Giants Must Deal These Three Players by The MLB Trade Deadline

It's been a dismal season for the San Francisco Giants. Nothing has worked the way they hoped.

All the moves that president of baseball operations Buster Posey made the past two seasons haven't paid off. Willy Adames and Rafael Devers have been good but haven’t been impactful. There are still too many holes in the lineup, and the bullpen is a mess and that's on San Francisco for not investing properly.

It's put the Giants in a hole they can't dig out of this season. But maybe they can do enough at the trade deadline to start the hard work of contending in 2027. San Francisco could go a lot of different directions, but if it wants to start building toward 2027, these are the three players they need to move by Aug. 3

Luis Arraez

.@jonmorosi on Luis Arraez's trade market:

"I would highlight most of all the Texas Rangers..." pic.twitter.com/87o8WdWyux
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 3, 2026

The chatter has already started about the Giants second baseman as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi said on Friday that the Texas Rangers might be the best fit for one of the Giants’ best hitters.

Arraez is on a one-year contract which means the Giants have no guarantee he'll be back in 2027. It's a reasonable two months of salary for a trade partner looking for a contact monster who's having one of the best slugging seasons of his career. In addition, he's no longer a liability at second base, thanks to his hard work with Giants infield coach Ron Washington. He can also play first base and he can DH. He hits the lefties and righties equally as well.

The Giants would be wise to ask for two or three prospects, with at least one close to Major League ready.

Robbie Ray

Robbie Ray should be a hot commodity for the next month. Any contender with the need for a left-handed starting pitcher will come knocking on Posey’s door. The real question is which team will offer San Francisco the most in return?

Ray is a former American League Cy Young winner now two years recovered from Tommy John surgery who is 7-6 with a 3.39 ERA in 17 games (16 starts). He’s struck out 82 and walked 43. But the opponent batting average sticks out. He’s allowing batters to hit just .212 against him.

He is in the last year of a deal that pays him more than $20 million in 2026, so the trade partner will pick up roughly $8-10 million. That puts him in the mix for any contender, even the Tampa Bay Rays, who have a four-game lead in the AL East and could use an additional starting pitcher.

San Francisco should only entertain serious deals, ones with three young players, one of which is in the Majors now.

Jung Hoo Lee

The Giants are unlikely to move any of their major multi-year deals, including Devers, Adames and Chapman. The cost remains too high. But Lee is in an intriguing spot. He’s playing on a six-year deal worth $113 million and has three years left. It’s an overpay for the Giants and a potential trade partner. But it’s also a sell-high moment for San Francisco.

Lee is batting over .300 for the season for the first time. The Giants have gotten him out of center field where he’s ill-suited and he’s proven to be a great contact hitter with high on-base traits. His slugging has gone up every year and in a less pitcher-friendly park the slugging probably goes up. The Houston Astros have craved left-handed hitting in the outfield since the offseason. Lee could be the ticket. The problem is whether owner Jim Crane would sign off on the long-term cost?

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