You knew they couldn’t avoid a trade.
Some things are just unavoidable. The San Francisco Giants came within a few hours of making it through a Spring Training without a trade. But you knew they couldn’t do it. You knew there’d be a move, likely for an unheralded former member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And there is! On Thursday morning, a few hours before Opening Day, the Giants sent cash to the Kansas City Royals for outfielder and first baseman Matt Beaty, who gets added straight to the active roster.
Beaty, a 29-year old left-handed hitter, was a 12th-round pick by the Dodgers in 2015, while Farhan Zaidi was with the organization. He played for three years with the Dodgers, topping out in 2021 when he hit .270/.363/.402 for a 114 wRC+. He appeared in just 20 games for the San Diego Padres in 2022, and was remarkably awful, accruing a whopping negative 0.7 fWAR in that time. But he was dealing with a shoulder injury, so here’s hoping that was the reason for the poor performance.
With Beaty acquired, the Giants released outfielder Stephen Piscotty, who looked good in the spring and requested his release. It also seems as though Beaty’s addition to the roster kept Bryce Johnson from making the Opening Day roster, though I would assume we’ll see him soon enough.
And so begins the churn. We knew the Giants couldn’t make it long into the season without making a deal … it turns out they couldn’t even make it to the first game.