The weirdness of a minor move
So minor that a year from now you will have almost certainly forgotten it
Brandon Crawford was injured. Thairo Estrada was injured. The Giants played Jason Vosler at shortstop for several innings, overcoming their own innate reticence to doing things that were absolutely bananas. They needed a solution at shortstop, and they needed it immediately.
So they traded with the Cubs for Dixon Machado, a good fielder with a weak bat. With the Giants, Machado fielded well, hit badly, and got DFA’d as soon as Crawford was healthy. They knew what they were getting, they got it, and as soon as they ran out of a use for Machado, they cut him loose.
But it all seemed weird to me, because, you know, isn’t this literally what AAA is for?
The Giants already had a shortstop who could field well but couldn’t hit. They had Arquimedes Gamboa in Sacramento. To the layman, this situation would seem to be exactly why you have Arquimedes Gamboa in your system. You call him up, let him play shortstop for a few days, then DFA him. Even if you don’t want to use a 40-man spot on Future Superstar Isan Diaz, who would have the slight disadvantage of not being a true shortstop and probably not being particularly good there on defense, you still have a perfectly capable shortstop just sitting there being passed over.
Now, it’s possible that your immediate reaction to this trade was to forget it as soon as humanly possible. The Giants traded Raynel Espinal for Machado, and if you don’t know a lot about Raynel Espinal, well, now you’ll never need to. He was a starting pitcher in Sacramento, never pitched especially well there, and now he’s with the Iowa Cubs, still not pitching especially well.
So this isn’t about the Giants losing someone who has lots of potential, because that does not appear to be an accurate description of Raynel Espinal. It’s about the way they’re using their AAA team, and their failure to construct a Sacramento roster that helps the big league team compete.
Remember last year? Last year, the team had tons of depth just waiting to get called up. At shortstop, they had Mauricio Dubon and Thairo Estrada, but never at the same time, so there was always one of them suiting up for the River Cats, ready for the big league team in case somebody broke the glass. They had talented bullpen arms out the wazoo, with Camilo Doval, Gregory Santos, and Kervin Castro all spending significant parts of the year there. They had player after player having good years: Jaylin Davis and Steven Duggar, sure, but also Arismendy Alcantara, Braden Bishop, Jason Krizan, and a whole bunch more.
This year, they don’t have that. The Giants haven’t had a lot of breakout years, but neither have the River Cats, so when things have gone wrong in San Francisco, they haven’t had the hot hand to call up. They got that last year with LaMonte Wade Jr and Estrada; they got it in 2019, even, with Mike Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson, and Donovan Solano. This year, they’ve had just Luis Gonzalez and David Villar, and neither has been very good lately (and Villar just got sent down).
So not only has the major league team been missing the hot hand, and getting injured frequently, but they haven’t had the hot hand or the breakout talent who can come up and energize the team. We’ve seen it especially with starting pitchers this year; Sacramento’s starters have been abysmal, and so when the Giants were down both Jakob Junis and Anthony DeSclafani, they had no one to turn to. When they were down Brandon Belt, they didn’t have anyone they could trust. When they were missing Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada, they had to trade for Dixon Machado.
This has been a problem this year. This has been one of the biggest problems this year. The Giants are built to use their AAA team as depth. The depth hasn’t been there, and so they had to trade for Dixon Machado. It didn’t go well, but it patched the hole for a few days. That’s what the Giants wanted, but it’s also a sad sign that their amibitions were so modest.
Not bringing up Gamboa was just bizarre. If he isn’t good enough defensively - and I’ve never read that - then trade for somebody like Machado earlier in the year.
I am less enamored of Mr. Zaidi the longer I see his roster churn. Not going all-out for Soto makes sense - we aren’t just 1 player away from being serious contenders. So while some criticize him for not landing expensive free agents, I question his smaller decisions.
AAA->MLB depth has been a disaster as you point out, no argument there. Even with the added bonus of apparent access to Seattle's entire AAA squad it's still been bad!
But is it possible they went with the drive-through convenience of a Dixon Machado because both Walton and Wilson were injured at AAA at the time? If they'd brought Gamboa up to SF that would have meant playing Díaz or...Matheny(?) at SS in the interim which is no big deal for a few games, obviously, but then if they'd DFA'd Gamboa that interim would have been extended while he made his way through waivers? Again, your point about the failure of AAA to feed the big club with players is unimpeachable, I'm just trying to guess what the hamster wheels spinning in the Front Office's big brains were maybe thinking? (other than panicked thought bubbles with "we r screwed")