San Francisco Giants trade RHP Tyler Mahle to the Atlanta Braves for RHP Anthony Molina.

Although heaven knows who Tyler Mahle even is, anymore. Then man has worn so many caps, thrown with so many arms in various stages of disrepair, that one can only assume they’re all destined to meet up at some point like it’s Across the Spiderverse. Everything about him fluctuates so wildly from year to year: Sometimes he strikes everyone out, sometimes it feels like it’s physically impossible for him to sneak a strike past a batter. This year, the big problem has been that new cap, which has imbued a certain San Francisco Giantness to what was already a fairly unlucky season. It’s difficult to wash off.

It’s almost sad to note that given everything, Mahle’s tenure in San Francisco has to be seen as a qualified success. Sure, a 5.13 ERA isn’t going to win over the traditionalists, and that number hides some truly worrying splits, which we’ll get to. But his batted ball luck was transparently poor, and he did recover a touch of both chase and whiff, which were absolutely necessary to his survival. The fact that he was handed off to Atlanta for a Player We’d Better Name Now In Case We Forget is mostly an indictment on what Mahle is worth to the Giants in August, compared to what he was worth to them back in early January, when they still had hopes and dreams.