The San Francisco Giants pulled the trigger on their first trade of the season, acquiring first baseman/outfielder Ryan Garko from the Cleveland Indians for minor league pitcher Scott Barnes and a player to be named later. Garko is currently hitting .285 with 11 home runs and 39 RBI, while Barnes was 12-3 with a 2.85 ERA in 18 starts for Single-A San Jose.
This is hardly a move that is going to solve the Giants’ offensive woes, but at least Garko is a slight upgrade over Travis Ishikawa, who has struggled against left-handed pitching all season. This trade allowed San Fran to get a bat without surrendering one of its top prospects, plus Garko is under team control through 2012 and comes on the cheap.
For the Indians, they’re essentially giving up on a player that never fully reached his potential in Garko, while adding another arm to their depleted farm system. And any time a club can acquire an arm from the Giants’ stacked pitching system, it’s usually a good thing seeing as how guys like Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Jonathan Sanchez, Francisco Liriano and Jeremy Accardo have all developed into quality ML pitchers. (Or Cy Young-quality/caliber pitchers in the cases of Lincecum and Cain.)
What will be interesting to keep an eye on is what the Giants do next. Brian Sabean needs to add at least one more bat so that San Fran has a legitimate shot at winning the NL Wild Card, but again, doing so while not mortgaging the future is the tough part. Can Sabean land a Freddy Sanchez without touching Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Tim Alderson and Angel Villalona? If he can, the Giants’ lineup would have dramatically improved over the course of just one week.
