© Kiel Maddox | 2018 Sep 15
According to reports, the Giants have taken multiple calls from teams interested in trading for Madison Bumgarner. According to new VP of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, those reports aren’t all that accurate.
Zaidi joined Gary & Larry on Wednesday and told a funny story illustrating how seriously we should take reports like Jon Morosi’s from last month, that said teams like the Brewers and Phillies have spoken with the Giants.
“I can tell you this and it speaks a little bit to the accuracy of some of those reports,” Zaidi said. “One of the teams that was mentioned in that article shot me a text the morning that it came out and said, ‘Hey I hear we’re talking to you guys about Madison Bumgarner, should we be?’ That gives you a little sense of the accuracy of some of the stuff that’s out there.
“What I will say is I’ve made contact with all 29 other teams really, trying to explore for matches. It’s still early in the offseason and teams are trying to figure out what teams are trying to fill by trade vs. free agency. We’ve talked about a bunch of our different players in different contexts. We’re really focused on not just the long-term health of the organization but also trying to make this team as good as possible for 2019. I think those conversations are really going to pick up in the next week or 10 days, but again we have really good players on this team that I would expect teams to have interest in.”
Bumgarner, 29, is about to enter the final year of his deal worth a reasonable $12 million in 2019. Bumgarner is expected to command an expensive multi-year contract on the open market should he hit free agency next offseason. The Giants already have heaps of money dedicated to aging starters in Jeff Samardzija and Johnny Cueto, and it’s unclear if they’d want to make a sizable reinvestment in Bumgarner, especially considering the myriad of holes on the roster.
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Zaidi on Bumgarner, start from 9:30.