The San Francisco Giants have decided to inject some youth into their roster.
On Sunday afternoon the Giants traded right-hander Cory Gearrin and outfielder Austin Jackson to the Texas Rangers as part of what amounts to a salary dump trade. Both teams have confirmed the deal. The full details:
- Rangers acquire: Gearrin, Jackson, pitching prospect Jason Bahr
- Giants acquire: Cash or a player to be named later
In corresponding moves the Giants have called up youngsters Ray Black and Steven Duggar to replace Gearrin and Jackson. Black is a very hard throwing reliever and Duggar has been considered the team's center fielder of the future for a while now. He's hitting .272/.354/.421 in 78 Triple-A games this year.
Long story short, the Rangers bought a prospect by taking on roughly $5 million in salary owed to Jackson and Gearrin. MLB.com ranks the 23-year-old Bahr as the 27th best prospect in San Francisco's system. Here's a snippet of their scouting report:
Bahr sits in the low 90s with his fastball as a starter and has reached 96 mph in shorter stints ... Bahr also lacks experience and needs to refine his secondary pitches. He has made encouraging progress with his curveball in the early going in 2018, giving hope that it can become a solid breaking ball, but his changeup is still in its nascent stages. He has no problems providing strikes and does a good job of keeping the ball down in the zone.
The Giants are trying like crazy to get under the $197 million luxury tax threshold this season and shedding Gearrin and Jackson will help make that possible. Furthermore, neither Gearrin (95 ERA+) nor Jackson (67 OPS+) have been particularly effective this season, so it's entire possible the Giants unloaded salary and upgraded their roster with this trade.
San Francisco comes into Sunday at 46-45 and in fourth place in the NL West. They are only 4 1/2 games back of first place, however, so making a second half run at the division title is not out of the question. The Rangers are 39-51 and in last place in the AL West.
