What should the San Francisco Giants do with Madison Bumgarner?

Alright, so finally, the last part of our speculation, or conversation, or rants, or whatever the heck you want to call this. Here is the reasons for why the Giants should trade Madison Bumgarner.

The Giants roster, especially on the position player side, and especially in the outfield, needs an overhaul if they’re going to compete. It’s incredibly difficult, with their money situation right now, to do it over-night. Madison Bumgarner holds their highest value of any “moveable” asset. Posey isn’t entirely movable right now, so that goes out the window. But, Bumgarner is easily the guy who would fetch the most prospects back Which is why, if they aren’t going to re-sign Bumgarner to an extension, it would behoove them to trade him.

Why? You ensure you likely get more back than the Qualifying Offer compensatory picks if he leaves.

More from Around the Foghorn

FanSided’s MLB department is doing an offseason simulation, complete with free agent bidding and trade negotiations between people trying to emulate the decisions their front office will likely go through in this offseason. Recently we negotiated a trade with the Yankees for Madison Bumgarner, and netted Justus Sheffield, Estevan Florial, and Domingo Acevedo to headline the prospect package. Again, it’s just a simulation, but it shows most people believe Bumgarner would command a rather large prospect haul.

Bumgarner is rumored to be able to command that type of deal as people have drawn the line between Bumgarner and that type of prospect haul. Frankly, that would make the Giants farm system jump from the bottom five to the top half in terms of talent and potential.

It helps the rebuild and re-tooling timeline, while giving you multiple young talents that are close to MLB ready for the rotation. It also primes their rotation to become the expensive thing in a few years, while by then, their position players would hopefully be the younger, cheaper crop than it is now.

If the Giants can net that type of prospect haul, and don’t believe that 2019 will be a competitive year, then they need to trade him. It quickens the rebuild process, as most of the players in that haul are already developed into MLB ready players.

Otherwise, you end up like the Royals, who slept on Mike Moustakas, Lorenzo Cain, and Eric Hosmer while only coming away with a few picks in this year’s draft for a few players more than 3 years away, and Brett Phillips. Not entirely conducive to turning around the big league roster quickly.

Look, we all know the Bumgarner situation is a tough one, and a tough decision is going to have to be made. Everybody on the Giants side just wants the right decision, both the fans, and the front office. Debates can be had over what exactly is the right decision, but ultimately we won’t know until it all plays out.

Hopefully, we gave you some ideas as to what the pros and cons are to each part of the situation are. As we can all see, it’s a tough decision. So understand that when one is made, the organization has likely thought it over pretty well.

More from Around the Foghorn

Schedule