Madison Bumgarner to the Yankees? Not So Fast

Madison Bumgarner has been the subject of trade rumors, but recent reports say the New York Yankees aren’t as high on him as you might think.

SNY’s Andy Martino reported on Friday that Madison Bumgarner is not for sale as of now and he might not be at all if the San Francisco Giants keep winning. Madison Bumgarner has been the subject of trade rumors, but recent reports say the New York Yankees aren’t as high on him as you might think.

San Francisco has won 7 straight games and 12 of the last 14 games. Bumgarner’s last outing was on Thursday vs the Mets where he pitched 9 innings and allowed just 1 earned run but don’t let the numbers fool you.

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Martino said a scout who was at the game wasn’t as impressed with Bumgarner’s performance as some were with the stat line. Here is what he said.

“It wasn’t great, but he gets some swing and miss on his slider and has thrown a few good changes,” said one evaluator watching the game. “His fastball is 91 and OK. He had quite a few balls hit hard for outs.”

The scout is not wrong. Bumgarner’s hit rate has significantly increased and his velocity has decreased. Even though he is getting through games, the hard-hit balls aren’t getting hit in the right spots.

Then, a little later in the article, he detailed that the Yankees view Bumgarner “in a class below deadline targets Trevor Bauer, Marcus Stroman and Zack Wheeler (if healthy).”

But according to Martino, they aren’t out on him if the Giants decide to sell because he should come at a lower price than the latter.

New York should be targeting Trevor Bauer and Marcus Stroman before Bumgarner because Bauer is still in his prime and Stroman is just scratching the surface of what he can be.

Both Bauer and Stroman would be controlled beyond this season while Bumgarner will be a free agent after 2019 and will probably want to go back home with a team like the Braves.

The tricky part when it comes to deciding on who New York wants is which pitcher has the most value of winning games in the postseason, which will be hard for the New York Yankees to go wrong because obviously Bumgarner is arguably the most dominant postseason pitcher in history, and Bauer has pitched in the World Series while Stroman has also pitched in the playoffs.