San Francisco Giants: Twins moving toward Madison Bumgarner trade?

The rumor mill surrounding San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner is already in full swing, and the Minnesota Twins are the latest speculated landing spot.

It’s no secret the San Francisco Giants will be selling at the trade deadline. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been going through the list of contenders and looking at potential trade packages. One of the first teams I looked at was the Minnesota Twins, and I specifically built a trade package for Madison Bumgarner.

It sounds like there is something to the Twins being a potential landing spot.

On Saturday, Twin Cities Pioneer Press columnist Charley Walters shook up the rumor mill when he reported: “Insiders say the Twins are moving closer to a trade with the Giants for left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner, 29.”

To quickly review, the Twins have one of the best farm systems in baseball. Their top two prospects, Alex Kirilloff and Royce Lewis, are most definitely off-limits in trade talks. However, their system is deep enough to acquire Bumgarner (or even Will Smith) anyway.

A package would likely either center around right-handed pitcher Brusdar Graterol or shortstop Wander Javier.

Darren Wolfson of KSTP-Minnesota quelled the imminence of the Bumgarner rumors later on Saturday with the following tweet:

Even Walters’ original comment was listed in the “Don’t Print That” section of his column, so it makes sense. Still, Jayson Stark of The Athletic late last month said on 97.5 The Fanatic that he was “hearing that Madison Bumgarner could be traded as early as mid-June.”

The fact is, San Francisco Giants fans should be on their toes until a trade happens with Bumgarner.

A number of teams, including the Yankees, have already shown interest in the southpaw. The new president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has no doubt already set his price for Bumgarner. He’s ready to pull the trigger if someone is willing to meet it.

The only remaining question: Who will meet it and when?