SF Giants steal prominent Mets pitching prospect in Billy Hamilton trade

The SF Giants have traded Billy Hamilton to the Mets for pitching prospect Jordan Humphreys.

The SF Giants never really had a need for speedy outfielder Billy Hamilton. And they managed to turn a surplus on paper into a very quality prospect trading for 24-year-old New York Mets’ right-handed pitcher, Jordan Humphreys.

Farhan Zaidi works his magic again.

Hamilton was a late addition to Summer Camp for undisclosed reasons, but the hope was that he could provide additional speed and defense in an outfield alignment that was relatively uncertain going into the season.

But with Mike Yastrzemski and Mauricio Dubon adapting to center field better than anyone could have expected, Hamilton’s skill set became a little redundant.

Sure neither possessed the speed or defensive abilities that Hamilton did, but they were good enough to make it so that the former Cincinnati Reds speedster was unnecessary.

The Giants moving on from Hamilton is far from a surprise. But what they were able to get for him certainly is.

The aforementioned Humphreys was considered one of the Mets’ better pitching prospects, but injuries have tanked his stock over the past couple of years.

Humphreys missed the entire 2018 season with injuries and made just a handful of appearances pitching between the Rookie League and the Arizona Fall League.

But when he’s been on the mound, he flashed signs of brilliance.

The SF Giants will be hoping to see a healthy Jordan Humphreys in the near future.

An 18th-round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft, Humphreys gradually worked his way through the minors before bursting on to the scene after a very impressive 2017 season.

The Florida native made 11 starts for the Class-A Columbia Fireflies finishing with a 10-1 record and a phenomenal 1.55 ERA in 69.2 innings. Humphreys struck out 80 batters and recorded an incredible 0.718 WHIP establishing himself as one of the best pitching prospects in the Mets organization.

Unfortunately, Humphreys tore his UCL and underwent Tommy John surgery which basically cost him the last two seasons. And given the reaction from Mets fans when news broke that the young righty was DFA’d, it’s clear that many thought that the move was a mistake.

Seeing as though the Giants had no use for Hamilton, it’s pretty impressive that they were able to land a promising young prospect in return.

If Humphreys could bounce back from Tommy John and pick up where he left off a couple of years ago, the Giants might have been able to steal a young pitching for essentially nothing.

And if there ever was a Farhan Zaidi move, this was it.