Texas Rangers: Drawing up a Kyle Gibson trade to the SF Giants

Trades are the name of the game for the Texas Rangers this summer, and among the players who could find themselves in new threads by the end of July include starter Kyle Gibson.

Gibson, who has a 2.00 ERA this season in 90 innings over 15 games started, has become a revelation for the Rangers after an inauspicious beginning to his Texas tenure in 2020 (5.35 ERA).

As a result, the veteran right-hander has become full-on trade bait for the team to dangle to contenders as they ready themselves for their playoff pushes. One of those teams? The NL West-leading SF Giants.

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At 50-28 as of the writing of this piece, the Giants possess the best record in all of baseball, much to the league’s collective shock. They’re playing some amazing baseball, but yet lack the traditional star power of a team with such a propensity for winning.

For example, their ace is journeyman Kevin Gausman, who’s having an outstanding season. He’s followed in San Francisco’s rotation by Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani, Johnny Cueto and rookie Sammy Long.

Those names are all solid, but unspectacular (except Gausman at the moment), and one has to wonder if all of those guys can keep up their current levels of production, particularly into the playoffs. The more sure things, the better, right?

That’s why they should trade for Kyle Gibson.

The Texas Rangers and SF Giants make sense as trade partners this summer

The 33-year-old would add a veteran presence to a SF Giants team that doesn’t appear to be slowing down as they chase an NL West title, who they know from having faced him twice this season, and who they’ll have under contractual control through next season.

Sounds like a match to us.

In this mock trade, we’ve asked for a couple of young players in return for Gibson’s services.

The Texas Rangers could really use some quality young pitching, which would come both in the form of Major League-ready help (Logan Webb or Sammy Long) to replace the innings that Gibson would’ve tossed in the rotation, and in the form of upside in prospect pitcher Sean Hjelle, who’s currently in AA for the SF Giants and has the ceiling of a mid-rotation starter who could be ready by the end of 2021, and certainly by 2022.

Overall, this trade seems to fit both sides’ immediate and longer term goals, as the Giants look to capitalize on an upstart season, while the Rangers look to continue acquiring young talent to accelerate their rebuild.