Giants pitcher Robbie Ray was driving with his family through a hilly area in the East Bay hours before Friday night’s game at Oracle Park, and at one point, they just had to pull over and soak in the view.
“I was looking out over the bay,” Ray said in an interview at his locker. “You could see Oakland. You could see San Francisco. And the water, perfectly clear, gorgeous. A perfect shot of the bay. This city is great. You don’t find many cities like it.”
Ray undoubtedly could land a gig with the chamber of commerce but is perfectly content pitching every fifth day for the Giants. He likes it here. He rehabbed from his Tommy John surgery here. He became an All-Star here. And he hopes to pitch in the playoffs here.
A minor miracle would seem necessary for the Giants to play October baseball this season. They gave up nine runs in the fourth inning Friday, got spanked by the White Sox 9-4, and received a smattering of boos from a crowd of 37,524.
In the later innings, many fans pulled off their shirts, waved them to the skies, and screamed for the Giants to rally, all part of the “Tarps Off” craze that appears to be sweeping the nation (opens in new tab). Who can blame them? Following a team that’s 20-31, 11 games below .500 for the first time since 2019, sometimes you have to do drastic things to entertain yourself.
Like any player in dire times, Ray figures to keep pushing, keep staying positive, and keep believing better times are ahead. But eventually, unless a dramatic turnaround is in order this summer, management will be forced to pivot to the trade deadline. That’s way off, Aug. 3, but it wouldn’t be tough to imagine the Giants as sellers again.
Ray knows the drill. He was traded four times already. By the Nationals, Tigers, Diamondbacks, and Mariners. The Giants acquired the lefty from Seattle in January 2024. As a pending free agent, he could get dealt yet again. He and second baseman Luis Arráez, another free agent to be, would be valuable pickups for teams heading to the postseason.
“I understand baseball,” said Ray, who’ll start Sunday’s series finale. “I understand the business side of it. I understand if things aren’t going well at the end of the year... “
Because Ray already has been granted a qualifying offer — by the Blue Jays after the 2021 season — he’s ineligible to receive one from the Giants, who therefore wouldn’t be in position to receive draft-pick compensation if he stays on their roster all season and signs elsewhere as a free agent.
“And so it makes the most sense in the situation where you’d want to go out and get something for me,” Ray said. “I totally understand that. It’s part of baseball. It’s part of the business side of it. So I’m not oblivious to it, but I’m not thinking about it.”
Nor is he pulling for an exit anytime soon.
“I love it here. I want to win here,” Ray said. “It’s a historic franchise. The stadium’s amazing. The city’s great. I like the guys in here. We have a great group of guys. We have the guys to turn it around. But I also understand that that’s not always what happens.”
Arráez, the Giants’ all-hit, suddenly all-glove second baseman, also is well-traveled. He was traded twice, by the Twins and Marlins, and the Giants could make it a trifecta. But like Ray, who had a 3.04 ERA in his first nine starts before yielding nine earned runs Monday in Arizona, Arráez is a player who’s heavily relied on in these parts. He had two of the Giants’ seven hits Friday and is batting .317.
“I’ll be a free agent, but I don’t think about it,” Arráez said. “I know this business. I just need to stay focused on my job. We are in a bad position right now, but, man, there are still a lot of games coming. I trust this team. We have a lot of talent here. We just need to continue competing.”
Trading veterans for prospects is nothing new for president of baseball operations Buster Posey, who acquired a haul of young talent at last year’s deadline by dealing Tyler Rogers, Camilo Doval, and Mike Yastrzemski. Two of the newcomers played Friday: Drew Gilbert and Jesús Rodríguez. A third, Blade Tidwell, pitched in eight games in April. Others are in the farm system including Double-A infielder Parks Harber, who has a .347 average and 1.029 OPS.
This month, Posey traded Patrick Bailey to Cleveland for a pitching prospect.
If indeed the Giants sell at the deadline, it’ll mean management is looking to the future, and Ray and Arráez figure to be likely trade bait. For now, both say the focus is on getting the Giants right again.
“There’s still time to turn things around,” Ray said. “We’ve just got to start playing better baseball, start stringing it together. There’s still [111] games left. With that many games left in the season, we can go on a run.”
Ray recalled his 2017 Diamondbacks team that won 13 straight games through Sept. 6, giving them an inside track for a wild-card spot. But that team’s record through 51 games, 31-20, was opposite of the Giants’ record now.
Friday, after the Giants placed Jung Hoo Lee on the injured list with a back strain and added outfielder Victor Bericoto to the roster, Trevor McDonald opened with three perfect innings. But he plunked the first two batters in the fourth, and the inning spiraled out of control from there. Sam Antonacci was hit-by-pitch twice in the inning, the second time by Ryan Borucki.
There’s no record of another time in Giants history an opposing hitter was drilled twice in an inning. That’s the type of season it’s been, one that began on the wrong track and hasn’t righted itself. A season that could wind up with another active trade deadline, for all the wrong reasons.
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