Giants Make Sense as Potential Trade Partner for Star Slugger

Will the San Francisco Giants pursue a talented slugger from the Tampa Bay Rays

Jul 14, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; San Francisco Giants hat and glove on the bench against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The Tampa Bay Rays have started up their offseason, and they have already started to see their roster take shape for 2026. 

To start the winter, the Rays knew that they would have a couple of important decisions to make regarding key players with options on their contracts. To start, Tampa Bay elected to exercise the team options on Taylor Wells and Brandon Lowe. 

These figured to be a couple of easy decisions for the team to make, with Wells being very affordable and a gold glove caliber player. Furthermore, Lowe was coming off one of the best years of his career as an American League All-Star. 

While those two decisions might have been easy, the team did make the tough call to not exercise the contract of closer Pete Fairbanks, making the right-hander a free agent. It was a bit surprising to see them not bring him back and try to trade him, but apparently, there wasn’t a great market with his hefty price tag. 

Due to the team not bringing back Fairbanks, it is fair to wonder if they might look to shed some more salary of veterans to allocate to areas of need. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports recently wrote about the San Francisco Giants being a potential fit for Rays slugger on the trade market this winter. 

Lowe Makes Sense for Giants

Dave Nelson-Imagn Images

The Giants were a very aggressive team early in the summer last year when they made the move to acquire Rafael Devers. Unfortunately, despite them playing very well at that point, they struggled after the trade and fell out of contention in the second half. 

San Francisco has been a team for many years that has been trying to improve their offense, and with recent moves to bring in Devers and sign Willy Adames, they have started to accomplish that. However, one position that they could upgrade is at second base. 

Lowe is one of the best offensive sluggers in the league at the position and would create one of the best infields in the entire league. While he is undoubtedly a good fit for the Giants, whether or not the Rays would consider dealing him this winter remains to be seen. 

There isn’t a clear replacement for him on the roster currently, and that would be a lot of production to try to replace. If a potential offer was overwhelming, the team would have to consider it, but keeping Lowe at the very least to start the year would be wise for Tampa Bay.