The San Francisco Giants announced a small deal on Friday, as a trickle down from Monday’s roster-cutting actions. Lefty reliever Reiver Sanmartin has been traded to the Washington Nationals in exchange for Minor League reliever Robert Cranz.
It’s not news that Sanmartin is gone, as the Giants announced that he had been designated for assignment on Monday, amongst the flurry of moves that got the roster back down to 40 players at the deadline. But most DFA’d players leave with nothing in return, so
it’s nice that Sanmartin was an exception, and the Giants were able to get something back to allow the Nationals to jump to the front of the line.
As is always the case with these sorts of deals, it’s not a huge haul they got back, but Cranz is interesting. The 23-year old right-hander was drafted in the seventh round of the 2024 draft (pick No. 200 on the dot) out of Oklahoma State, and received a mildly underslot bonus of $190,000. He performed fairly well in Low-A and High-A in his first full season in 2025, and started to make a name for himself in 2026.
Cranz opened the year in High-A, where he had a 2.25 ERA and a 2.68 FIP, with a whopping 27 strikeouts in just 16 innings. He kept it up in AA, where he posted a 3.42 ERA and a 2.95 FIP, with 40 strikeouts in 26.1 innings.
A native of Keller, Texas, Cranz made it to AAA to end the year, and that’s where his success ended. It was a rude introduction to the top ring of the Minors, and he ended his cup of coffee there with a 13.11 ERA, a 7.17 FIP, and just nine strikeouts in 11.2 innings.
Cranz mostly throws hard stuff, as in AAA he used his four-seam fastball (which averaged 95.2 mph) nearly half of the time, while throwing his cutter and slider more than 20% of the time each. There’s definitely something intriguing there, and he’ll be a big part of AAA Sacramento’s bullpen depth this year, and have a chance to play his way into the Majors.
