One National League executive had a clear favorite when it came to the Giants’ deadline work: the deals that sent Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray out of San Francisco.
Speaking to Jesse Rogers of ESPN, the exec pointed to the returns from those two trades as the ones that stood out most from the deadline, praising the way the Giants added pitching depth to the system.
“I really liked what the Giants did to get Ramon Marquez and Miguel Mendez in their two deals and build up legitimate starting pitching depth in their system,” an NL exec said.
The Giants moved both Arraez and Ray as rental pieces, and both transactions brought back prospects who could matter down the road. Arraez, along with Caleb Kilian, went to the Philadelphia Phillies for Ramon Marquez and Marty Gair, a pair of right-handed pitching prospects.
Marquez is the headliner there. He’s put together a breakout 2026 season in the Phillies’ farm system, and while he wasn’t yet a top-100 prospect, he could move into that conversation by 2027 or 2028.
The Ray deal with the San Diego Padres also drew praise. San Francisco received right-handed pitching prospect Miguel Mendez and 17-year-old shortstop prospect Joniel Hernandez in that swap.
Hernandez is the more distant name of the two, but Mendez is closer to the majors and gives the Giants another promising arm in return for a rental starter.
Those weren’t the only moves that turned heads, either. San Francisco also landed Marcelo Mayer from the Boston Red Sox and completed a deal with the New York Yankees that brought back Henry Lalane and Kaeden Kent.
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Now the next step is a full evaluation with Dr. William Meyers, and that visit will go a long way toward clarifying Chapmans path back. The Giants still do not have a clean answer on when he can return, and with the roster already patched together, they are left waiting on the kind of medical decision that could shape the rest of their season. [Read more 🡒]