Turning the tables – Which Giant seems like he’d fit on the Dodgers?

Because it’s the offseason, the mind tends to wander when it comes to baseball. Yesterday, I responded to some conjecture that Andre Ethier would be a good target for the Giants.

And, turnabout is fair play.

Some Dodgers, like Ethier, seem like they’d kind of fit on the Giants. I outlined this yesterday. To be clear, I would not love to see any of the current Dodgers go to the Giants.

So, to kind of complete the rival exercise, let’s go through some Giants and see which of the current Giants would fit best on the Dodgers and which of them would make Giant fans cringe the most.

Hunter Pence

Hunter Pence is a fun player. He’s super quirky, plays hard, and seems to even be aging well despite his non traditional style at the plate.

Pence has has two of his top-three seasons over the past two years. He’s a very good player, but the thought of any other outfielder isn’t exactly tickling my fancy right now.

While we’re talking about which random player from another team might be fun to have on yours, what about a healthy Matt Cain? Does such a thing even exist anymore? By User eürodäna (Original version) via Wikimedia Commons

Brandon Belt

Belt is a good player. He only played 61 games last season, but is a product of the Giants’ farm system. Having Belt perform really well for the Dodgers would be satisfying for Dodger fans, but the Dodgers have a decent first baseman and, as discussed earlier, a glut of outfielders.

Jake Peavy

Peavy seems like the kind of retread the Colletti-led Dodgers would think they could get one or three good years out of. If he were on the team, he’d be the fourth or fifth starter, where there are already injury-prone guys.

I’ve never liked Peavy when he was with the Padres — mostly because of his brash attitude and propensity for domination of the division. He isn’t what he used to be and is not relevant enough at this point to really move the fan meter in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

Buster Posey

Posey means a lot more to the Giants and their fans than any position player means to the Dodgers and their fans at this point. He has been a part of three World Series titles and is well on his way to the Hall of Fame.

His ability to do what he does as a catcher gives the Giants so much value. In this current exercise, he’s too obvious, like Kershaw, Greinke, or Puig would be for the Dodgers. Posey is also too tied to the Giants. Even if he wore blue, I don’t think I could ever fully accept him into my fan heart as anything but a Giant.

Madison Bumgarner

Speaking of Kershaw, Bumgarner is also too obvious. While the 25 year-old Bumgarner produced a four-win season last year and a spectacular string of playoff performances, he’s not as good as Kershaw. Still, Giants fans probably love him just as much as Dodgers fans love Kershaw.

Like Posey, Bumgarner is too obvious, though he would fit-in nicely. I don’t think he’s QUITE as tied to the Giants as Posey is in my head, probably because of his relative youth. Give him another year or two though, and he’ll be right up there with his catcher.

Matt Cain

Matt Cain happens to be the winner of this exercise. If Cain somehow ended up on the Dodgers (which he won’t), he would fit right in with guys with a history of injury that they’ve already signed. Cain, who was a workhorse for a number of years before kind of falling off a cliff prior to his injury last season, is a kind of high-risk, high-reward player I could see the Dodgers taking a flier on if they thought he was healthy.

A dominant Cain placed in the fourth starter role for the Dodgers would be really satisfying as a Dodger fan, too.

In the final examination, nobody on the Giants would really fit a key role on the Dodgers like Ethier could in San Francisco. To be clear, I DO NOT want the Dodgers to send Ethier to the Giants, and I think Cain has enough red flags that even the Dodgers would think twice.

I’ve just talked about the Dodgers and Giants here, but writing this has got me wondering what player on any rival team would fit really well with another? Would Matt Holliday be great in Chicago? How would Stephen Strasburg look in a Mets or Phillies uniform? Are there any that stand-out? Maybe that’s fodder for a future (irrelevant) post.

In the mean time, happy Hump Day.