Giants trade way to new roster, will it work?

Anybody left? The San Francisco Giants were involved Monday in what baseball calls a fire sale. It’s the sports way of trying to escape a season that’s an embarrassment.

How it came to this would have been hard to imagine back in April. But as they say, numbers don’t lie.

And San Francisco’s numbers could be described as pathetic or, if you choose, awful. The Giants had 18 more losses than wins, and not only were they 22 games behind the dreaded and seemingly irrepressible Dodgers, but also they were behind the Diamondbacks and Padres. In times like this, management occasionally finds a scapegoat by firing the manager. But that will never be when management, in what might be called a great experiment, brought in someone without a single inning of pro experience, college coach Tony Vitello, to run the team. Whether  Vitello, a decent sort, is in any way responsible for the malfunction is debatable, but he is not going anywhere, which is the reason that numerous others did go someplace—to other teams.

In all, there were five roster moves.

Luis Arraez, hitting .324 near the top of the league, and pitcher Caleb Kilian were sent to the Philadelphia Phillies for right-handed pitching prospects Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair.

Heliot Ramos was traded to the New York Yankees for top pitching prospect Henry Lalane and infielder Kaeden Kent.

Robbie Ray, arguably the Giants second best pitcher, was sent to the San Diego Padres for right-handed pitcher Miguel Mendez and teenage shortstop prospect Joniel Hernandez.

Yes, a lot of future possibilities, and you know those don’t always develop. Then again, if you are wobbling along, as were the Giants, maybe it doesn’t matter who you give up and who you acquire.

Especially when you are trapped in the same league as the Dodgers, who in this no-salary-cap era have millions to spend and do so with impunity.  As you are aware, Saturday the Dodgers also made a deal to acquire Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who may be the missing piece for a team that isn’t missing many pieces and is trying to win a third straight World Series. 

That said, the Dodgers’ domination of late is particularly frustrating for Giant fans for what used to be a rivalry.

L.A. not only has the people who hit the ball into the seats, a group which includes the MVP Shohei Ohtani, but adoring fans who at Dodger Stadium fill those seats.

The Giants thus seem to be in an unwinnable conflict. Although every now and then there are exceptions, such as Monday night, when San Francisco, with its new roster of prospects and suspects, was a 5-1 winner.  Of course, it was against the Texas Rangers, not the Dodgers.