ARLINGTON, Texas — The San Francisco Giants sure looked the part of a rebuilding team on Monday. By the time the 5 p.m. CT trade deadline passed and the popping of transactions went silent, Giants president Buster Posey had shipped out six players from the major-league roster without making a single addition to the active group.As a result, the Giants were missing two-fifths of their rotation (Tyler Mahle and Robbie Ray), their All-Star second baseman (Luis Arraez), their former All-Star left fielder (Heliot Ramos) and the only two high-octane arms in an otherwise non-threatening bullpen (Caleb Kilian and Erik Miller) when they took the field for a series opener against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.The Giants summoned five players from Triple-A Sacramento. It wasn’t enough. They played a man short against the Rangers. They’ll play the final two months of the season with wind whipping through the holes in their walls.But a rebuild usually involves a teardown and that’s not what happened Monday. Posey said he was open to discussing his core players with hefty long-term contracts, but it was always a stretch to believe that another team would make them a reasonable offer to take Matt Chapman, Willy Adames or Rafael Devers. So the framework, such as it is, remains in place. And Posey’s front office did as credible a job as could be expected at patching for the future.Will Luis Arraez trade cause defensive issues in Philadelphia?Rates and BarrelsThe Giants were encouraged by the players they received. Among them: three well regarded pitching prospects (Ramon Marquez, Miguel Mendez, Henry Lalane) who could make a big-league impact as quickly as next season, a minor-league infielder with a Hall of Fame father (Kaeden Kent, son of Jeff), and most notably, a still-young infielder (23-year-old Marcelo Mayer) set back by injuries who was considered one of the game’s most exciting prospects as recently as a year ago.“We’re very happy with the players we got back but we also understand that until the production actually happens on the major-league field, you’re just kind of dreaming,” Posey said on a teleconference with reporters Monday afternoon. “But we are excited about our return and just looking forward to watching these guys develop.”Is it dreaming to believe that the Giants can contend for a place in the postseason next year? There are hopeful ways and level-headed ways to answer that question. Posey, when asked to characterize the team’s goals at the trade deadline, struck a tone somewhere in the middle.“I guess you can characterize it how you want, (but) I wouldn’t necessarily say a rebuild,” Posey said. “I mean, obviously, we moved six major-league players off of our roster today.“I guess the message is we’re not satisfied with the way that we’ve played this year and the last few years, and we’re trying everything we can to continue to build a product that we can all be excited to come and watch. That was really the goal in this: Even if we have to subtract a little bit now, can we potentially add some players that we think our fans are going to be excited about, and hopefully wear a Giants uniform for a long time?”Five trades can be a bit dizzying to synthesize, so here’s a full rundown of the Giants’ deals in chronological order, with a note or two on each: RHP Tyler Mahle to the Atlanta Braves for RHP Anthony MolinaThis was the first deal to go down Sunday night and the simplest to analyze. The Giants found a taker for the $2.07 million that remained on Mahle’s contract. They got the 2026 version of Tyler Matzek in return. Molina has a 6.89 ERA in 55 career games and was optioned to Sacramento. Even if he pitches for the Giants this season, he’s not likely to last past the first 40-man roster squeeze they face.2B Luis Arraez and RHP Caleb Kilian to the Philadelphia Phillies for RHP Ramon Marquez and RHP Marty GairThe Giants had the framework of this deal completed Sunday night and it came together Monday morning. As much as it hurt to trade an entertaining and inspirational player, Arraez was an impending free agent and the Phillies used perhaps their best trade chip to add him to a lineup desperate for more contact. Marquez was the pitching prospect the Giants coveted. He’s a development success who signed for $10,000 from a tryout in Mexico and transformed himself into the second-ranked pitcher in the Phillies’ system. The 20-year-old has used an advanced changeup to rack up a 1.83 ERA and strike out 86 batters in 54 innings between two Single-A levels this season.Posey said he would put Marquez behind only Jackson Flora, the fourth pick in last month’s draft, in the Giants’ internal pitching rankings.“He was one that our scouts had flagged early on in this process, and a guy that we weren’t sure we were going to have access to,” Posey said. “(He’s) somebody that we’re extremely excited about to add to the system and feel like he’s a starting pitcher that’s going to slot up in the top of our system going forward.”LHP Robbie Ray to the San Diego Padres for RHP Miguel Mendez and SS Joniel HernandezAfter the Detroit Tigers received a less than compelling return for two-time Cy Young Award winner Tark Skubal, it was worth wondering whether the Giants would get a bag of balls for Ray, whose stuff and underlying metrics have been less impressive than his overall run suppression. Grunts and grit are still worth something in this game, though.The Giants added Mendez, a top-10 prospect in San Diego’s system who has dealt with shoulder issues this season but has an upper-90s fastball and slider combination that hints at a developing Randy Rodríguez. If the Giants choose the reliever route with Mendez, it’s not hard to envision him being part of their next effective bullpen.Hernandez, a 17-year-old Cuban shortstop, signed for $1.4 million this past January. That’s how fast this game moves: the Giants are already backfilling inventory behind Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernández, their two teenage superprospects who made their debuts for Low-A San Jose on July 25.The Giants split Ray’s remaining $7.4 million salary as well as a $1 million assignment bonus with the Padres. Adding the money they saved by trading Mahle and Arraez, the Giants trimmed just more than $8.8 million off their payroll.OF Heliot Ramos to the New York Yankees for LHP Henry Lalane and INF Kaeden KentThe trade hadn’t cleared medicals when Ramos saw the news tick across a clubhouse television.“I’m just really proud of being part of this organization,” said Ramos, who was the Giants’ first homegrown All-Star outfielder since Chili Davis in 1986 and is also the only right-handed hitter to smack a splash home run into McCovey Cove. “They have a lot of history (and) it’s gonna obviously have a big place in my heart. But at the end of the day, it’s a business, and I’m very happy to be a New York Yankee for sure.”Ramos grew up in Puerto Rico, and while he wouldn’t confess to being a young Yankees fan, he acknowledged that “everybody in Puerto Rico loves the Yankees. I mean, who doesn’t love the Yankees, you know? So I’m very happy. I’m very proud. I can’t wait to hear from (Aaron) Judge. … I think (pinstripes) will look nice. Very classic.”The Giants didn’t have to trade Ramos — he has three more years of club control — but with their designated hitter locked up for the rest of the decade between Devers and Bryce Eldridge, and more outfield talent coming up through the system (Bo Davidson, Dakota Jordan, Victor Bericoto), it made sense to take advantage of a market starved for right-handed hitting outfielders if it meant balancing out a system that was tilted toward position players.Lalane (pronounced lah-LON-ee) is a 6-foot-7 Bronx native who signed as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic in 2021. He was considered the Yankees’ No. 5 prospect by MLB Pipeline. Kent isn’t the headliner in the deal but he’s the biggest name, especially after his father, former Giant Jeff Kent, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., last month.The Giants were set to take Kent, a left-handed hitter from Texas A&M who can play all over the infield, with their fourth-round pick in last year’s draft when the Yankees nabbed him 13 spots earlier. Now, after spending this year’s third-round pick on Barry Bonds’ nephew, outfielder Peyton Bonds, the Giants have plenty of bloodlines from their 2002 World Series team with none of the blood feud.“Had nothing to do with their dads,” Posey said. “Their dads were players in their own right but we like Kaeden Kent and Peyton Bonds for the players that they are.”LHP Erik Miller and OF Carlos Hernandez to the Boston Red Sox for INF Marcelo MayerThe final trade of deadline day pushed the Giants’ overall results from productive to potentially outstanding. Miller is a controllable lefty who throws in the upper 90s and has a true wipeout slider. He also walks more than six batters per nine innings and has a lengthy injury history.The Giants flipped Miller and a fringy minor-league outfielder for an infielder who still has a chance to be an impact star. Mayer graduated from the same San Diego-area high school that produced injured Giants infielder Casey Schmitt (Eastlake HS in Chula Vista, Calif.) before the Red Sox made him the fourth player taken in the 2021 draft.Lower back, wrist and shoulder injuries forced Mayer to miss at least 70 games in each of his five professional seasons. He began this year as Boston’s Opening Day second baseman but tried to play through a bone stress reaction in his left forearm before going on the IL in late June. He’s just beginning a swing progression and the Giants hope the left-handed hitter will be able to play again this season. It could be the ultimate buy-low coup. Unless the lows persist.Marcelo Mayer split time between second base, third base and shortstop during his time with Boston. (Jack Compton / Getty Images)Where will he play? Where will Schmitt play next season? If Mayer proves the superior defensive shortstop, could his presence prompt an uncomfortable conversation with Adames sooner rather than later? The first step is for Mayer to get healthy, and like with any prospect, there’s a chance that never happens.The upside, though, was too compelling to ignore.“I could just envision him doing a lot of things based off his history,” Giants manager Tony Vitello said of Mayer. “You get into the prospect conversation, whatever elite category you want to put all those guys of his age, he really hasn’t lost steam with that. Just hasn’t had a great runway as far as staying healthy or getting consistent repetitions. You guys have seen it with some of our players. It’s tough for someone to show what they can actually do until they do have that runway. So fulfilling that potential is, regardless of what position he’s at, or where he’s at, or what he’s doing, where he’s at in the order, I think it’s something everyone’s been excited about in baseball for a long time. I’m sure he is too.”Posey’s view: “Our group really likes the swing, feels like (they) can get him back on track of where he was trending a couple of years ago. It’s a position player that can play shortstop, can play second base, can play third base, gives you flexibility, and (we) still believe there’s a lot of upside there.”The Giants will have much more work to do this offseason to make what must be a massive jump in the standings if they hope to contend. They are 48-65 and likely to slide deeper below .500 now that they’ll be operating with a patched-together rotation and giving more opportunities to unproven players. Blade Tidwell was among the players from Sacramento who had a locker at Globe Life Field on Monday; he’s expected to start on Tuesday. Adrian Houser could return to the rotation, perhaps with an opener, on Wednesday.The Giants still have their ace, Logan Webb, and everything else aside, they’re a contender any time he steps on the mound. Webb struck out eight in six shutout innings in Monday night’s 5-1 victory. Jung Hoo Lee hit a pair of home runs.It’s true, if the Giants were rebuilding, they would have put Webb on the market where he would’ve been the second-most valuable pitcher available and maybe, given his two more years of club control, fetched an even bigger return than the Tigers got for Skubal. They would’ve disappointed Lee’s many fans and traded him to one of several teams that expressed interest. They would’ve taken pennies on the millions of dollars and shipped off Devers, Adames and Chapman to any team that would have them for a speck of salary relief.None of that happened. The Giants didn’t stage a total fire sale. But does it matter whether you call it a rebuild or not? The only thing that matters is whether the Giants will be any good next season. And other than cloning Webb four times over, it’s hard to imagine the Giants returning to the upper echelon of the NL West any time soon.Yet Posey, after taking a level-headed approach to the trade deadline, still dares to dream.” I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibilities at all to think that we can be in contention (next year),” Posey said. “Yes, I do think — and we feel — like there’s still a chance, as bad as this year has been, that we can be a team that can be in contention.”