San Francisco Giants

Shortly after dealing pitcher Paul Sewald to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Seattle Mariners continued their selling ways Monday, trading outfielder AJ Pollock and second baseman Mark Mathias to the San Francisco Giants, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.

Like Sewald, Pollock is 35 years old, signaling that Seattle may be looking to offload some of its older assets ahead of the trade deadline Tuesday. The former All-Star signed with the Mariners this past offseason on a one-year, $7 million deal.

Mathias, 28, was claimed off waivers on July 2.

The Mariners' return is either cash considerations or a player to be named later. The organization isn't punting on this season as it is still just 5.5 games back of the Texas Rangers in the AL West and 4.5 games out a wild-card slot.

As for the Giants, they are gearing up for a postseason push given that they are right on the heels of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, trailing their in-state rivals by just two games as of Monday.

Mathias, who had stints with the Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates prior to landing in Seattle, is batting .231/.355/.624 with four RBI in 22 games. The Giants announced he will be optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.

A 12-year veteran, Pollock will help contribute to San Francisco's outfielder corps, an important addition considering that Mike Yastrzemski was placed on the 10-day injured list Monday with a left hamstring strain.

Pollock won't offer much at the plate as he's been hitting .173/.225/.323 with five homers and 15 RBI in 49 games. He is an extremely reliable defender, however, holding a 1.000 fielding percentage.

Jon Paul Morosi of MLB Network reported that the San Francisco Giants are interested in acquiring Justin Verlander from the New York Mets ahead of the August 1 trade deadline.

It is a misplaced interest, to say the least.

Sure, the Giants could use another quality arm in their rotation, especially with Anthony DeSclafani (4.88), Alex Wood (4.99), and Ross Stripling (5.77) all with ERAs way north of four.

They are walking batters, not striking them out and giving up the long ball, which actually makes the Giants' place in a three-way tie with Arizona and Miami for a National League wildcard that much more impressive.

Other than reputation and the hope that they would be receiving the Verlander of old, targeting the Mets starter is a curious decision at best, particularly when the Pirates are reportedly willing to listen on a younger arm like All-Star Mitch Keller, who has been much better.

Verlander has never looked like the reigning AL Cy Young winner this season, with his command a major part of the problem. Through 14 games, he has walked 26 batters. A year ago in Houston, he walked 29 batters in double the games. He has struggled mightily to find the zone, putting runners on base and his defense in hairy predicaments.

He has not given up the long ball like fellow Met and former Cy Young, Max Scherzer, but his inconsistency at the mound has been problematic.

Not only is the command issue and Verlander's highest ERA (3.47) since 2017 in Detroit cause for the Giants to examine their interest, but so is need.

The Giants are not a particularly good offensive baseball team.

They rank 19th in team batting average with .242. They rank 13th in home runs, 27th in triples, 21st in doubles, 20th in hits and have stolen the second-least bags in the Majors.

While it would be great to have a proven commodity in the rotation, surprisingly regardless of how well (or not) he is currently pitching, the team should focus its attention more on acquiring a bat.

With Reds second baseman Jonathan India (.251, 14 HRs) reportedly available per Mark Feinsand, the Giants have the opportunity to upgrade that position.

Outfielder and hot bat (.271, 35 RBI) Tommy Pham is expected to be available from the same Mets team the Giants are apparently already eyeing for a deal. Ditto Mark Canha (.238, 38 RBI).

Any of the three would provide offensive support to a team that needs it while bringing defensive depth that could benefit the squad, especially after Thairo Estrada and Brandon Crawford both suffered injuries that left the Giants hurting at their respective positions.

While there is a natural tendency to want to find arms to help bolster the roster for a playoff push, and Verlander has a history of excelling in the postseason, the team would be better off finding players that can assist offensively so the Giants can score along with the likes of Atlanta, Los Angeles and Milwaukee, all of whom are going to put up runs regardless of who is standing on the mound.

Locked in a fight with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks for the top spot in the National League West, the San Francisco Giants are looking to make a splash before the Aug. 1 trade deadline.

Per The Athletic's Jim Bowden, the Giants are prioritizing a "significant" starting pitcher and shortstop to upgrade their roster.

The Giants have been linked to New York Mets ace Justin Verlander recently. MLB Network's Jon Morosi reported on Saturday they are among the teams evaluating the three-time American League Cy Young winner.

Verlander's situation is complicated because he has a full-no trade clause in his deal with the Mets. He did an interview with The Athletic's Will Sammon last week and specifically said he remains "remain committed to trying to win a championship" in New York.

Despite having a rough free-agent period during the offseason that saw their agreement with Carlos Correa fall apart and Aaron Judge opting to return to the New York Yankees, the Giants have done a good job of putting themselves in position to compete for a playoff spot down the stretch.

San Francisco's lineup is hurting right now with Thairo Estrada, Brandon Crawford and Mitch Haniger on the injured list.

Crawford has been awful at the plate with a .207/.285/.333 slash line when he has played. The three-time All-Star has also rated as one of the worst defensive shortstops in MLB with minus-11 defensive runs saved.

Finding someone who can even be passable with the bat and glove at the position would be a big upgrade for the Giants over the final two months of the season.

The starting rotation has two quality pitchers in Logan Webb and Alex Cobb, but not much else behind them. Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Ross Stripling are their only pitchers who have started at least nine games, but they all have ERAs over 4.88.

San Francisco (54-46) has lost five consecutive games, including getting swept over the weekend against a Washington Nationals team that has the second-worst record in the NL (41-58). It has fallen four games behind the Dodgers in the division race, but is still tied with Arizona for the second wild card spot.

MLB home run king Barry Bonds remains outside the hallowed Baseball Hall of Fame as steroid accusations continue to follow him.

Bonds was asked on the Hollywood Swingin' with Stephen Bishop and Jerry Hairston Jr. podcast if the exclusion still bothers him, and he responded honestly, noting how he felt he was "vindicated" in a steroids case more than a decade ago.

"Yeah, does it bother you? Sure. I'm human, I'm not some wall sitting up here [who] doesn't care," Bonds said, per Angelina Martin of NBC Sports Bay Area & California.

"Sure, it bothers you. But at the same time, I also know who I am. And the thing is that people have to understand ... I was vindicated. I went to the court, I was in federal court, and I won my case, 100 percent.

"Where is the vindication of me in my own sport? That's what bothers me."

Regarding those accusations, Bonds believes that he was "vindicated" when a jury in a steroids case didn't reach a verdict on whether he lied to a grand jury in 2003 about using performance-enhancing drugs.

Tom Goldman of NPR stated at the time:

"Baseball slugger Barry Bonds has been found guilty of obstruction of justice. The jury failed to reach a verdict on three other counts that the home run king lied to a grand jury in 2003 when he specifically denied that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone."

Bonds remains out of the Hall despite hitting 762 home runs. He broke Hank Aaron's previous all-time record of 755 in 2007. Yet Cooperstown has shunned him, and Bonds remains puzzled.

"Whether they were broken or not broken, there were rules, some rules. My era, there was no rules," Bonds said. "Why is the Hall of Fame punishing me? It doesn't make sense."

Bonds also made the point that he wasn't convicted in criminal court. He also added that there weren't rules against performance-enhancing drug usage when he played in the bigs.

"I appealed that charge, and I won. I'm not under federal, I'm not a criminal of any kind, I'm not anything," Bonds said (h/t Martin).

"[My] Major League Baseball records are still there, and I try to tell everybody this ... I don't care if they want to judge athletes on performance enhancing drugs or not, it doesn't matter. Major League Baseball, and let's get this clearly and straight, had a rule and has rules, OK?"

Bonds was first eligible to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013. He received 36.2 percent of the votes, well short of the 75 percent needed to make Cooperstown. More voters slowly came over to Bonds' side over the next decade, but he topped out at 66 percent in his last year on the ballot (2022).

He was eligible to get into the Hall through a vote of the Contemporary Baseball Era committee in December, but he fell well short of the 12 votes needed for the 16-person group. His next chance to get in through that committee will be in 2026.

The San Francisco Giants announced Monday that infielder Thairo Estrada and Anthony DeSclafani had been put on the injured list.

Estrada was put on the 10-day list with a left hand fracture while DeSclafani goes on the 15-day with right shoulder fatigue.

Desclafini join Luke Jackson, Scott Alexander and John Brebbia as Giants pitchers on the injured list, while Estrada swaps an injury stint with outfielder Mike Yastrzemski.

Estrada is hitting .272 with nine home runs and 31 RBI's across 70 games. This is the best offensive stretch during his five-season career. DeSclafani is 4-8 with a 4.44 ERA in 2023, but has 93.1 innings pitched for the Giants.

San Francisco are 46-38 but sit in third in the ultra-competitive NL West. They are 3.5 games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks and have a 0.5 game lead over the Cincinnati Reds for the third Wild Card position.

The Giants have two series against the Seattle Mariners and Colorado Rockies remaining before the All-Star break, but that time off should help them navigate these injuries.

Major League Baseball's Field of Dreams game will return in 2024, although this time, it will not be played in Dyersville, Iowa.

The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals are set to compete in the 2024 Field of Dreams game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

The inaugural Field of Dreams game was played between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees in Dyersville in August 2021 at the Field of Dreams movie set. The second edition of the game was between the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs in August 2022.

The Field of Dreams game is not being held this season due to construction—which includes the development of youth baseball and softball fields—at the movie site in Dyersville where the game is typically played.

Legends of the game have suited up at Birmingham's Rickwood Field, which opened in 1910, including Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Stan Musial and Leroy "Satchell" Paige. It is the oldest ballpark in the United States.

For the Giants, playing at Rickwood Field will be a great way to honor Hall of Famer and franchise legend Willie Mays. The ballpark was the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons, the team Mays played for in the Negro Leagues from 1948 to 1950.

Mays was only 16 years old and a junior in high school when he helped the Black Barons to the Negro American League pennant in 1948.

Teams that suit up in the Field of Dreams game typically wear throwback jerseys, and it's possible the Giants could look to honor Mays and the Black Barons in their uniforms for the event.

The Giants and Cardinals are currently in the midst of a three-game series at Busch Stadium. San Francisco sits third in the National League West with a 34-32 record, and St. Louis sits last in the NL Central with a 27-40 record.

San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi believes the team will be "aggressive" as a buyer when the MLB trade deadline approaches.

He said Sunday on MLB Network Radio's Front Office the team will look for reinforcements to arrive by Aug. 1 and help fuel a postseason push.

The offseason couldn't have gone much worse for San Francisco.

Carlos Rodón, the ace of the staff from 2022, signed with the New York Yankees. Pulling out all of the stops to land Aaron Judge didn't work as he returned to the Bronx Bombers, which looked to be his preference all along. An agreement with Carlos Correa fell through because of something flagged during his physical.

"Finally, after years of promising and years of finishing second for every superstar they'd chased, they had their guy," The Athletic's Grant Brisbee wrote of the symbolism behind seemingly landing Correa. "The Giants were a serious franchise."

That made what transpired all the more painful.

In retrospect, the winter may not have been as bad as it initially looked.

Rodón has yet to make his Yankees debut due to forearm and back injuries. Correa, who had a subsequent agreement with the New York Mets unravel because of another physical, owns a career-worst 86 OPS+ through 50 games, per Baseball Reference.

San Francisco, meanwhile, is 1.5 games back of the final wild-card spot in the National League at 29-29. FanGraphs gives the team a 46.8 percent chance of reaching the playoffs.

Zaidi made his short-term priorities pretty clear, and fans will be justified in expecting him to back up Sunday's comments. Even absent a blockbuster swap, making improvements around the margins could have a big impact during the stretch run.

The San Francisco Giants made sure Logan Webb will be an important part of their starting rotation for the foreseeable future.

San Francisco announced it agreed to a five-year, $90 million contract extension with the right-hander.

Ben Kaspick of the Locked on Giants podcast noted the contract extension starts with the 2024 campaign and will pay him accordingly:

• 2024: $8 million
• 2025: $12 million
• 2026: $23 million
• 2027: $23 million
• 2028: $24 million

This decision eliminates any uncertainty surrounding Webb for the rest of the season and will allow him to focus on helping the team return to the playoffs after a third-place finish in the National League West in 2022.

Webb is in the middle of his prime at 26 years old and turned the corner as a key part of the organization during the 2021 season.

After an up-and-down first two years in the league that saw him post a combined 5.36 ERA, he was excellent in 27 appearances in 2021 with a 3.03 ERA, 1.11 WHIP and 158 strikeouts in 148.1 innings.

He was then arguably the team's best player during a five-game loss to the rival Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series. He allowed a single earned run with 17 strikeouts across 14.2 innings in two starts and set the stage for a brilliant 2022 campaign.

Webb finished last year with a 2.90 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 163 strikeouts in 192.1 innings.

At this point, he has cemented himself as the team's ace and figures to remain in such a position for years to come with this contract extension. The 2023 season is off to a bit of a rough start with a 4.76 ERA in three appearances, but his recent track record suggests he will turn things around as the year continues.

Ideally for San Francisco, he will eventually get a chance to build on his 2021 playoff performance with more postseason showings.

Two-time All-Star Gary Sanchez's long wait to find a new home has ended.

Per The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, Sanchez has agreed to a minor league contract with the San Francisco Giants that will allow him to opt out of the deal if he's not promoted to the big leagues before May 1.

Rosenthal noted Sanchez will initially report to San Francisco's spring training facilities in Arizona before joining a minor league affiliate.

After going unsigned throughout the offseason, Sanchez did get an opportunity to showcase his talent by playing with the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic. He only appeared in two games, going hitless in five at-bats.

The 30-year-old had an up-and-down year for the Minnesota Twins in 2022, hitting .205 with 16 homers, 61 RBI and 42 runs.

Sanchez had a bounce-back season at the plate in 2021 after his struggles in the 2020 campaign, when he hit just .147 with 10 homers, 24 RBI and an OPS of .618 in 49 games. He was better in 2021 and his pop returned, hitting .204 with 23 dingers, 54 RBI and a .730 OPS.

Nonetheless, he was one of the changes the Yankees made ahead of the 2022 campaign, trading him to the Twins alongside Gio Urshela for Josh Donaldson, Ben Rortvedt and Isiah Kiner-Falefa.

At his best, Sanchez brings power, having posted four seasons of 20 or more dingers and two seasons with at least 30 home runs. Consistency has been a major issue, however, as Sanchez routinely posts poor batting averages and on-base percentages.

That has taken him from being a cornerstone player for the Yankees to one on his third team in as many seasons.

The Giants are a good landing spot for Sanchez because they are going to need some pop from the position. Roberto Pérez is an excellent defender behind the plate, but he's a .208/.298/.360 career hitter in 10 seasons.

Joey Bart was once a top prospect whose career hasn't panned out as the Giants would have liked.

As long as Sanchez can play passable defense, he could end up becoming the starting catcher in San Francisco because of his ability to drive the ball.

Three-time World Series champion Sergio Romo is retiring after 15 seasons in Major League Baseball.

Romo pitched his final game on Monday night for the San Francisco Giants in the Bay Bridge exhibition against the Oakland Athletics.

The Giants signed Romo to a minor-league contract with an invite to big-league camp on March 18.

Per The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly, the plan was to build Romo's arm strength and conditioning to appear in one or two spring games, culminating with the right-hander making one final appearance at Oracle Park vs. the A's to retire in front of the team's fans.

Romo allowed one run on two hits and one walk. Hunter Pence, who played with Romo in San Francisco for five seasons from 2012 to '16, emerged from the dugout to make the call to the bullpen and give his former teammate one final send-off.

The 40-year-old Romo was a 28th-round draft pick by San Francisco in 2005. He made his MLB debut with the team three years later and was an integral part of the bullpen during their three World Series runs in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

In 515 regular-season games with the Giants, Romo had a 2.58 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 498 strikeouts in 439.2 innings. He posted a 1.02 ERA in 19 appearances over two playoff appearances in 2012 and 2014, including recording the final out of the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers by striking out Miguel Cabrera.

Romo also had stints with the A's, Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays in his career. His final appearance in a regular-season game was on July 14, 2022, for the Blue Jays in a 3-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals.