MLB trade rumors: SF Giants among four teams pursuing middle infielders
Ever since the SF Giants got cold feet over Carlos Correa's 2014 broken leg, the team has been searching for upgrades in the middle infield. With Thairo Estrada still weeks away from returning from his hand injury, Brandon Crawford on his second trip to the injured list, and Casey Schmitt delivering just four hits and two RBI in July, the search is getting more urgent.
MLB Network's Jon Morosi reported that the Giants are one of four teams searching for middle infield help ahead of the August 1 trade deadline. The Blue Jays, Brewers, and Mariners are also looking for guys who in Gabe Kapler's words "play on the dirt."
One candidate is the Chicago White Sox's Tim Anderson, the American League batting champion from 2019, when he hit .335. The 30-year-old Anderson hit above .300 in each of the last four seasons, where he was a Silver Slugger in 2020 and an All-Star in both 2021 and 2022.
This year he's slumped to .241, along with a .281 OBP and just 12 extra-base hits in over 300 at-bats. While Anderson rarely walks, his lack of plate discipline is compounded by having easily the highest ground-ball rate in the majors. It's a dramatic decline, and the Giants would be essentially betting that Anderson has been unlucky, and will regress towards his previous level of play. He also has a $14 million option for 2024 that is looking very unlikely to be picked up, but it gives the team who acquires him some slight upside.
There's also Paul DeJong of the St. Louis Cardinals, a right-handed 29-year-old shortstop. DeJong finished second in the 2017 Rookie of the Year vote after hitting 25 home runs. He went deep 74 times in his first three seasons, but his hitting fell off a cliff in 2021.
DeJong batted .197 and lost his starting job in 2021, and slumped to a .157/.245/.286 slash line in 2022. He even got sent down to the minor leagues, despite his quality defense - he's third among shortstops in Defensive Runs Saved since 2019. This year, he's been splitting middle infield duties with Tommy Edman and Nolan Gorman, though DeJong only plays short. His hitting has rebounded to a respectable .237/.304/.424 line, and DeJong has team options for 2024 and 2025.
Vidal Bruján is a 25-year-old switch-hitting utility player for the Tampa Bay Rays. He's played second base, third base, right field, and shortstop for Tampa this year, though he's only made seven career appearances at short.
He's only had 246 plate appearances in the big leagues, where he's had a .163/.216/.233 line. But Bruján has hit in AAA, with a .272/.356/.438 line, and he's reportedly a good athlete. He was a top-60 prospect in Baseball America's rankings, but he's blocked by Wander Franco and Brandon Lowe for the foreseeable future with the Rays.
While he has no track record in the majors to speak of, Bruján clearly has the most upside of any of these options. He may not provide the short-term fix the Giants are looking for, but long-term he's intriguing. Plus, the Giants love trading for Rays that are getting pushed off the 40-man roster.
In lieu of a trade, the Giants could simply turn to an internal option: Super-prospect Marco Luciano.
After a hot week in Sacramento, which included home runs in back-to-back games, Luciano is coming to San Francisco. That doesn't preclude the SF Giants from getting an upgrade on Brett Wisely or Casey Schmitt's bats, but it may remove some of their urgency to make a deal.
