San Francisco Giants: Bleacher Report lists trade packages for Madison Bumgarner

The San Francisco Giants will likely be looking to trade away their longtime ace Madison Bumgarner if their season continues its current trend. Bleacher Report recently listed numerous possible trade packages for him.

The San Francisco Giants don’t have too much to look forward to in 2019. While the season hasn’t been quite the disaster that it could have been so far, the team is still searching for reasons to remain optimistic.

On the surface, this is an aging team with a depleted farm system that shows little signs of making a major turnaround in the next couple of seasons. Some of those aging veterans hold little to no value and are essentially stuck in no man’s land with the team.

However, one longtime Giants fan favorite could be the key to the organization solving their farm system issues and give the team some hope for the prospective future. While the likes of Evan Longoria and Mark Melancon could be difficult to deal without eating a ton of money, one player will likely be the center of trade talks surrounding the team in the near future.

That player is Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner is in the midst of his 11th season with the Giants organization. He is arguably one of the most iconic Giants of the 21st century and was a key focal point in the team’s three World Series runs of the 2010s. Despite never winning a Cy Young Award, his 3.08 career ERA ranks third among all active pitchers with a minimum of 1,000 innings pitched.

He is, by all measures, one of the greatest pitchers of his era.

While his play has certainly dipped a bit in recent years and his 4.21 ERA in 10 starts this season is well above his career average, there’s no doubt that he still holds plenty of value. Bumgarner is on the final year of a five-year, $35 million extension he signed a few years back and the Giants have already exhausted both club options to keep him on the team.

But this is it. There are no more years remaining, no more options, and there likely won’t be another extension. There is a very good chance that 2019 will be the final year that Bumgarner pitches for the San Francisco Giants.

As much as that is a sad reality to come to terms with, it’s one the franchise must accept. As such, they must do their best to turn this into the best possible situation for the team going forward and look to deal him prior to the trade deadline.

This is, of course, contingent on the premise that the Giants don’t start making some miraculous playoff push within the coming months. But given their lackluster start to the season and overall lack of talent, that just doesn’t seem likely.

As a result, the trade talks surrounding Bumgarner will only continue to intensify as the weeks pass on. In fact, our friends over at Bleacher Report have already mapped out a list of possible trade packages that prospective teams could offer in an attempt to land the talented southpaw.

As noted in the article, Bumgarner currently has an eight-team no-trade list that includes the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals.

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However, the article also points out that he likely placed those teams on the list as a way of gaining leverage for extra money as opposed to him simply not wanting to go there. Essentially, it appears that all MLB teams are still in play.

Now, of course, some destinations make more sense than others. As such, Bleacher Report broke down eight potential teams that could make a run at the man they call MadBum.

While we’re not going to sit here and break down each possible target destination — you could visit the actual article for that — let’s briefly take a look at some of the more appealing packages.

Perhaps the most intriguing package is the one that they proposed the Houston Astros could offer. The Astros are a team that could very much be in the market for a rental as they push for another World Series run and their deep farm system is something that should serve as an advantage for them.

While the article insists that the likes of pitcher Forrest Whitley and outfielders Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez are off limits, they do list 23-year-old right-hander Corbin Martin as a potential centerpiece of the trade. Martin has already made two starts with the big-league club this season and would be a fantastic get if the Giants could somehow land him.

Elsewhere, the New York Yankees are listed as a possible destination. Their trade package consists of two prospects who at one point were considered two of the better prospects in baseball, but have since fallen a bit out of favor.

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The trade would revolve around left-handed outfielder Estevan Florial who remains the No. 1 prospect in the Yankees system while also including former top pitching prospect Chance Adams.

Adams has struggled in Triple-A over the past two seasons but still could be an interesting player to target as the Giants try and insert some youth into their rotation.

Finally, a team like the Minnesota Twins could make some sense as a possible trade partner. The Twins could hold an advantage as they are not a member of Bumgarner’s no-trade list and could offer an intriguing package to boot.

The article lists 20-year-old flamethrower Brusdar Graterol as the main piece of the deal with speedy outfielder Gabriel Maciel and right-handed pitcher Luis Rijo being complimentary pieces.

Regardless, barring a miracle playoff run late in the season, Bumgarner doesn’t seem to be long for San Francisco. His status as a legend in the Bay Area will remain unchanged, but his time here does seem to be coming to an end.

The Giants might as well make the best of the situation and look to set the organization up for as much future success as possible. Bumgarner has already given so much to the Giants during his 11 years here — this is his chance to give back once more.