Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The San Francisco Giants face a pivotal decision at the trade deadline as their playoff hopes continue to fade.
- Several high-profile players remain unlikely to move due to contract or performance concerns, narrowing the field for potential deals.
- Robbie Ray and Luis Arraez are expected to draw significant interest from contenders, though neither would require a heavy prospect cost.
After trading Patrick Bailey, the San Francisco Giants were adamant that it was not the beginning of a fire sale. They had eyes on competing. They thought their stars – Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman – would perform meaningfully better than they had.
Instead, the Giants are 23-37 and in fourth place in the National League West. Their playoff hopes are fading and it’s making their decision to sell at the deadline become increasingly obvious. So what might their deadline look like? Let’s dive into it.
Rafael Devers, Matt Chapman and Willy Adames
I’m lumping all three together. In an ideal world, the Giants would hold onto all three, and attempt to compete now and going forward.
Devers, 29, performed like a star in May, hitting .356/.593/.949 with five home runs and 19 RBI. Chapman has a .652 OPS this season, which would be the worst of his 10-year career. Adames, meanwhile, has eight home runs, but 70 strikeouts in 252 plate appearances, has unforced mental errors on the basepaths, and a 100 OPS+.
Devers would draw interest, but the remainder of his 10-year, $313.5 million contract that runs through 2034 complicates things and lessens the pool of potential interested teams. I struggle to see any team giving the Giants what they’d want to move Chapman or Adames. Put simply: I have a hard time seeing any of these three players changing teams at the deadline.
Robbie Ray
For the most part this season, Ray has been good. The one clunker was a 10-run (nine earned) appearance in 4.1 innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks that ballooned his ERA to 4.45.
Ray, 34, is on an expiring contract and feels like a safe bet to be traded. His track record is strong – he has a 3.96 ERA in 13 seasons – and when healthy, is one of the more consistent left-handers in baseball. He missed extensive time in 2023 and 2024 (pitched in eight games in that span) but was fully healthy in 2025 when he was an All-Star and stayed healthy in 2026.
There will be a long list of teams who check in on Ray, if they haven’t already. The Cubs seem like a logical fit, but so do many other contenders, and the price to acquire Ray won’t require teams to break the bank.
Luis Arraez
Arraez signed a one-year, $12 million contract with the San Francisco Giants to bet on himself and also to consistently play second base.
That gamble has paid off, with Arraez hitting .321/.365/.421 with a .786 OPS while significantly improving his defense with the help of Ron Washington. He’s an intriguing trade candidate, a player that many teams will be checking in on, and that improved defense and ability to consistently put the ball in play could get the Giants a good return.
But again, like Ray, Arraez won’t cost any team their top prospects. Which makes these two the likeliest Giants players to head elsewhere ahead of the August 3 trade deadline – unless they can drastically turn their season around.
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