Three Teams with Best Chance to Land Giants Luis Arraez in Trade

The San Francisco Giants are going to have to part ways with some talent at the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3.

As much as it might pain president of baseball operations Buster Posey, trading second baseman Luis Arraez is the right thing to do. He should be able to bring, at minimum, two prospects in return, with one of them close to help San Francisco in the Major Leagues.

With that in mind, based on Fangraphs’ farm system rankings, here are the three teams with the best chance to land Arraez at the deadline. Players are noted by their system rankings at MLB Pipeline.

Tampa Bay Rays

Per Fangraphs the Rays have the No. 2 system in baseball behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates are expected to try and push to buy at the deadline because they’re in the NL Wild Card race. But the Rays lead the AL East and with New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge out indefinitely, Tampa Bay is uniquely positioned to go for it.

Tampa Bay has enough Major League-ready or close-to Major League-ready talent at the top of the organization to make the deal worth it. Top 10 prospects like outfielder Theo Gillen, catcher Caden Bodine, pitcher Brody Hopkins, outfielder Jacob Melton, pitcher TJ Nichols, pitcher Michael Forret and more, the Rays have at least one top prospect that would interest the Giants.

Los Angeles Dodgers

As much as it would likely pain the Giants to do this, the Dodgers have the No. 7 farm system in baseball and a hitter like Arraez could help them down the stretch. The Dodgers are in control of the NL West and are trying to position themselves for one of the two first-round byes in the playoffs.

Oddly, a player that could interest the Giants is James Tibbs III. He was part of the package the Giants sent to the Boston Red Sox for Rafael Devers. The Red Sox shipped him to the Dodgers last year. Would it be too much to ask for the Giants to get Tibbs, now at Triple-A, in return for Arraez? Two other Triple-A prospects that would interest the Giants include pitcher River Ryan and pitcher Jackson Ferris.

Cleveland Guardians

Cleveland has the No. 8 farm system in the game, and the Guardians have the talent to part with to make a deal for Arraez work. Cleveland’s top three prospects are all at Triple-A — infielder Ralphy Velazquez, shortstop Angel Genao and catcher Cooper Ingle. Pitcher Braylon Doughty and outfielder Jaison Chourio are at Double A. Those are the top five players in the system. Cleveland has a strong enough system to make a deal like this work for the Giants.

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