With most teams waiting until the Winter Meetings to offer deals to marquee free agents and complete transactions, the San Francisco Giants have decided to make an early splash by way of the trade. Though it's taken them nearly two years to do it, the Giants have finally gotten rid of left-hander pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. Stellar at times including during the postseason in which he helped the franchise bring their first ever World Series title to San Francisco since the team migrated out west from New York in 1956 and hard to watch during others, Sanchez had an up and down stint with the Giants. Finishing the year with a low win-loss record of 4-7 mainly due to an injury plagued season, Sanchez suffered from a higher than average walks per 9 innings pitched ratio which ranks at the very top since 2009 with a minimum of 300 IP at 4.91. When healthy however, Sanchez has proven he can pile up strikeouts as he finished his 2010 campaign with 205 K's.
With the ace like potential the Giants saw in Sanchez when they drafted him out of his native Puerto Rico in the 2004 MLB Draft, Giants GM Brian Sabean eventually thought that ship had sailed and finally pulled the trigger by dealing the soon to be 29 year old to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for Melky Cabrera who's coming off a breakout year in which he set career-highs in batting average (.305), runs scored (102), hits (201), doubles (44), home runs (18), RBI's (87) and stolen bases (20). At age 27, Cabrera has logged seven big league seasons and has played for the Yankees and Braves before signing with Kansas City as a free-agent in 2011. The deal helps improve both team's in areas that are in need of addressing as the Royals add another much needed arm to their rotation as well as part ways with Cabrera to allow one of their young prospects to step up.
With such studs as Billy Butler, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas on offense just to name a few, the Royals appear to be the next rising franchise in many ways like the Tampa Bay Rays were in '08. The only thing missing of coarse is the pitching which the ball club hopes the arrival of Sanchez will help upgrade. Meanwhile, the Giants who have been the complete opposite and have been rich in pitching but starving of offense for the past few seasons now acquire a solid bat that they feel will help up rise their lineup and generate some offense. Still seeking a power hitter to plug into the offense I think it's safe to say we can be expecting another acquisition or two in the coming months with players such as Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and Jimmy Rollins all viable options.
Hitting isn't the only thing on Giants GM Brian Sabean's mind as the ball club also dished out extensions to two of their key cogs in the bullpen -- lefties Javier Lopez (2-year, $8.5 Million) and Jeremy Affeldt (1-year, $5 Million). With experience at all three outfield positions Cabrera will more than likely man the same center field position he took over in Kansas City, a position that was shared last year between Aaron Rowand and Andres Torres for the Giants. Though I'm happy we were finally able to part ways with Sanchez, I do think Sabean and company waited a bit too long in making a deal and should have drafted him following the 2010 season when his stock was at its highest.
Sanchez will be most remembered for his no-hitter against the San Diego Padres in 2009 which put an end to a 33 year drought without a Giants no-hitter.
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