Some interested teams reportedly got a good look at Madison Bumgarner recently.
The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees were among "several clubs" that scouted the Giants ace in his second-to-last start last Saturday, USA Today's Bob Nightengale reported Wednesday. Bumgarner pitched 6 1/3 innings that day, striking out six and allowing four earned runs in a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Phillies and Yankees both reportedly believe they could use a top-line starter, although both teams entered Friday in the top 10 in earned run average. Still, both teams are on Bumgarner's no-trade list.
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What might be a bigger deal to the Giants, however, is the quality of both team's prospects.
Neither New York nor Philadelphia cracked MLB Pipeline's top 10 farm systems at the start of the season. Still, both teams boast two prospects in the top 100: The Phillies have third baseman Alec Bohm (No. 54) and right-handed pitcher Adonis Medina (No. 70), while the Yankees possess outfielder Estevan Florial (No. 52) and right-handed pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga (No. 59).
Nightengale reported that the Giants have "hopes of seizing at least one top five prospect from a team, or perhaps two others of their top 15 prospects in return." Their best match, then, might be another team that already got an up-close look at Bumgarner this week in the Atlanta Braves.
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San Francisco Giants
As NBC Sports Bay Area's Alex Pavlovic noted Thursday, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has history with the Braves’ front office. Plus, the Braves sat third on MLB Pipeline's farm-system rankings at the beginning of the season.
No matter which hypothetical Bumgarner destination you prefer, though, it seems increasingly certain he’ll no longer be wearing orange and black when the July 31 MLB trade deadline passes.