Giants Trade for Livan Hernandez

Livan Hernandez, most valuable player of the Florida Marlins’ 1997 World Series championship team, was traded by the Marlins to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday for pitching prospects Jason Grilli and Nathan Bump.

Hernandez, 24, one of the last links to the championship team, has struggled since becoming the fourth player to capture both World Series and League Championship Series MVP honors in the same postseason, going just 15-21.

“At his age, he has talent and knowledge about pitching,” Giant Manager Dusty Baker said.

“He rises to the occasion in big games. You say you can do that, but until you’ve been there and done it, you don’t know what it takes. He has a certain aura about him. He’s magic.”

Hernandez’s departures leaves only Cliff Floyd, Antonio Alfonseca and Alex Fernandez from Florida’s championship season after the Marlins dismantled the team because of economic reasons.

He will move right into the starting rotation for the Giants, who learned only hours after acquiring the Cuban defector that right-hander Chris Brock will be sidelined six to eight weeks because of a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.

Brock suffered the injury in the second inning of a 6-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, when he tripped over first base and fell hard on the knee while legging out an infield single.

Hernandez is expected to make his first start for the Giants on Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Barring complications, Todd Stottlemyre will return to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitching rotation on Aug. 18 in a game against the Chicago Cubs at Phoenix.

Manager Buck Showalter, Stottlemyre and the team’s medical staff met Friday night and established a tentative timetable for the right-hander’s rehabilitation that includes two simulated games in the coming days, followed by three starts in the minors.