The deal: The Rays trade 3B Evan Longoria and cash to the Giants for OF Denard Span, IF Christian Arroyo, minor league LHP Matt Krook and minor league RHP Stephen Woods.
Why the Giants made the deal: The Giants were desperate for a third baseman and found a long-term solution in Longoria, who is signed through at least 2022 (there's a team option for 2023). Longoria is a three-time All-Star who has twice finished as high as sixth in the MVP voting, but he's also coming off his worst season at the plate, hitting .261/.313/.424, production that made him three runs worse than the average hitter over his number of plate appearances. Thanks to his defense, however, he was still worth 3.6 WAR. He's been in that range the past four seasons -- between 3.2 and 3.9 -- which means the Giants are getting a superstar name, but not a superstar player (he averaged 7.5 WAR per season from 2009 to 2011).
