How scouts, evaluators and Giants GM view S.F.’s eight-player trade deadline haul

There’s little pride to glean from selling at the trade deadline. 

Selling means the season has been a dud. In the San Francisco Giants’ case, a huge disappointment. They shelled out contracts to veteran players, cobbled together a “Big Three,” filled the gaps with free agents and hoped the rest would fall into place to contend. 

None of that worked; they’ve been one of baseball’s worst teams since Opening Day and their once-promising parts were ripe for real contenders to pluck. 

Buster Posey and Co.’s deadline moves didn’t serve merely as an exasperated selloff. They flipped expiring contracts and, uncharacteristically of the organization for decades, moved beloved and promising controllable players, Heliot Ramos and Erik Miller, to build another pillar in their blossoming farm system. 

“We’ve said that we need and want to be an organization that drafts or acquires and then develops,” general manager Zack Minasian said in a phone conversation. “Until it translates to the big league field, it’s not something we’re going to outwardly celebrate.”

Baseball America had the Giants’ system ranked 10th a week before the trade deadline and MLB Pipeline had them 19th at the start of the year, nine spots higher than before the 2025 season. The arrival of top international infield prospects Luis Hernandez and Josuar Gonzalez skyrocketed the system’s value. They headlined a bevy of touted position players that includes shortstops Jhonny Level and Gavin Kilen and outfielders Bo Davidson and Dakota Jordan. 

Pitching was considered by evaluators to be the organizational weak spot. That’s shown at the big league level with a paltry bullpen backing up a rotation that struggled to stick homegrown starters beyond Logan Webb and Landen Roupp. 

They had a few arms on the rise, like lefty Jacob Bresnahan at High-A Eugene and righty Keyner Martinez at Class-A San Jose. But the Giants wanted more. They added Jackson Flora, Carson Bolemon and Kaden Waechter in a pitcher-heavy draft last month and, before Monday’s trade deadline, used all the leverage they could to acquire the best pitchers they had their eyes on. 

“We definitely were hyper-focused on pitching,” Minasian said.

That focus has much to do with the organization’s desire to be a pitching and defense team, said Kyle Haines, the director of player development.

“We for sure needed to raise the ceiling and depth of our pitching group on every team in the organization,” he said in a text message. “Pitching prospects and development is something we want to keep building up the best we can.”

Evaluators say the Giants’ trade deadline haul is rife with risk — most are coming into the system in the lower levels with lots of potential that may not be fully recognized — but with the possibility of high reward. 

“They all have risk, but when you add an array of prospects like this, it gives you more chances that one will really pop,” said JJ Cooper, editor in chief of Baseball America. “The Giants already had one of the better assemblages in baseball of prospects in the lower levels of the minors. These moves added to that significantly.” 

The most intriguing get may be right-handed pitcher Ramon Marquez, acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies for Luis Arraez and Caleb Kilian. Baseball America ranks him as the seventh-best prospect traded at this year’s deadline. 

The Phillies discovered Marquez at a tryout for a different player, and he quickly became one of their best pitching prospects. He owns the type of control rare for a 20-year-old. His moneymaker is a devastating changeup, a good fastball he throws in the mid-90s and a breaking ball he can throw for strikes. It all shows with a 1.68 ERA, 93 strikeouts and 19 walks over in 59 innings between Low-A Clearwater and High-A Jersey Shore. 

The downside is that he is slightly undersized at 6-foot-2 and 182 pounds, but the Giants have had their eye on him for a while — pegging him as one of their top targets by late June if the season didn’t turn around — and did not expect him to come available. Adding Kilian to the deal with Arraez helped get it across the line. 

He will start his Giants career with the High-A Eugene Emeralds, according to the transaction page, and may ascend quickly from there. Baseball America projects him to be a mid-rotation starter, but the Giants are thinking bigger. 

“There is a legitimate upside to what he can do,” Minasian said. 

A rental and a high-upside arm in Kilian got them their top target from Philadelphia. A controllable All-Star and a fan-favorite in Ramos got them into the New York Yankees’ honeypot for left-handed pitcher Henry Lalane and infielder Kaeden Kent, son of Giants Hall of Famer Jeff Kent. 

Lalane, a 22-year-old Bronx native, is a high-risk get, mostly because his stuff hasn’t been as dominant as it was before shoulder surgery. He’s a 6-7 left-hander who came onto the scene strong as an 18-year-old in 2022 and dominated in 2023; he touched high-90s on his fastball, struck out 34 with four walks and posted a 4.57 ERA over 21⅔ innings that year. 

But shoulder surgery at the start of the 2025 season derailed him, and his velocity dropped to the low-90s and his 78-82 mph sweeper lost velocity and turned more into a slurve, according to the Statcast scouting report. Questions swirled around how much he can return to his 2023 form.

He’s healthy and bouncing back in 2026 it seems, posting a 2.77 ERA between Single-A Tampa and High-A Hudson Valley. Evaluators and scouts who watched him before the deadline saw his fastball velocity average 94-95 mph. Baseball America has Lalane as the 10th-best prospect traded at the deadline.

For Robbie Ray’s expiring contract, the Giants got two of the San Diego Padres’ top prospects — granted, the Padres’ farm system isn’t as touted as in years past. 

One is right-handed pitcher Miguel Mendez, slender and tall with a mid-to-upper 90s fastball that rides and generates plenty of swing-and-miss through the top of the zone. Always a standout quality for a young pitcher. He also throws a hard slider and, sometimes, a whiffable changeup.

Less touted is right-hander Anthony Molina, acquired from the Atlanta Braves for starter Tyler Mahle. Molina has some big league experience, pitching in 99⅓ innings over three seasons with the Colorado Rockies and Braves with a 6.89 ERA. One rival scout sees him as a solid middle reliever. His fastball averages near 97 mph with a changeup, curveball and slider. He’ll pitch at Triple-A Sacramento.

Right-hander Marty Gair, 23, the second pitcher acquired from the Phillies, is most likely to develop as a reliever — which the Giants need. Gair, Mendez and Lalane were assigned to High-A Eugene with Marquez. 

The biggest knock on all the talent — pitching and position players — the Giants have acquired in the past several months: It’s all concentrated in the lower-level affiliates. How these high-potential guys ascend will determine how these trades will ultimately be viewed. 

Infielder Marcelo Mayer, though, might offer more immediate returns. Once one of baseball’s most hyped prospects dubbed the future of the Boston Red Sox franchise, Mayer dominated the minor leagues since drafted in 2021 but struggled to hit big league pitching once he reached the show in 2025. 

The 23-year-old has been out with a bone stress reaction in his forearm since June, but if he gets healthy it’s likely Mayer will see time playing second base for the Giants this season, after it was vacated by Arraez. 

The Giants gave up Miller, a promising lefty reliever under team control for the next three seasons, for Mayer because they think he’s a prime candidate to thrive in a change of scenery. Mayer is a California kid, native to Chula Vista near San Diego (he went to Eastlake, same as Casey Schmitt). 

In Boston, Mayer struggled to hit offspeed pitching and for power that was expected in the 364 plate appearances he had. The Red Sox crowded their infield and made Mayer a bit more expendable, trading for Curtis Mead before the deadline. The Giants pounced, thinking they could help give Mayer the runway to settle in.

“I still think the contact skills showed,” Minasian said. “I still think there’s probably things with his entire offensive game that are going to improve. … We’re still encouraged by his ability to control the strike zone and put the ball in play. We think there’s a real hitter in there, and we think there’s power.” 

On the other end of the readiness spectrum, the Giants landed 17-year-old shortstop Joniel Hernandez from the Padres for Ray. Hernandez, from Cuba, batted .317 with four home runs, 16 doubles and two triples in 42 games with the Padres’ Dominican Summer League team. 

He’s a familiar name to the Giants, who had scouts watching closely during the Dominican Summer League. With Mendez in the package, adding another young infielder to their big crop was a no-brainer risk to take in exchange for a rental. He’ll go to the Giants’ Dominican Summer League team.

“Usually you don’t see teams go that far down like that, but the potential of what he could be was really exciting,” Minasian said. “We felt like it was worth the shot.”

The third position player comes with a little history. Kent is considered a solid shortstop with good bat-to-ball skills and little power. Posey said they traded for Kent not because he is Jeff’s son, but because of the player he is. 

With outfielder Peyton Bonds, nephew of Barry, drafted by the Giants out of Rutgers this year, it’s worth noting that the Giants now have a Bonds and a Kent back in the organization. 

Susan Slusser contributed to this report.