The San Francisco Giants are presently playing at a 94-loss clip, and the SportsLine Projection Model (@SportsLine on Twitter) gives them less than a 1 percent chance of making the postseason. Since that fully squares with expectations, it's very likely that GM Farhan Zaidi will position his club as sellers leading up to the July 31 trade deadline (recall that there's only one trade deadline starting this season).
Regarding the Giants' most lucrative potential trade piece, veteran lefty Madison Bumgarner, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal has a scoop:
As we've seen time and again, it's fully possible for a team on a player's no-trade list to swing a deal. All that acquiring team has to do is persuade said player to waive said clause, typically by picking up an option or offering an extension. Rosenthal points that out in a follow-up tweet.
As for Bumgarner in this, his age-29 campaign:
The ERA isn't optimal, but Bumgarner's enjoyed a big bump at the command-and-control level, and that's going to be enough to entice contenders in need of rotation help. MadBum's current K/BB ratio of 6.38 would be a career high, and his current K% (strikeouts as a percentage of batters faced) of 25.1 would tie a career best. Bumgarner's enjoyed a modest velocity boost thus far in 2019. Beyond that, he's been free of pitching-related injuries for his entire career.
Bumgarner's in his walk year, and he'd very likely want to work out an extension before he'd agree to approve a trade to one of those aforementioned teams. As well, Bumgarner, thanks to the team-friendly extension he signed in April of 2012, has been grossly underpaid over the course of his career to date. Doubtless he's looking for a sizable payday.
Among current contenders/aspiring contenders, the Brewers, Red Sox, Braves, Mets, and Cardinals probably need rotation help the most. Developing!
