 1b and a RF’er that is now overpaid through arb? Giants must be fighting off suitors with a bat.
“Fighting off suitors with a bat”…A wet paper towel is really all that’s required.
Fair, but wade was at .485 obp before he got hurt in the first half tbf
FartPocket, First of all, Wade has a career .411 SLG. Not every 1B has to be a power hitter. What’s the difference between a 1B with a a high .400 SLG, and a sub .300 OBP, and one with a low .400 SLG and an OBP of .350+? Wade was 19 to 22 points above league average depending on your preference of OPS+ or wRC+.
Yaz is the perfect 4th OFer for a contending club. Like Wade, he’s a LHH playing in one of the worse parks in MLB for lefty power. 18 HRs is decent for a LHH at Oracle. He’s a solid all-around player. Good D in RF, can play CF in a pinch, has a strong accurate arm, has good speed, and is a solid base-runner. He’s not an AS, but there aren’t many AS OFers available for 1/$10M. A contending team with deep pockets could do a lot worse.
If Yankees get Soto and a Snell/Burnes/Fried, get a guy like Wade for 1st base and see if RF short porch is a difference maker.
$10MM is far too much for a 4th Ofer.
Yaz is a non tender. He’s worth about $5-6.
Statistically theres a pretty significant difference. SLG ha a clear higher correlation w run scoring than OBP. So what drives someone’s OPS matters. But i gee your point, he still has value and mire than some are giving credit for.
Ma4170, I agree. Between 2 guys with the same OPS, I’ll take the guy with the higher SLG. But if both have a fairly high OPS, then both still have value.
Too much emphasis is put on HRs. One of the reasons I think the Giants were bad last season, is the hitters trying to hit the ball out no matter the situation. I saw too many big HR swings, with men on, and 2 outs. that simply resulted in the 3rd out.
Agree… its like guys forget that XBH increase SLG not just HR
Glad you were able to decipher my first message through the typos
Reds…only as an outfielder, and honestly, I don’t see it.
The Giants probably should have traded Wade at the trade deadline. At the time, he was slashing 292/.420/.395. After the deadline, he was .213/.316/.310.
That pre-deadline OBP must have been attractive to quite a few teams. I was surprised he wasn’t dealt.
Wouldn’t be surprised if teams balked at the asking and were proven right.
El Kabong, Post deadline time span is 2 months. Wade played in all of 44 games. A small sample that was probably influenced by his health at the time. His career OPS+ of 115, in 438 games with SF, is much more illuminating that the last 2 months of last season. Unlike your typical fan, any team that might be interested in Wade isn’t going to be swayed much, one way or the other, by 44 games.
Would love to see the Giants actually rebuild. They stand no chance against the Dodgers, especially after LA gets Roki. Honestly baseball is dead in the Bay Area. Never been this depressed as a baseball fan.
“Giants actually rebuild”..Who knows, maybe they strike gold with Buster. Because all that’s needed is a few years and a good, nuanced GM/POBO.
Is baseball dead because last time I was there it was disgusting. Feels like blue politics has killed the business there and they have all moved to north Texas we’re I am. Go Rangers!!!!
DrProfSPS
Los Angeles has blue politics and they don’t even see your Rangers in the rear view mirror. It isn’t politics that built either the Dodgers or the Rangers, it is a combination of big spending and shrewd decisions.
In short, the Giants’ issues have nothing to do with politics. From 2010-2014 they were top dogs. That was only a decade ago. They are now an expensive 0.500 team in a stacked division. No shame in that, just a step to work from.
Every big city has nice parts of town and undesirable parts of town. Baseball stars live in the nice parts.
Politics has not killed business here and Texas is east of San Francisco, not north. How could you live in Texas and possibly think you were north of us?
“Could listen to” really jumped out at me
Yeah he’s worth zero honestly… not saying he’s a bad major leaguer or whatever, but he isn’t unique and won’t command any significant return value on the trade market.
“Won’t command any significant”…That’s exactly why they should keep him and try to add to what they already have.
There’s little sense in trading a low impact player(minimum return)until you have someone better to take his place. Maybe the Giants plan to upgrade at 1b.
mlb fan;
Other than the Dodgers spending and the Padres constantly batching up young players to get a name veteran, the rest of the teams from St. Louis to the west thrash around with no real discernable pattern towards realistic WS contention.
From what I see they provide entertainment for the locals, jobs for players, coaches, FO people, temporary park employees, and some local media members…as well as people like you that talk or write about them to others. The owners make money on their investment, and the equity of the franchises goes up faster than real estate.
Win-Win I guess.
Druuu, What a ridiculous take. There are several teams that went to the PS last year where Wade would have been an upgrade. Wade had a 121 OPS+ last season.
Brewers, Rhys Hoskins – 98 OPS+
Yankees, Rizzo – 88 OPS+
Tigers, Torkelson – 89 OPS+
Astros, Singleton – 103 OPS+
Maybe instead of having Ty France, and his 97 OPS+, Wade would have helped the Mariners get 2 more wins and go to the playoffs.
Saying Wade is worthless suggests a profound lack of understanding of the game.
Yes all of Seattle is lamenting the lack of LaMonte Wade that would have pushed them over the top and made Julio healthier.
Wade is on the wrong side of 30, a poor defender and poor baserunner. Teams don’t give up assets for a 1B/DH who doesn’t hit for significant power. Most teams have a guy in their system who already projects to develop into a player with similar impact.
If the M’s had someone in their system that would have given them a 122 OPS+, why did they play a guy that gave them 25 points less? Same question for the Yankees, Brewers and Tigers.. The answer to that is easy. They didn’t have one.
Playing a much lesser player, because a team has a prospect in their system that projects to numbers similar to Wade’s, is a stupid way to run a team.
To say Wade is a “poor defender” shows you don’t really watch him play. He’s not a gold glove by any means, but much better defender than “poor”. He saved the infield from throwing errors many, many times over the last couple years. He’s much better than you give him credit for.
These seem like guys the Braves would irrationally go get all in the name of left handed hitting guys who can play outfield. I’m just not sure either really make the Braves better and I’m confident we’d over pay in both cash and prospects capital
Lamont pulled a hammy reading this
As a Dodger fan living in the Bay Area I absolutely love this misery and no hope mindset. When the Giants had their enormous and impressive run that wasn’t enough around here. Sometimes I felt as if you hated the Dodgers more than the love of your own team. No empathy here , enjoy losers
Congrats on your first ring since 89!
So one non Mickey mouse chip and a 300 mill dollar payroll makes you happy? The doyers are currently the 90’s Yankees without the success lol
I’d like to see them sign Kim and Lowe. Both steady on defense with decent WAR’s the last few years and young enough to sign longer term. Stay away from trying to sign elite players who really don’t want to play in SF, but use the Giants offers as leverage before signing with other teams. Plus you forfeit draft picks and the Giants farm system isn’t great.
Enough with the soft rebuilds that we don’t refer to as rebuilds. Larry Baer gave that nerd Farhan 6 years to figure out how to rebuild without tanking and it doesn’t work. There are no good free agents next year so if they aren’t going to spend on a few guys other than Kim and his broken arm then they need to wait until after 2026 to start trying. Trade Webb and really anyone at this point. This team doesn’t have anyone that you really need to build around. Blow it up and give Buster some time to draft and develop
Tanking, which was no guarantee to begin with, is a longer shot with the rule change that discourages it. The draft lottery left the A’s, with the worse record by far in 2023, 9 games worse than the Rockies, with the 4th overall pick in 2023. Tanking is a terrible idea.
Let’s say your payroll budget is 180 million a year. You could tank for a couple years spend more like 80 and then go a couple years spending 280. Then you actually have a shot in those years you spend 280 instead of being stuck in the middle like the Giants have been for years. Thats why tanking makes sense.
Prior to the draft lottery, the order last season would have been A’s, Royals, Rockies, WSox, Nat’s. Instead it was Guardians, Reds, Rockies, A’s, WSox.
The previous draft would have been Nat’s, A’s, Pirates, Reds, Royals. The actual order was Pirates, Nat’s, Tigers, Rangers, Twins.
In the last 2 seasons, the A’s would have had the 1st and 2nd overall picks. Instead they wound up with the 4th and 6th. The Royals would have had the 2nd and 4th overall picks. Instead they got a 6th and an 8th.
Tanking has ceased to be a good idea with the institution of the lottery. It was adopted to discourage tanking, and it’s working the way MLB wanted it to
Lamont and that Yankee Stadium short porch in right? Hey now.
Pass. Below average defense and he’s not a pull hitter with enough power to take advantage of the RF porch.
YBC, He’s not everything you’d want, but they would’ve been better off with him last season than they were with Rizzo. They should shoot for Walker, but if he goes elsewhere, they could do worse than a guy with some power, and a career 350+ OBP.
Not sure why you characterize him as “not a pull hitter”. In 4 seasons in SF he’s hit 51 HRs, 27 at Oracle, and only 3 of to LF. Oracle is one of the worse parks in MLB for LHHs and HRs. It has a PF of 77 for lefties hitting HRs. Only Kaufman. and Chase Field, tied with 76, are worse. In 2024 Wade ranked 72nd in MLB in Max HR distance at 442 ft. In 2023 he ranked 6th at 474 ft. He’d hit dingers at Yankee Stadium.
They already have lots of power with Judge and Stanton. Wade makes even more sense if they re-sign Soto. A guy that gets on base more than a third of the time with hitters like those behind him could be a nice asset.
Again, I’d prefer Walker if I were a Yankee fan, but I’m not so sure someone like Alonso would be worth the difference in dollars and years.
I always thought would have been a great fit for the Yankees last year. I still think that’s the case if they keep Soto.
Wade gets on base at a great clip. He would be perfect in front of Soto/Judge.
He profiles as one of the strangest players to me. Came out of seemingly nowhere and is an on base machine, but that is all. He has value, but how much I’m not sure. I’ve always thought teams take first base production for granted and think it’s easy to find big boppers but sometimes you have to use a guy like this who is still productive offensively.
He’s more than just an on-base machine. He plays at Oracle Park. one of the worse parks for LHHs and HRs. Playing in that park he has a career .415 SLG, and a career 115 OPS+. You don’t have those kind of numbers just by getting on base a lot.
It’s not oracle park. Wade isn’t a power hitter and never has been. He might hit another handful of Hrs elsewhere but he’s not a legitimate 20Hr threat.
It is Oracle Park. Saying it’s not is like saying Coors, or GABP, don’t add offense. It isn’t about the arbitrary 20 HR number. He averaged almost 13 HRs playing for the Giants. 5 or 6 HRs more puts him at 18 or 19, but because it isn’t 20, he has no value?
He absolutely would hit more HRs in a place like Yankee Stadium. In 2023 he hit a 474 ft HR, which ranked as the 6th longest that season. He’s an on-base guy, that doesn’t try and hit every ball out, but he has the ability to.
Fair. He’s historically a line drive guy. I meant to say I didn’t believe SF zapped his power as much as it would a slugger but he could definitely see a tick up with a more favorable park
Posey definitely has his hands full. They aren’t in the position to tank for a few years because they have flat lined already for three seasons at .500 and the fans want a winner. The minors isn’t ready to produce at a high consistent level yet. The field players are eh at best, with tons of injuries and high k numbers.
I’d say the best they can do, even though they just paid Chapman to be a stall worth, is to go Motley Crue. But that still isn’t the answer to winning with the arms they don’t have.
– Can’t buy your way out of it. And can’t build it fast enough. And if you did tank ala Houston there is no guarantee. So Motley Crue get some guys via free agency, trade some players, hopefully the minors can produce sooner rather than later.
– Sabean made his name trading Matt Williams. Who do the Giants have to kick start like that ???
People need to give up on the idea of tanking. It was always a marginal enterprise to begin with. Yeah, tanking teams got high draft picks, but the fans stayed away in droves. It was a trade of revenue for prospects. With the new draft lottery, teams can be really bad, and get screwed like the A’s did last season. There’s now the potential for teams to find themselves trading more revenue for lesser prospects.
Erm, who’d want them?
With the tournament style playoffs the Giants only need to add a few wins to their.500 record to get in.
Mid-level prospect for Wade is far too much. He would net a player that a team would lose in Rule 5.
I’m a Guardians fan so I’m spitballing here, but what kind of player would the Giants have to add to Wade in a swap for Naylor? The value wouldn’t be the same straight up but it could be a start.
It actually makes some sense because the Guardians would save around $8 million (to hopefully reallocate instead of lining their pockets with), and because they’d have a little more flexibility to keep Manzardo in the same lineup, since Wade can at least pretend to be a corner outfielder and Naylor is a first baseman only. It’s also possible that the short wall in right field and the way that Progressive Field played as more of a hitter’s park to right could artificially boost Wade’s power numbers a little before he’d hit free agency.
Am I crazy? I’d hate to lose Naylor because of intangible aspects of his game (he’s a leader and I’d run through a brick wall for him, plus he can carry a lineup when he’s hot) but I’m operating under the assumption that he’ll be gone anyway and I wouldn’t mind seeing fewer at bats that end with chasing sliders and changeups down and away.
That would be an awesome swap..maybe add Doval and an SP like Mason Black to make it happen..
The time to trade Yastrzemski was years ago.
The Brewers should be all over Wade for 1st and the fact he can still play OF not to mention he’s pretty cheap.