Yankees: 4 Potential Giancarlo Stanton Trade Destinations

San Francisco Giants

Current OF depth

Hunter Pence (Age 37) – Career WAR: 31.6 in 1,690 G (Free Agent: 2021)

Billy Hamilton (29) – Career WAR: 10.2 in 809 G (FA: 2021)

Alex Dickerson (30) – Career WAR: 1.6 in 163 G (FA: 2023)

Austin Slater (27) – Career WAR: 0.7 in 176 G (FA: 2025)

Mike Yastrzemski (29) – Career WAR: 2.8 in 107 G (FA: 2026)

Missing the playoffs in four of the past five seasons since their most recent World Series Championship in 2014, the San Francisco Giants are well past that illustrious era. Not only that, but since 2015, attendance has dropped every year, with 2019 seeing a substantial drop of over 400,000 fans from the previous season.

What better way to attract fans than to add a former MVP known to crush balls to the moon? With the Giants suffering from a lack of power in recent years, adding Stanton would instantly give them their best HR threat since Barry Bonds.

Since 2015, there have been only four instances in which a Giants player reached the 20 HR mark. Not one time in those four instances did a player hit more than 21. Since 2015, Stanton has had four such seasons.

The Giants find themselves in the top 10 in payroll annually, so the front office is no stranger to spending big. With Buster Posey and Johnny Cueto’s contracts ending after 2021, and Evan Longoria’s after 2022, the Giants will have ample room to stay under the luxury tax to take on Stanton’s contract not only right now, but for years to come.

Why would the Giants do it? Why take on a contract as big as Stanton’s when they may want to rebuild? Like I said, the Giants are losing fan interest, and being in one of the larger markets, ownership wouldn’t be wise to initiate a rebuild from scratch. Stanton fills a gaping hole that the team has struggled to fill for a long time now. He was almost dealt to SF back in 2017, too — here’s a second chance, with a new positional hole to fill.