The San Francisco Giants, coming off a second straight losing season, have been in trade talks with the Milwaukee Brewers in a potential trade deal including former World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner, per MLB Network's Jon Morosi.
The Giants appear to be interested in young starting pitching to further the team's rebuild. The most probable acquisitions at this moment are Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes, and Brandon Woodruff-Burnes finishing 2018 as Milwaukee's number two prospect, according to MLB.com. Bumgarner, 29, is in the final year of his contract and set to earn $12 million in 2019.
According to Morosi, “substantive communication” between the Brewers and Giants has occurred, but a trade is "far from certain." The Phillies are also rumored to be a potential trade destination for Bumgarner, but the Brewers appear to be frontrunners as of now.
The Brewers have the prospects to get a deal done but with only one year of control of Bumgarner, seem unwilling to move any high-level pieces.
The Giants recently hired Farhan Zaidi, former Dodgers general manager, as the president of baseball operations. With a new man in charge in the Bay Area, it opens the door for a potential fire sale in San Francisco. It makes sense from a neutral perspective. The Giants “dynasty” appears to be at its end and in the "home run" driven era of baseball, San Francisco is one of the least competitive clubs. Their offense ranked 29th out of 30 teams last season in runs scored, with the Miami Marlins being the only team with fewer runs.
If the Giants do not feel they have a chance to make a run in 2019, trading Bumgarner may be their best option.
On the flip side, the Milwaukee Brewers have improved their record for the past four seasons and were one win away from making the World Series in 2018. Milwaukee already has the reigning MVP in Christian Yelich, and adding an ace like Madison Bumgarner could be all the difference the Brewers need to win it all.
The Brewers pitching staff is significantly worse than the majority of playoff-level teams, with Jhoulys Chacin being the only “ace” on the staff. The Brewers have a strong bullpen, with two returning all-star pitchers in Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress. Adding an all-star starter like Bumgarner would make Milwaukee instant National League Central favorites.
At the end of the day, it comes down to how the Giants want to proceed with their rebuild.
San Francisco can either keep Bumgarner and potentially resign him, or trade him away to build for the future. Trading Bumgarner for a young starting pitcher will not only lower the team's salary but provide more upside in the future.
The Giants need a fresh start and must move on from the multiple disastrous long term contracts repressing the team.
In the long term, the San Francisco Giants would be best off trading away Madison Bumgarner, riding themselves of a future massive contract and exploring other rebuild options.
*preview photo credited to Getty Images
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