The San Francisco Giants had an outfield logjam that was bound to be resolved before resuming play on Tuesday, and on Sunday night they announced that resolution. And it’s a bittersweet one: outfielder Austin Slater has been traded, along with cash considerations, to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for left-handed pitcher Alex Young.
Slater was not only a good and gracious Giant, but the longest-tenured player on the team, having made his MLB debut back on June 2, 2017. He started that game (a 10-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies) and, just to remind you as to how long his tenure was, here was the starting lineup for the Giants that day:
CF — Denard Span (replaced by Gorkys Hernández)
3B — Eduardo Núñez (replaced by Christian Arroyo)
1B — Brandon Belt
C — Buster Posey
SS — Brandon Crawford (replaced by Kelby Tomlinson)
2B — Joe Panik
LF — Orlando Calixte
RF — Austin Slater
P — Ty Blach
Fun side note about that game: not only did Blach pitch a complete game shutout, but he didn’t walk any batters .