With history that dates back to their time in Brooklyn and New York, the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are forever linked as storied rivals. They were intertwined over the past several weeks as teams with interest in trading for Giancarlo Stanton.
The reigning National League MVP was officially traded to the New York Yankees on Monday, but not before his saga with the Miami Marlins took several turns. Beyond the challenge of moving the remaining $295 on his contract, Stanton held a full no-trade clause.
The Marlins agreed to the framework of trades with the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, and both teams met with Stanton and his representatives in Los Angeles.
But one week after those meetings, Stanton formally vetoed both proposed trades. A trade to the Giants was deemed the more likely of the two scenarios, but as a lifelong Dodgers fan, it still seemed improbable.
After the Yankees introduced his client at the Winter Meetings, agent Joel Wolfe discussed the difficulty Stanton would’ve found in joining the Giants, and explained it’s a similar dilemma Brandon Crawford may face with the Dodgers, via Daniel Brown of the San Jose Mercury News:
“I will say that Giancarlo and I both grew up as Dodgers fans as kids. And I see this with the other L.A. kids that we represent: It’s a little bit harder to get your head around being a Giant. And I can say I also represent Brandon Crawford, who grew up a season-ticket holder Giant fan. He would have a hard time going to the Dodgers. That still exists in baseball. It’s not all Xs and Os and dollars. These guys are still just kids and huge baseball fans.”
While Stanton may not have been inclined to join the Cardinals and Giants, neither of whom were on a list of teams approved for trade, he was respectful of each organization. “I was open to listen to them, but those were not my teams,” Stanton explained.
“Those are great people. They were great meetings and a great organization and culture there, but that just wasn’t the fit for me.”
As for joining the Yankees, it presents a change the slugger desperately sought. “They’re winners,” Stanton said. “They’re young and they’re in a good position to win for a long time, and I lost for a long time. So I want to change that dynamic and be a winner.”
