After losing 98 games in 2017, the Giants are off to an inauspicious start in 2018. With their top three pitchers all out due to injury, San Francisco is currently sitting at 6-9 through 15 games. That’s not terrible considering, but the supposedly retooled offense is ranked 29th in the league in runs scored.
It’s been enough for people to start asking questions about how much longer the Giants will struggle before blowing things up. A decision to rebuild would likely involve trading one or more of their stars, and possibly their most valuable commodity in Madison Bumgarner.
Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly discussed that very prospect when he joined Bob Fitzgerald on KNBR Tuesday, saying that it’s something San Francisco will consider if they are still struggling around the trade deadline.
“Well it’s all in context, and we’ve got to find out what the context is going to be around the trade deadline in July,” Baggarly said. “If this thing nosedives again, I think they would be doing themselves a disservice not to consider it, at the very least, and I think that they would consider it. Whether they cross the bridge is a whole different thing, and that would include what ownership’s appetite would be. We know what their MO is: They keep their stars. It’s going to be quite the crossroads, and we’ve see this crossroads looming for the better part of two years maybe.
“The whole thing is, you’ve got to make one of two choices, either one of which is going to really impact your franchise long term. Do you sign Bumgarner to that $200 million-plus extension, knowing that you already have such limited financial flexibility with an aging team, not only in 2019 but in 2021 — and that’s going to further hamper you — or do you say ‘you know what, we see what Hunter Pence looks like this year. We saw Tim Lincecum at the end, we saw Matt Cain at the end, do we really want to go down this road again? Or do we bite the bullet? Would our fans understand if we use the one chip we really have that would help us restock the system with picking real high in the draft coming up this June. Do we seize that opportunity?’”
Bumgarner, 28, is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2020, and is due to make $12 million next season.
“You’re taking a big swing either, or. You’re making a huge commitment to the guy financially, or you’re trading him, because I don’t think you’re going to get him to go along on one-year contracts. So it’s a huge decision, and the context of where this team is in a couple months is going to be a major backdrop to which way they decide to go.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Baggarly on Bumgarner, start from 5:00.
