Heath Bell Claimed By San Francisco Giants

The San Diego Padres didn’t trade closer Heath Bell at baseball’s trade deadline, but like most players he was put on waivers by the team after the deadline passed. Bell didn’t clear waivers though and has been claimed by NL West division rivals the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants are currently missing closer Brian Wilson who is out with an elbow injury, and need bullpen help badly. The big problem for the Giants is that they don’t have a whole lot of top end talent to send in exchange for Bell, who is easily baseball’s most awesome closer. Over the past two years the Giants have either traded or brought up a lot of their top prospects, and the farm system is a little bare at the moment.

San Francisco is currently two games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West and with Wilson and fellow reliever Sergio Romo sidelined with injuries, the Giants are desperate for relief help. They definitely need to add something if they hope to compete over the last five weeks of the season.

That said, there is almost no way the Padres will trade Bell to the Giants, so they are likely to pull him back off the waiver wire and hang on to him for the rest of the season. While some have speculated that the Padres could really be interested in moving Bell, there is almost no reason to part with him at this point of the season.