According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner has listed eight teams on his no-trade list. These teams include the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and St.Louis Cardinals.
As Rosenthal noted, this group of eight are all contenders, who may be interested in acquiring Bumgarner to boost their rotation at some point this season. The lifelong Giants ace is not trying to avoid these teams, but strategically manipulate, which club trades for him.
The left-hander can block trades to any of these teams, but if he accepts a trade then will most likely receive some form of compensation. This is a normal occurrence with players, who waive their no-trade clause, as Rosenthal explained.
While Bumgarner has certainly had a remarkable career with the Giants, he’s currently in the final year of a five year $35 million contract. The Giants are also sitting in the basement of the NL West this year and owe Bumgarner $12 million.
It can be assumed that with a rebuild on the horizon the team has no plans to extend him past this season. With that being said, it makes a ton of sense to ship him off with an incentive to one of the previously mentioned contenders for a package of prospects.
Bumgarner has a 3.99 ERA/3.5 FIP/1.148 WHIP, along with 9.2 K/9. The southpaw is without a doubt still a very effective pitcher and could help propel any of these eight contenders to the postseason. Stay tuned as the Bumgarner trade rumors continue to swirl leading up to the trade deadline in July.
