© Neville E. Guard | 2019 Jul 23
Many have speculated that Tuesday night was Madison Bumgarner’s last start as a member of the San Francisco Giants, with the trade deadline just seven days away. If that happens, however, there may be hell to pay.
That’s according to a report by Bob Nightengale of USA Today, who was told by a Giants player that a trade of Bumgarner during the Giants’ improbable winning streak could turn the clubhouse against new VP of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi.
“If you trade Bumgarner now,” one veteran Giants’ player said, “this clubhouse will go ballistic. And so will the fanbase. How can you possibly justify it?
“I mean, what more do we have to do?”
It’s hard to argue that the Giants haven’t done just about all they can over the past two months to convince Zaidi and the front office to hold onto their assets for a late playoff push. After looking like arguably the worst team in the National League, the Giants find themselves two games above .500, and in the thick of the NL Wild Card hunt.
On Wednesday morning, Tim Kurkjian said he doesn’t expect the Giants to trade either Bumgarner or Will Smith at the deadline.
“I think Farhan is likely at this point gonna hang onto (Madison) Bumgarner, gonna hang onto Will Smith, maybe he trades one of the relievers and gets something useful in return, otherwise it’s going to be very difficult to break up a team that is the hottest team in baseball, or at least in the National League at the moment.”
