On January 5, the San Francisco Giants completed a trade for a potentially impactful starting pitcher.
They agreed to send outfielder Mitch Haniger and right-hander Anthony DeSclafani to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for left-hander Robbie Ray.
Ray won’t be ready for the start of the season, as he is still recovering from Tommy John surgery performed in 2023.
However, when he returns, he has the ability to help in a playoff race.
Ray is, by nature, an inconsistent pitcher.
He is also injured at the moment.
However, MLB analyst Chris Rose really likes the move to acquire him by the Giants.
“Trading for Robbie Ray is a brilliant move by San Francisco if he can get back to his Cy Young form,” Chris Rose Sports tweeted.
Trading for Robbie Ray is a brilliant move by San Francisco if he can get back to his Cy Young form pic.twitter.com/W3BjLRjCtg
— Chris Rose Sports (@ChrisRoseSports) January 8, 2024
Rose stated that the Giants hadn’t been able to bring in many of the impact players they pursued in the last two offseasons, but bringing Ray in is beneficial for their playoff hopes.
“Now you have a guy who was a Cy Young winner not that long ago,” he stated.
Ray, while pitching with the Toronto Blue Jays, won the award given to the best pitcher in the American League in 2021, edging Gerrit Cole in the voting process.
Rose did acknowledge that there are questions about Ray’s game even when healthy, mainly related to walking too many guys.
However, he can “also blow people away,” as he explains.
Ray, who is 32 years old, posted a 3.79 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP, and a 215/67 K/BB ratio in 192.1 innings (33 starts) for the Mariners in two seasons after signing a five-year, $115 million deal in free agency ahead of the 2022 campaign.
Just 3.1 of those innings came in 2023, though.
If he can bounce back to pre-injury form, the Giants could have a legitimate ace.
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