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Throwback Thursday: Looking at the eight trades Blue Jays have made with Giants
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Photo credit: © Kevin Sousa-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Jul 17, 2025, 19:15 EDTUpdated: Jul 20, 2025, 20:36 EDT
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On Friday, the Toronto Blue Jays begin a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants.
Of the 29 other teams in the league, the Blue Jays have made nine or fewer trades with just four teams. Only three of them are American League East teams, eight with both the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles, and just six with the Tampa Bay Rays, the fewest for any team.
The fourth team, surprisingly, is not the New York Yankees, with whom the Blue Jays have completed 20 trades with. It’s actually the Giants, despite being in different leagues.
In this edition of Throwback Thursday, we’ll look at all eight trades the two teams have made with one another. If you missed last week’s edition, we looked at Marcus Semien’s walk-off home run against the Oakland Athletics in 2021.

Looking at the eight trades with the Giants

The only trade that came in the 20th century saw the Jays trade Jack McKnight, Augie Schmidt, and Jim Gott to the Giants for Gary Lavelle. Neither McKnight nor Schmidt ever made the big leagues. Gott, on the other hand, pitched another 11 seasons in the big leagues, posting a 3.87 ERA and 3.60 FIP in 1,120 innings pitched.
Lavalle, a two-time All-Star prior to the trade, posted a 3.10 ERA and 3.69 FIP in 72.2 innings pitched in 1985. His final season in the big leagues was in 1987, splitting his time between the Blue Jays and Athletics and pitching just 32 innings.
It took another 15 years before the Blue Jays made another trade with the Giants, as they sent career minor leaguer Eric Gunderson to the Giants for future consideration. Gunderson’s final game was with the Blue Jays in 2000, and he retired after the 2001 season.
Six years later, the Blue Jays sent Vinnie Chulk and Shea Hillenbrand to the Giants for Jeremy Accardo. Chulk, drafted by the Blue Jays in 2000, pitched parts of three seasons in the Jays’ bullpen. One of those seasons saw him post a 3.88 ERA and 4.69 FIP in 72 innings pitched. He spent the end of the 2006 season, as well as the 2007 and 2008 seasons, with the Giants, before playing with Cleveland in 2009. Chulk’s final season in the big leagues was in 2012.
Hillenbrand only spent parts of two seasons with the Blue Jays, slashing .294/.342/.460 with 30 home runs in 964 plate appearances. His final big league appearance was in 2007. He was the main piece of the package, having been an All-Star in 2005.
As for their return, Accardo pitched parts of five seasons with the Blue Jays, finishing with a 3.67 ERA and 4.26 FIP in 139.2 innings pitched. He played for three more teams after departing the Blue Jays, with his final big league action coming in 2012.
On January 20, 2010, the Blue Jays purchased Merkin Valdez from the Giants. He pitched just one and one-third innings with the Jays, allowing three earned runs. He pitched an additional 4.1 innings with the Texas Rangers in 2011, his final big league action.
Four months later, the Blue Jays acquired Fred Lewis in a future considerations trade. In 2010, Lewis slashed .262/.332/.414 with eight home runs in 480 plate appearances. In 2011, he played with the Cincinnati Reds and in 2012, he played with the New York Mets, his final action in the big leagues.
You have to fast forward to 2019 for the next time the Blue Jays made a trade with the Giants. They were expected to be selling at the deadline, but they shipped off Kevin Pillar on April 2, acquiring Juan De Paula, Alen Hanson, and Derek Law.
Pillar, who recently retired, spent 13 seasons in the big leagues, playing for the Blue Jays, Giants, Boston Red Sox, Colorado Rockies, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Texas Rangers. Pillar received an MVP vote in 2019.
Law pitched the entirety of the 2019 season with the Blue Jays, finishing with a 4.90 ERA and 4.85 FIP in 60.2 innings pitched. His most recent action in the big leagues was in 2024, where he finished with a 2.60 ERA and 3.32 FIP in 90 innings pitched.
Hanson had 48 plate appearances with the Blue Jays in 2019 and has yet to appear in a big league game since. In fact, Hanson hasn’t even played in the minor leagues since 2019, as he currently plays in Mexico. De Paula never played in the big leagues and never reached the upper minors.
That brings us to a pair of trades in 2024. On February 13, 2024, the Blue Jays designated Otto López for assignment, and he was purchased by the Giants. López has found a permanent big league spot with the Miami Marlins and should’ve finished as a nominee for the National League second base Gold Glove in 2024. So far this season, López is slashing .250/.320/.392 with 11 home runs in 328 plate appearances. I’ve always been a big López fan, but I didn’t envision him hitting double-digit home runs.
The other 2024 trade with the Giants saw them purchase a recently DFA’ed Mitch White. Like with the Blue Jays, White didn’t have much success with the Giants, pitching just five and a third innings before finding his way to the Milwaukee Brewers. This season, White is pitching in Korea, where he has a 2.45 ERA and 2.97 FIP in 80.2 innings pitched.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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