Giants’ tear may not be enough to keep MadBum
It makes no sense.
Really, it defies all logic.
The Giants, left for the dead a month ago, have won 17 of their last 21 games for the first time in 18 years. They have four walk-off victories in their last seven games, all in extra innings, for the first time since 1958.
And they have climbed from the depths of the National League to just 21⁄2 games back in the wild-card race, at 52-51.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” manager Bruce Bochy said Tuesday night after San Francisco’s latest walk-off win, 5-4 against the Cubs. “It’s incredible. One night after another. I can’t even explain it.”
The streak is so absurd that Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball
operations, doesn’t know what to say when teams call making trade offers for ace Madison Bumgarner, closer Will Smith and their other veteran relievers.
“If you trade Bumgarner now,” one veteran Giants player said, “this clubhouse will go ballistic. And so will the fan base. How can you possibly justify it? I mean, what more do we have to do?”
The streak leaves the Giants at the intersection of contending and rebuilding.
“I wouldn’t be shocked if (Bumgarner is) traded,” first baseman Brandon Belt said, “but what we’re doing now is probably the most rewarding things I’ve seen in the regular season since I’ve been in San Francisco. If we keep Bum and everybody else, who knows what may happen.”
Other teams think Bumgarner indeed might be staying. Only a handful of scouts were on hand to watch him start Tuesday, including the Yankees, Red Sox and Braves. He pitched seven innings, giving up six hits and three earned runs while striking out seven.
Certainly, he’s the biggest prize on the trade market, yielding a 2.00 ERA in his last six starts, with 41 strikeouts in 36 innings and an opposing batting average of .221. He’s the ideal piece for contenders, a pending free agent who happens to have the glossiest postseason resume of any starter on the market.
So will the Giants give up on a playoff berth, particularly with this being Bochy’s final season of his Hall of Fame managerial career, for potential future building blocks?
Do they keep Bumgarner but trade away Smith, knowing they have the deepest and perhaps most powerful bullpen in the NL?
Do they stand pat, believing this magical run is going to last two more months, giving Bochy and Bumgarner a parting gift to forever remember?
Or do they possibly, as one Giants executive suggested, let Bumgarner make the decision himself. They revere Bumgarner so much they might give him the option of staying put or being traded, the executive told USA TODAY. If he stays, he’d be subjected to a qualifying offer at the season’s conclusion, which could depress his free agent value.
If Bumgarner goes, it likely would require waiving his no-trade clause to one of eight contenders on his no-trade list – the Yankees, Red Sox, Braves, Astros, Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers and Phillies. He would no longer be subjected to a qualifying offer, and he could enhance his value by pitching in October.
“It’s all noise,” Bumgarner said of the trade possibility. “We know what we have to do, and we’re showing that. I think that’s the most important thing. You can’t let any of the talk or speculation affect how you feel or how you’re going to come out and play.”
If Bumgarner had his druthers, he’d prefer to stay with San Francisco, signing a free agent contract that would pay him about $100 million over four years. The Giants haven’t ruled out making an offer to keep him, but it’s the longest of long shots. They’re ready to launch a youth movement, and trading Bumgarner would kick-start their project.
One losing streak before the trade deadline could change those plans. The Giants lost 4-1 Wednesday to the Cubs.
The Giants won three World Series from 2010 to 2014. Bumgarner, catcher Buster Posey and Sandoval are the last ones remaining from those teams.
“I’ll never forget when Bumgarner came up as a rookie in 2010,” former Giants third-base coach Tim Flannery said, “and Bochy had him pitch around (Albert) Pujols. Well, he comes into the dugout, and yells out, ‘I promise you, I’ll never (expletive) run from anybody again. That’s the last damn time.’
“And there was the time in Colorado when he got hit by a pitch. He walks by the Rockies dugout on the way to first base in Denver and says, ‘You boys better hope that was an accident.’ ”
That’s MadBum. No frills. No nonsense.
In the 2014 postseason, Bumgarner went 4-1 with a 1.03 ERA. He yielded just 21 hits and struck out 45 in 522⁄3 innings, including a five-inning scoreless relief appearance in Game 7 on two days’ rest.
“No one will ever forget that, because no one’s seen that before,” said Brian Sabean, the Giants’ GM for 18 years, including during those three World Series titles. “There’s a fire that burns within him that you don’t see, and it’s unique to him, that’s his personality. He’s the ultimate warrior and competitor.”
Said reliever Tony Watson: “He has done such incredible things for this organization, the fans, everybody. He’s won them three rings. He’s a World Series MVP. He’s done damn near everything that’s been asked.
“When you think of San Francisco, you’ve got to think of Bum and Buster. No one is ready to see that broken up.” Least of all, Bumgarner. “Winning,” he said, “solves everything.”