Didn’t see that coming!
After sitting on the sidelines for the bulk of the busy day, the San Francisco Giants finally entered the MLB trade deadline activity late on Monday night, with a move that I very much did not see coming: according to reports from Mike Rodriguez and ESPN’s Jeff Passan, Soler has been traded to the Atlanta Braves. According to Robert Murray, right-handed reliever Luke Jackson is also going to Atlanta in the trade.
Update: The Giants have since announced the trade.
BREAKING: The Atlanta Braves are finalizing a deal to acquire outfielder Jorge Soler from the San Francisco Giants, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2024
The San Francisco Giants are trading outfielder Jorge Soler and reliever Luke Jackson to the Atlanta Braves, according to a source familiar with the deal. @JeffPassan had Soler to Atlanta first.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) July 30, 2024
According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Giants are getting left-handed reliever Tyler Matzek and infield prospect Sabin Cabellos. Matzek is on the 60-Day IL, while Cabellos — Atlanta’s No. 14 prospect, per Fangraphs — was a third-round pick in 2023 who currently has a 107 wRC+ in High-A with strong defense.
Soler was in the first year of a three-year, $42 million contract with the Giants. The contract is backloaded, though, with $32 million of it owed in 2025 and 2026. According to Nightengale, the Giants are not sending any money to the Braves to cover those years. That explains the limited return.
While he got off to a very slow start this year, Soler had caught fire lately. Since June 29, the righty slugger had hit .292/.400/.528 and bashed a 478-foot home run. Those numbers surely made the Giants more confident in Soler’s ability going forward, but they apparently boosted his trade value as well, and the Braves — who have been hit with an almost unbelievable amount of injuries, including a season-ending one to MVP Ronald Acuña Jr. — were ready to pounce.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic, the Giants have been trying to find at-bats for top prospect Marco Luciano, who has been stuck in AAA. Clearing the designated hitter spot certainly makes that easy to do, and I’d expect to see Luciano in San Francisco for Tuesday’s series opener against the Oakland A’s.
Giants have been looking for a way to clear at-bats for Marco Luciano, who has been on fire in Triple-A. This also gets them out from under the last two years of Soler’s deal: https://t.co/swGgJqHLy5
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) July 30, 2024
Both Soler and Jackson (who was fantastic for the Giants last year, but really struggled this year) have strong ties to the Braves. Soler only spent half a season with Atlanta, in 2021, but he won the World Series and was named World Series MVP. Jackson was also on that Braves team, which was his fifth year with the organization.
Best of luck to both.