Rays send lefty pitcher Matt Moore to the Giants

Moore does come with a potential innings limit, however, as he has only just returned from Tommy John surgery on July 2nd, 2015. That made at least one pitcher expendable and the Rays’ front office chose to part with Moore when they found a trade partner making the right offer. Rays in exchange would receiver third baseman Matt Duffy, minor leaguer Lucius Fox and minor-leaguer Michael Santos. His strikeouts per nine innings peaked to 12.0 last season and sits at 9.0 today, well above the Major League Baseball average.

“He’s young, 27, and will be under the Giants” control for the next three years.

Bickford, who had been a top prospect in the Giants’ farm system, is a combined 5-6 with a 2.71 ERA in 17 starts between Class-A Augusta and Class-A San Jose. Rosenthal also notes that the Giants plan to use Moore as a controllable left-handed pitcher to accompany Madison Bumgarner in the rotation. Jake Peavy and Matt Cain have sometimes been “pray for rain” kind of guys for the team.

The Royals’ last no-hitter came almost 25 years ago, when Bret Saberhagen no-hit the White Sox on August 26, 1991. Maybe that tips the scales.

Duffy, 25, hit.295 with 12 homers, 77 RBI and a.762 OPS in 2015 for the Giants, finishing second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. That’s not very good at all and Eduardo Nunez was acquired earlier in the week, so he’ll presumably continue to hold down third base. He was hitting.253/.313/.358 in 70 games (66 starts) for the Giants this season prior to landing on the disabled list. He was playing shortstop in Single-A Augusta and was slashing.207/.305/.277 in 331 plate appearances as a 19-year-old.

Lucius Fox, a young shortstop prospect out of Cuba, has a long way until he is MLB-ready, but the Giants signed him at a young age of 18 as a high-ranked global prospect. And at 27 years old, he is just entering his prime years. In his 22 starts and 5-14 Record this year, Archer owns a 4.42 ERA with a 1.35 WHIP in 130.1 innings.