MLB trade grades: Giants make Blake Snell stance even more confusing with latest Guardians deal

MLB rumors have been running rampant on deadline day, as one would expect, but not all of them make much sense. One in particular that didn't quite pass the smell test was the San Francisco Giants planning to hold onto Blake Snell past the deadline.

Snell is a great piece to have, obviously, but the Giants have just an 18.5 percent chance to make the postseason per FanGraphs, with several teams in front of them. By trading Snell now, the Giants can get a ridiculous haul and build for 2025. Just ask the Blue Jays, who got an absurd package for a struggling Yusei Kikuchi.

Holding onto Snell makes less sense when considering the fact that the Giants traded Jorge Soler, a hot hitter, on Monday night, and now have reportedly shipped Alex Cobb off to the Cleveland Guardians according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

MLB Trade Grades: Giants make stance as not clear sellers that much more confusing by trading Alex Cobb

Here's the full deal, brought to us by Zack Meisel of The Athletic:

The Guardians are buying incredibly low on Alex Cobb as they improve what's turned out to be a lackluster rotation. Cobb has missed the entire season with shoulder and hip injuries, but he's nearing a return. In fact, he was ready to return but missed his last scheduled start due to a blister. It won't be long before he's pitching for Cleveland.

When healthy, Cobb is a very reliable mid-rotation arm. The right-hander had a 3.87 ERA in 28 starts and 151.1 innings of work last season and even made the All-Star team for the first time. He has a 3.85 ERA in his 12-year career.

He doesn't come with lights-out stuff, but Cobb has great command of the zone and does a strong job keeping the ball on the ground, which can work well on a team like Cleveland that rosters a two-time Gold Glover, Andres Gimenez, at second base.

What makes this deal even better for Cleveland is that the return is just Jacob Bresnahan, a 19-year-old with one start in Single-A under his belt, and a player to be named later. Bresnahan could amount to something, but he's a ways away from even being close to MLB-ready and is not currently one of Cleveland's top 30 prospects per MLB Pipeline.

Unless the player to be named later is a bigger name, it's hard to see the Giants as winners right now, especially if they don't continue to sell and deal Snell. The Giants didn't have much leverage considering the fact that Cobb is hitting free agency at the end of the year and hasn't pitched at all this season, but with how much of a seller's market this has turned out to be, Cleveland did pretty well here to add a starter of Cobb's track record without giving up too much.

Guardians trade grade: B+

Giants trade grade: C