Trading for Popular Slugger May Not Be in San Francisco Giants Best Interest

The San Francisco Giants have seen their organizational philosophy undergo a complete turnaround with the addition of franchise legend Buster Posey as the new President of Baseball Operations.

The normally frugal franchise has now given out the largest contract in club history this offseason to shortstop Willy Adames, a deal that surpassed the record formerly held by Posey himself.

They have also been "in" on many other high-end free agents, though they have finished on the outside looking in for most, and have reportedly now turned their attention to the trade market and a popular Chicago White Sox slugger, Luis Robert Jr.

Robert's name always circulates the airwaves and has done so more and more the worse the White Sox get.

After finishing 2024 with the worst record in the history of MLB, Chicago has seemingly doubled down on their poor showing of baseball, making most of their team available through trade, though any meaningful piece seems to come at much too high a cost.

Robert could qualify as a meaningful piece for what he is able to accomplish when he is on the field, but that's where the problem lies: the qualifier "when he is on the field" is a necessity.

Since debuting in the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, the outfielder has played only 467 games, topping the 100 or more mark in a single season only twice.

He has been serviceable when on the field, batting to a .267/.316/.474 line with 88 home runs, 245 RBI, and a 116 OPS+ across 1,944 plate appearances, while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense in the outfield.

It is the power that draws teams to Robert, though, with the slugger hitting 38 home runs in 2023, a year that saw him reach a career-high 145 games played.

But that is where the issue lies for the Giants: they have one of the worst parks for power hitters in MLB.

It is so bad, that the team has not had a single 30-home run hitter since 2004, and that was Barry Bonds. Brandon Belt couldn't do it, Matt Chapman hasn't done it (yet), and even Posey himself topped out at only 24 home runs.

Robert's Baseball Savant page tells the tale, with his career home run total dropping from 88 to 78 if he played all of his games at Oracle Park, though he would have reached 32 in 2023, but still less than the actual total of 38.

Robert has played six career games at Oracle Park, and they have been anything but "good," with the expected power outage showing up in full force. In those games, he has batted .269/.296/.308 with no home runs, and three RBI across 27 plate appearances. While it is a small sample size, that does still come out to an OPS of only .604 for those keeping score at home.

The outfielder comes at much too high a cost, for far too little playing time for San Francisco to give up as much prospect capital as it would take to acquire Robert from the White Sox.

While the Giants can certainly use more offensive improvements ahead of 2025, specifically in the outfield, they should look elsewhere.