The San Francisco Giants have two problems, now and later. Now they have no outfield depth and insufficient offense from left field to contend. Later they lack a replacement for Angel Pagan in left after this season.

It’s an even numbered year, so you’d expect the Giants to make a championship run. They loaded up in free agency, signing pitchers Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija and center fielder Denard Span. That left holdover Pagan in left field. Currently, Pagan is batting ninth for the Giants. In some years his offense would have justified this move. Right now he has earned better. What he hasn’t earned is the right to play every day in left for the current Giants team.

The Giants have a history of producing starting pitching and infielders through their minor league system, as their entire current infield is made up of players they developed. The opposite is true of their outfield. Not a single outfielder on the MLB roster for the Giants was developed by them.

Meanwhile, the Giants signed shortstop Brandon Crawford and first baseman Brandon Belt to contract extensions. That means there is nowhere for the young talent to play in the majors. This creates an opportunity for the Giants.

The consensus is that top prospect Christian Arroyo will be ready to play every day at the big league level in 2017, but he won’t have anywhere in the Giants’ infield to play. The Giants will need help in the outfield this year and into the future. Swapping a young shortstop for a MLB-ready outfielder should net a fine player for the Giants. They need to think like this if they want to keep pace in the National League West.

The Giants are in win-now mode. They have young pitchers to fill the gaps as their rotation ages, but they don’t have young outfielders to do the same. Trading Arroyo would fix that in fine fashion.