Andy Martino, SNY.tv | Twitter |
With the San Francisco Giants riding a six-game winning streak and jumping into the wild card race in manager Bruce Bochy's final season, the team is genuinely undecided about trading ace Madison Bumgarner and reliever Will Smith this month, according to major league sources.
A person with direct knowledge of the team's plans said plainly that Bumgarner and Smith are not available at the moment. The Giants have until July 31 to decide.
Bumgarner allowed one run in nine innings against the Mets on Thursday. While no one can argue with that result, evaluators were not overly impressed by his repertoire.
"It wasn't great, but he gets some swing and miss on his slider and has thrown a few good changes," said one evaluator watching the game. "His fastball is 91 and OK. He had quite a few balls hit hard for outs."
As previously reported, the Yankees (rightly, in our humble opinion) consider Bumgarner in a class below deadline targets Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman and Zack Wheeler (if healthy). But they're not totally out on him, in part because he might come at a lower price.
If the Giants keep winning, however, he might not be available at all. As with the Mets and Wheeler, the Giants must weigh whether there is more value in winning games with Bumgarner and extending a qualifying offer at the end of the season.