San Francisco Giants: Top 5 teams targeting Madison Bumgarner
3. Minnesota Twins
More likely than not, Madison Bumgarner will not get too many plate appearances if he winds up with an American League team.
The good news for him is that he wouldn’t have to worry about run production if he headed up for to Minneapolis.
The Minnesota Twins were one of the top offensive teams in baseball last season, and they’re poised to dominate the American League Central at the rate things are going. The one thing holding them back, of course, has been rounding out their starting staff.
The Twins have a nice couple of pieces in their staff, including Jose Berrios, Jake Odorizzi, and a re-signed Michael Pineda. But the back end was far more volatile.
Bumgarner would quickly insert himself into that mix and round out what would surely be a solid postseason rotation.
His track record would still likely add him in as the ace, but more importantly for the Minnesota Twins would be his left-handedness — something they severely lack right now.
Many people criticized the complacency of the Twins at the deadline last season when they decided to roll with what they had and not add any additional pitching pieces.
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In one sense, their gamble paid off, as they went on to win the American League Central. But in another, they weren’t able to handle the New York Yankees when the postseason rolled in and the bats went relatively quiet.
Bumgarner seems as though he would be interested in the culture of Minnesota, and he’d surely be attracted to the run support he’d be getting there.
As a guy who’s focused on winning and doing what it takes to win, Bumgarner could elevate the Twins from an accused pretender hiding in the AL Central to a legitimate contender threatening a World Series run.
There are currently rumors that both the Minnesota Twins and the Chicago White Sox are interested in the grizzled southpaw.
If both teams are serious, a bidding war could break out simply to ensure that he won’t be going to a division rival. That could wind up elevating the final offer made by the Twins, and that might be all it takes to lure MadBum north.
It remains to be seen if the Twins have shaken their complacency from midseason and learned their lesson during the playoffs.
If they have, they might end up with a sneaky-good rotation.