A Google search for the term "San Francisco Giants rebuild" generates over 7 million results, so clearly a lot of people think this is the best course of action. Critics of the Giants' front office for its refusal to embrace a rebuild cite stubbornness, when the reality is a Giants rebuild is nearly impossible.

Believe it or not, even if the Giants owners were willing to sacrifice the revenues needed to subsidize the Mission Rock development and jettison the fan favorites responsible for the early 2010s dynasty success, this isn't feasible for three reasons.

1. The Veterans Aren't Wanted

The most often cited example of a successful baseball rebuild is the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, whose tanking process began in July 2010 with the trades of Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt. Here's a breakdown of those trades (all figures from 2010):

Both of these were reasonable hauls for a rebuilding team. However, Berkman was an impending free agent and Oswalt had one year remaining on his contract.

Let's look at the remaining 2010 Astros making over $3 million and how they left the team:

*Lyon was traded in addition to Carpenter and Happ, and the haul was pretty good (Francisco Cordero, Ben Francisco, Joe Musgrove, Carlos Perez, David Rollins and Asher Wojciechowski). But this was also a classic "include prospects to dump salary" trade.

So what did we learn, other than seeing a bunch of familiar Giants faces?

You can't trade veterans in the middle of multi-year contracts. You need to wait until they are nearing the end of the contract and then eat a bunch of salary. Your best chance at acquiring prospects is to trade players who have yet to hit free agency and are under 30. The Astros real rebuild happened by trading cost-controlled guys like Michael Bourn and Pence.

Back to the Giants, there isn't really a trade market for the Giants' veterans, even productive players like Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey. While all three are top 10 at their positions, their ages and salaries mean there are better long-term alternatives, and any contending teams likely already have cornerstones in place at these positions (except for catcher, but how long will Posey stay there?).

The Giants can definitely trade Johnny Cueto, Evan Longoria (maybe), Melancon and Jeff Samardzija in 2020, but that doesn't help the 2018 team rebuild.

While the Giants do have trade-able players on the roster (Madison Bumgarner, Joe Panik, multiple bullpen arms), the front office would be selling low on Panik. Trading Bumgarner certainly makes sense, but if the Giants are going to pay $150 million over the next two years regardless (since none of the big money players are trade-able), this team is in a much different situation than the Astros and Cubs of rebuild legend.

2. The Players Don't Want to Leave

Of all the names mentioned above as guys the Giants wouldn't mind trading, Crawford, Melancon and Posey have full no-trade clauses, and Belt and Samardzija can block trades to all but 20 and eight teams, respectively (and Cueto is out for the next 18 months). So even on the chance that the Giants front office finds a trade partner for these players, they get veto rights.

Giancarlo Stanton and Adam Jones can tell you how powerful a no-trade clause is, and here's a few reasons the Giants' veterans would likely veto a trade away from San Francisco:

They live in the most beautiful city in America and play in the best ballpark in the US They experience two or three events per year where the Giants celebrate past players and acknowledge their greatness Giants fans will not boo them during the decline stage (and you know Pablo Sandoval has recounted his horror stories of Red Sox fans and Boston media around the clubhouse)

Are you giving all that up to chase a World Series ring in Cleveland or Washington? None of these guys are accepting a trade unless the Giants' internal culture changes.

3. Bruce Bochy Gets to Call His Exit

Since George Steinbrenner doesn't own the Giants, Bochy gets to write his own ending after three World Series rings. The Giants aren't firing the most successful manager in San Francisco history unless there's an off-field scandal, and Bochy has no interest in overseeing a rebuild.

If Bochy retires after 2019 (when his contract expires), then maybe the Giants bring on new leadership that can nurture Heliot Ramos and Joey Bart while trading some expiring contracts for young talent.

To summarize, tearing down the current roster is not a realistic option for the Giants. Instead, the team needs to either acquire a young superstar (Bryce Harper) in free agency, or stop spending money on free agents entirely and fill the roster holes with guys making the MLB minimum.