Injured San Francisco Giants Ace Favored to be Traded Away at Deadline

The San Francisco Giants are likely going to shop their injured veteran pitcher on the trade market ahead of the MLB deadline.

Sep 19, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Alex Cobb (38) throws in the first inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field. / Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants could part ways with a starting pitcher on an expiring deal.

As Aaron Gleeman and Eno Sarris of The Athletic broke down which players will be made available at the MLB trade deadline, one of the top starters listed was San Francisco's Alex Cobb.

Cobb is currently on the IL dealing with recovery from a hip surgery last October. While he has yet to pitch this season, he's a proven pitcher that a contender could take a chance on.

Given that nine teams in the NL Wild Card race are separated by just five games, the market will have more teams trying to compete rather than sell players off. Someone like him becomes a better trade option than otherwise, simply because of availability.

"If Alex Cobb comes back and shows that his splitter is back, he would be the best pitcher on [the trade market]. Andrew Heaney has games where he looks like an ace and games where hitters are locked into his slim, low-velo pitch mix," said Sarris.

He's set to throw a bullpen session on Friday, which would be his first rehab assignment since suffering his injury at the end of the last campaign.

Just last season, the Giants' starter was named to his first All-Star team, showing that he should have at least a little bit left in the tank.

For the past three years, he's averaged around a 3.80 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. In 2021 and 2022, he had a sub-3.00 FIP.

He's always been a low-strikeout, high-groundball pitcher which does allow for his game to age more gracefully as he's now 36 years old.

As Sarris mentioned, he's mostly known for his very valuable splitter/sinker heavy pitch mix.

While San Francisco could use the pitching, just in terms of having someone to eat up innings, it might be smart to squeeze out as much value as possible from a veteran while focusing on giving pitches to younger arms.

He won't go for much on the market given his age and proximity to major surgery, but it would at least be worth considering a trade. Some contender will gladly take a chance on Cobb while giving up at least a solid prospect in return.