Armchair GM: Are You Feeling the Churn?

I've been reading comments around the internet about how much progress the Giants have made under Farhan Zaidi's leadership.  I've seen a few of those comments here too.  Q:  Are the Giants better off today than they were on this date in 2018?  Let's break it down.

Farhan so far has eschewed big splashes in favor of a "sluice box" approach to talent acquisition wherein he signs practically every released player available, gives them a few games to show something and moves on if they don't.  The "Sluice Box" has indeed turned up a few very nice nuggets, but pile of tailings is a veritable mountain.  There's nothing wrong with that except the mountain of tailings represents a whole lot of unproductive PA's and IP all with a attached opportunity cost.  After almost a full calendar year of sluicing, here's a list of acquired players currently on the 40 man roster:

LHP Fernando Abad
RHP Kyle Barraclough
RHP Jandel Gustave
LHP Wandy Peralta
LHP Sam Selman
RHP Burch Smith
C Steven Vogt
IF Cristhian Adames
IF Mauricio Dubon
IF Donovan Solano
OF Jaylin Davis
OF Alex Dickerson
OF Mike Gerber
OF Kevin Pillar
OF Joey Rickard
OF Mike Yastrzemski

Mike Yastrzemski is clearly the biggest shiniest nugget in the bunch.  He's had a fantastic season and has been a great story.  He has 5 more years of control on his contract, but will be age 34 by the final season of control.  He may have turned the corner on his career bigly, but there's a reason why he's a 29 yo rookie.

Kevin Pillar is putting the finishing touches on his likely career year.  He has one more year of arbitration eligibility left.  How likely is it for him to repeat his performance or even come close next season?

Alex Dickerson may have almost singlehandedly turned the Giants season around, but he also lived up to his reputation for injury proneness and his future looks very uncertain.

Donovan Solano and Steven Vogt have had great seasons but are both free agents in a week.

Mauricio Dubon and Jaylin Davis appear to have significant upside, but it remains to be seen if their bats will play at this level.

Jandel Gustave may be in the mix for Closer next season and Barraclough may be in the mix for a setup job.

I think we can all agree that the rest of the names on the list are replacement players at best.

The process of acquiring this mother lode of talent came with a significant opportunity cost.  Don't forget the first 2 lost months of the season when corner OF's were coming and going on a daily basis. That put the team in a hole they almost dug themselves out of, but not quite, which probably had the ripple effect of prompting a sell at the trade deadline rather than a buy.

Just for fun, I looked up all of the OF free agents who signed 1 year contracts this past offseason:  Here are a couple of names:  1.  Avisail Garcia- 1 yr/$3 M.  2.  Adam Jones- 1 yr/$3 M.  Then there is my fave Domingo Santana who was acquired by Mariners in trade for close to nothing.  He's admittedly tailed off badly here at the end of he season, but that start sure would have made a difference in the first 2 months!  Sure, I don't know if Farhan had a shot at any of those players, but teams did acquire them at those prices.  Those players were producing for those teams while the Giants hit rock bottom sluicing for the few gold nuggets they found, as shiny as they were.

Let's also compare Farhan's trade deadline with what his old employer, the A's did.  They acquired RHP Homer Bailey, RHP Tanner Roark and LHP Jake Diekman.  They gave up 0 top prospects to land those pitchers who have made a huge difference in the A's playoff-bound stretch run.  Again, we'll never know if those deals were open to Farhan, but the A's managed to pull them off.

None of those names came at a cost of either money or prospects the Giants could not afford.  What's more, none of those acquisitions would have precluded them from also acquiring YtY, Pillar, Solano, Vogt, Dubon or Davis.  They would also not have precluded Farhan from trading off Mark Melancon's contract, which right now isn't looking so bad for the Braves.

Meanwhile, Madison Bumgarner, Will Smith, Tony Watson, Donovan Solano and Steven Vogt will be free agents in another week.  They along with the Melancon contract Farhan was able to dump gives the Giants significant room to spend money this offseason, but on what?  I, for one, am not convinced Farhan's roster churning aka sluice boxing has really moved the needle all that much and may have cost the Giants a postseason berth.  We'll have to hope Farhan is better prepared for this offseason than last.

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To GYM:  How can you say the Giants were never going to be contenders this year when they actually were contenders until they sold at the trade deadline?