San Francisco Giants Trade Idea Swaps Slugger For High-Risk, High-Reward Ace

The San Francisco Giants need more pitching and seem to want to trade one of their sluggers — and they may be able to accomplish two tasks with one move.

With Buster Posey seemingly wanting to move on from LaMonte Wade Jr. while he still holds a bit of trade value, he will need to consider what they to get back in return.

One team that could be desperate to bring Wade in is the Houston Astros, long plagued by poor play at the plate from their first basemen. While most of their pitchers were injured last season, they do have a slight surplus of starting caliber players on their roster. They might just be the perfect trade partner.

A potential deal between the two squads could see the Giants ship Wade off to the Astros in exchange for right-handed starter J.P. France and pitching prospect Jackson Nezuh.

France is an interesting case, and would certainly be a risk, but does have the potential to be an impactful arm in the backend for the rotation.

He is a long way from someone that could replace Blake Snell, but could be an interesting innings eating starter or long-reliever depending on how he comes back from injury.

That is something that San Francisco wished they had last year during their flurry of pitching injuries.

The Houston righty struggled last year, but it was just a small sample size of five starts. The Giants would need him to find a way back to his surprisingly solid rookie campaign.

In 2023, he made 24 appearances (23 starts) and finished with a 3.83 ERA across 136.1 innings pitched.

France has a great breaking balls that helped him soar in the minor leagues. HIs changeup is especially effective.

Given that he is coming off of a shoulder injury, though, the Astros could need to add a mid-tier prospect as a bit of insurance.

Nezuh was a 14th-round selection in the 2023 MLB draft out of the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns.

He has always been more of potential guy than actual results, but he had a great first year in the Houston farm system. He had a 3.89 ERA with 11.3 K/9 across Single and High-A.

Wade was red-hot to start last season, but fell off hard. As he enters the final year of his career, Posey could be looking to maximize his trade value and help the roster out in a bigger spot of need.