Let’s Trade Dexter Fowler to…San Francisco Giants

We’re having some fun today, as we have deemed January 15th, 2015 “Trade Dexter Fowler Day”. After the Evan Gattis trade yesterday, all of the writers here at Climbing Tal’s Hill have been wondering “what’s next?” We all agree that there is another move coming, and with Gattis being unnecessary behind the plate, we feel that he’ll likely play in left field, with Jake Marisnick handling center field duties. What that all leads up to is Dexter Fowler getting dealt, so here we are. A few of the writers have picked teams, and we’ll be proposing our trades to those teams throughout the day. After all of our proposals have been posted, we’ll ask you, the fans, which deal sounds best!

The Giants need a left fielder (or center fielder for when Angel Pagan gets hurt), so nothing new for them. Last offseason they added Mike Morse as a stop-gap, but he has since moved on to Miami, leaving the spacious left field of AT&T Park unmanned. Well, not technically, but you get the point.

The Giants could use a player like Dexter Fowler, who has speed, and could slot right in to the top of their lineup. So what would they be willing to part with? Well, they’d be perfectly happy giving up Tim Lincecum, but there is no way I want to take on that $20M salary. Luhnow could acquire another catcher in either Andrew Susac (doubtful) or Hector Sanchez (more realistic), because you can never have enough catchers! Wait, yes you can. Five is too many.

So what kind of deal could be struck? Here is my proposition:

Strickland, you may recall, was the reliever that was yelling at Royals’ catcher Salvador Perez during the World Series after Strickland had been touched up. This outburst could open Brian Sabean’s ears to trading him for a solid major league outfielder.

Strickland has a lot of potential, as I wrote about for Golden Gate Sports a couple of months ago, with his ceiling being a great closer. Strickland throws heaters. Lots and lots of heaters, topping out at 98 mph. The Astros could use another candidate to close games, and playing in Houston could be a great opportunity for the 26-year old.

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With the amount of time left until Strickland becomes a free agent (after the 2020 season), a straight-up deal with these two players seems a little lopsided, with Strickland possibly able to start the season in the Astro ‘pen. The addition of another prospect heading to San Francisco could sweeten the deal, but it would have to be someone outside of the top-20 heading to S.F. For this deal to be done as is, we’d have to hope that the fire Strickland showed in that World Series game irked Giants’ management and their low-key guys like Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford etc. Yes, Madison Bumgarner has shown fire, but he has the resume to back it up, and it’s usually after doing something positive, or just yelling at Yasiel Puig, which is perfectly acceptable.

What do you think of this trade? Would anyone need to be added? Be sure to check out the rest of the “Trade Fowler To…” articles today, and let us know which is your favorite.

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