San Francisco Giants: Breaking down the trade for Scooter Gennett

The San Francisco Giants have traded for Cincinnati Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett. Here is a breakdown of the late-July acquisition.

The San Francisco Giants made it clear that they weren’t solely going to be sellers at the deadline this year with the acquisition of Cincinnati Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett.

With an obvious hole at the second base position, the Giants made the move to trade for Gennett with an eye on upgrading over the incumbent Joe Panik.

Panik has struggled mightily this season slashing just .232/.307/.622 with an atrocious OPS+ of 68. That statistic is a modifier with a score of 100 being considered average so perhaps that puts into perspective just how bad Panik as been.

In fact, out of all 155 batters who qualified for that statistic, Panik ranked 154th. So even though Gennett’s 2019 has been a disappointment, it shouldn’t be hard to be an improvement over his predecessor.

Gennett missed the majority of the early part of the season recovering from a severe groin strain and has struggled to get going since his return. The 29-year-old is slashing just .217/.236/.261 in 72 at-bats but that is admittedly a small sample size.

Last season, Gennett was an All-Star as his .310/.357/.490, 23 home-run, and 92-RBI stat line made him one of the better second basemen in the MLB. With power, a high on-base percentage, and a high contact rate it’s easy to see what the Giants liked in Gennett.

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We don’t know what the return will be yet as the trade is listed as a player to be named later, but it’s unlikely to be much considering he will just be a rental. But if he impresses in the second half, the Giants could opt to bring him back in the offseason.

San Francisco is likely to non-tender Panik in the offseason and even though journeyman Donovan Solano has been fantastic in a part-time role, it would be unwise to count on him going forward.

Gennett, a left-handed bat much like Panik, will likely step into a platoon role at second base with Solano for the time being. And that should result in quite the improvement over what the team was getting from Panik.

What this means for the future of Panik with the Giants organization is currently unknown. At the time of writing, he is still on the roster, although that might not last long with Gennett set to join the team.

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Panik still has one minor-league option remaining but would have to accept an assignment to Triple-A Sacramento as he has accumulated more than five years of service time. And given his recent struggles, that might not be such a bad idea.

But with Gennett now in the picture, the Giants should have themselves an improved lefty/righty platoon and a middle-of-the-order bat with a great on-base percentage.

Of course, now the focus should be on getting Gennett out of his current slump.