Intriguing idea

[Rog]

I'm not sure if this is a rumor, or if it simply came from the mind of Kevinusedtobetherat.

The Giants sign Zack Greinke (so far so good), then trade for Tyson Ross and Matt Kemp.  The idea is that the Giants are one of the few teams who can afford to take on Kemp's salary.  It would be tough to fit this into the money the Giants have to spend, but I have a feeling the Giants would stretch if they could make it happen without having to give up too much in the trade.

Ross is under team control for two more seasons.  Kemp is owed $21.75 million over each of the next four seasons, but get this.  The Dodgers are on the hook for $3.5 million of the $21.75!

How would we like stealing one of the two Dodger aces away from them, getting a very good young pitcher from the Bay Area (Bishop O'Dowd High School and Cal), and picking up a very good outfielder?  Plus not only stealing away the ace, but getting the Dodgers to pay part of the salary of the guy who might well become the Giants' #3 hitter.

[klaiggeb]

Rog, this sounds to me like some lame brained idea someone created to stir up controversy/excitement where there is no story at all.

I just can't see this happening.

boly

[Rog]

You're probably right that it won't happen. Almost certainly right.

But what would we think of the idea if it did? Keep in mind that the Giants would lose their #1 draft pick for signing Greinke and would have to give up something like maybe Arroyo and a lesser prospect. Or maybe Susac and a prospect.

Kemp would hit in the middle of the order, while Greinke and Ross would likely be the #1/2 and #3/4 starters. I agree it's highly unlikely to happen, but what would be our opinion if it did?

Ross would be the tough piece to pry away. His ERA the past three seasons has been 3.17, 2.81 and 3.26.

Maybe the real questions would be these:

How much would we be willing to pay Greinke? How much would we be willing to give up for Ross and Kemp? The more I think about it, the price in players for Ross and Kemp would likely be even higher. How about Arroyo AND Susac? How about one or two lesser prospects on top of that? How about Bickford, Beede and Blackburn, just to make this Plan B?

By the way, I think I found out where this idea came from. Ken Rosenthal indicates that the Padres are shopping both Kemp and Ross and wonders if they might be packaged together in order to make Kemp's 4/$86 remaining on his contract more palatable. Remember, the Dodgers are on the hook for $3.5 million of that per season.

Kevin likely pieced the rest of it together as an idea. I didn't hear what he thought the Giants would have to give up, but I must say that the idea itself is intriguing.

Kemp in left field would give the Giants that power hitter they're apparently looking for. Greinke and Ross would join with Madison Bumgarner to form quite a rotation trio. If Peavy stays healthy and Cain comes back, the Giants might suddenly have the best rotation in the majors.

Kevin's idea was that the Giants would be one of a few teams who could afford both Kemp and Ross (projected to make $10 million in arbitration this year, and say $15 million in 2017 and then perhaps a contract like 5/$120 beginning in 2018.

This combination of deals would give the Giants one of the two top starters in this year's free agency and perhaps one of the top five or 10 potential free agent starters two years from now.

So, how much would we be willing to give up to make this happen?

Not likely to happen, but right now we've got nothing much beyond speculating, and this is made up of rumored pieces.

One last thing: If the Giants somehow made this deal, should they try to extend Ross, who would be coming home to the Bay Area? Would we like to have Posey, Bumgarner, Crawford, Greinke, Kemp and Ross under long-term contract? That's quite a start on a 25-man roster. Throw in Panik, Duffy and others who are under team control for another five years or so, and suddenly the window of opportunity looks pretty good.