As Portishead sang in ‘It Could Be Sweet’, “You don’t get something for nothing.” That’s as true in baseball as it is in life.
When it comes to the trade deadline, teams often find that to address a particular need they have to give up a player they could end up missing big-time.
San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Duffy definitely falls into that category. Or, to be exact, former Giants player Duffy, who at the non-waiver trade deadline was moved to the Rays.
There will be a strong suspicion among Giants fans that trading away Duffy was a hasty decision brought on by the freefall the team has experienced since the All-Star break.
A club with the best record in the Major Leagues up to that point lost 11 of their first 13 games when their season resumed, and few players emerged with much credit. When even Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto start losing games, you’ve got issues.
One player certainly not to blame was Duffy, who had been on the disabled list since June 21 with a strained left Achilles.
It’s true this year hadn’t been a great success for the 25-year-old, who was batting .253 in 70 games. But Duffy finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting in the National League in 2015, and had shown beyond doubt that he deserved to be a fixture in the line-up for years to come.
His emergence came at a time when the Giants had tried Casey McGehee as a replacement for the departed Pablo Sandoval, with a total lack of success.
Duffy came in and cemented his place straight away, batting .313 with six doubles, five triples, five home runs and 15 RBIs in June. He ended the season with a .295 batting average, winning the Giants’ Willie Mac Award for the team’s most inspirational player and being a Gold Glove Award finalist.
He is a very talented fielder with a gun arm, and it’s hard to see how losing him won’t hurt the Giants.
They have Eduardo Nunez – signed from the Twins a few days beforehand – to take over at third base, and given that Nunez was named to the All-Star Game he’s not in bad form.
The vast majority of fans, though, had expected Duffy to be around well into the next decade and while he only effectively spent one year in the line-up, he won’t be soon forgotten.
He was packaged with prospects Lucius Fox and Michael Santos for Tampa Bay left-handed starting pitcher Matt Moore.
Moore has the potential to help the Giants out in an area of concern, and conceivably he could pick up a few important wins.
Only time will tell, though, whether this is a trade that helps the team win their fourth World Series in seven years or comes back to haunt them for seasons to come.
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