Brian Sabean reluctant to give Madison Bumgarner trade advice to Farhan Zaidi

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In his first season as general manager of the Giants in 1996, Brian Sabean made the controversial decision to trade four-time All-Star and homegrown fan-favorite, Matt Williams.

Now, 22 years later, new Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has to decide whether or not to trade his own four-time All-Star and homegrown fan-favorite, Madison Bumgarner.

Sabean got crushed back then for trading Williams and there’s a pretty good chance Giants fans will be upset with Zaidi when/if he trades Bumgarner.

Sabean was asked this week by The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly for any advice he might offer to Zaidi and if Bumgarner will take the ball on Opening Day in Los Angeles on April 1, 2019.

“I can’t speak for Farhan or what’s the best bird in the hand,” Sabean told Baggarly. “So I’d rather stay away from answering that. But as someone that’s longstanding in the organization, watching [Bumgarner] perform, I’d hope that would be the case. Having said that, we’re a long way from Opening Day. So anything is possible.”

Then Sabean said something similar to what Zaidi said during his introductory press conference.

“I think all options are on the table until they’re not,” Sabean said. “You can’t make a move for a move’s sake with Bumgarner, and you have to rehearse all the scenarios.”

As NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic wrote last week, a possible Bumgarner trade is more likely to happen around the July 31 trade deadline. But sources have said the Giants a “fully ready to trade the franchise’s ace if the right deal comes along.”

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