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The San Francisco Giants have acquired Chicago Cubs All-Star 3B Kris Bryant, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. So the Cubs have traded off Bryant, 1B Anthony Rizzo, SS Javier Baez and RP Craig Kimbrel before the deadline, which is quickly approaching at 4 p.m. ET. This was the (sort of) last domino to fall before time’s up.
Bryant to SF, source tells, ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 30, 2021
Bryant moves to the NL West first-place Giants, who have a 3.0 game lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers right now. There’s a good chance the Cubs are getting top catching prospect Joey Bart back in this deal. He had been rumored in trade talks throughout the past couple of weeks and the Giants don’t really have a spot for him with Buster Posey on the team.
Update: Apparently Bart is not in the deal for Bryant, here’s the details per Mark Feinsand:
Cubs receive OF Alexander Canario (No. 9 SF prospect per @MLBPipeline) and RHP Caleb Killian (No. 30) from the Giants for Kris Bryant, per source.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 30, 2021
Bryant gives the Giants a legit All-Star in the middle of the lineup and should fit in nicely batting 2nd or 3rd in the order. The All-Star 3B is batting .267 with 18 HRs and 57 RBI this season, sporting a .503 slugging percentage and OPS of .861. Bryant gives the Giants some much-needed power. Posey and Mike Yastrzemski lead the team in homers with 18 and 16, respectively.
This was also a big move when considering the odds for the NL West title. The Dodgers made a big play for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner from the Washington Nationals. That has them as favorites to win the division. Still, the Giants have led pretty much all season and just added one of the biggest fish at the deadline.