Milwaukee Brewers linked to Madison Bumgarner once again

With the trade deadline just a few weeks away, the Milwaukee Brewers have once again been linked to pitcher, Madison Bumgarner.

As the trade deadline is quickly approaching, even though the Milwaukee Brewers find themselves just a half game behind the Chicago Cubs for first place in the NL Central, it is clear that they still need some additional help, particularly at starting pitcher.

Coming into the season behind Jhoulys Chacin, the Brewers were supposed to be led by their trio of young pitchers, but it has not worked out that way at all. Chacin can’t seem to consistently find his form from 2018, while Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta are now in the bullpen.

As a result, they would sign Gio Gonzalez but he remains on the IL and they have tried Adrian Houser out of the pen but as a starter, he can’t seem to put it together. As a unit, the starting rotation has a total ERA of 4.82 which ranks 12th in the NL and is actually improved upon from where it has been for much of the season.

Up to this point, the starting rotation has been carried primarily by Brandon Woodruff and Zach Davies, but if the Milwaukee Brewers hope to make another deep playoff push, someone else will have to step up, or they’ll have to go and get someone.

Enter Madison Bumgarner of the San Francisco Giants, who once again has been linked to the Milwaukee Brewers. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic broke the news that the Brewers, along with the Minnesota Twins, the Houston Astros, and the Atlanta Braves are all interested in Bumgarner.

Now, the Brewers do fall on Bumgarner’s no-trade list, but so do most teams that are in contention as it gives Bumgarner leverage in negotiations. So this is more of a strategic move on Bumgarner’s part than anything.

Bumgarner is one of the most decorated players in the game, boasting four All-Star appearances, three World Series Championships, a World Series MVP award and an NLCS MVP award. If acquired, the Milwaukee Brewers would be gaining a starting pitcher with plenty of postseason experience and success, which can go a long way in September and October.

In 102.1 innings of playoff baseball pitched in his career, Bumgarner holds a 2.11 ERA with 87 strikeouts and only 24 earned runs. To put it simply, he’s been just dominant.

However, over the last few seasons that isn’t the Mad-Bum that we have seen on the mound. So far this season he holds a 4.03 ERA with a FIP of 3.90. Bumgarner catches a lot of the strike zone – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but he is getting hit rather hard this season as he holds a hard hit rate of 45.5 percent which is the second highest in all of baseball.

We’ve also seen a jump in his home runs given up per nine innings which sits at 1.37 and totals 17 on the season. You have to wonder if the trade was made, if we would see those numbers take another jump as his home stadium would be the hitter-friendly confines of Miller Park, rather than Oracle Park.

Yet things aren’t all doom and gloom when it comes to Bumgarner’s performances on the mound. In recent seasons there have been concerns due to his velocity dropping, but in 2019 his fastball velo sits at 92.2 which is the highest it has been since the 2015 season.

He’s also striking out 4.79 batters for every 1 walk that he gives up which is above his career average of 4.17. Additionally, Bumgarner has been trying to work both sides of the plate more consistently and early on it is paying off. Over his last 15 innings, he has given up 4 earned runs with 22 strikeouts, just three walks and only one home run.

And although Bumgarner isn’t a “true ace” anymore, at 29-years-old he is still an effective pitcher that would eat up innings. At six different times in his career, Bumgarner has thrown over 200 innings in a season and so far in 2019, of his 19 starts, 16 of them have gone at least six innings. The Brewers desperately need that kind of reliability in the rotation.

While the left-hander would give this Milwaukee Brewers rotation a boost, what could derail the trade negotiations is the Giants high asking price as GM Farhan Zaidi is valuing Bumgarner as if he were pitching as he did back from 2010 to 2015.

Back in early May of this season, Tim Kurkjian of ESPN had this to say in regards to what the Giants wanted in return for Bumgarner:

"“If you’re the Braves and he’s the difference between not making the playoffs and winning the division … The Brewers, almost any team would love to have him. But the Giants are going to say ‘If you want our best player, you better load up with four top players, young guys, or we’re not dealing him.'”"

From the Brewers perspective, we know that Keston Hiura is off limits – as he should be – but they have made a number of trades over the last few seasons and as a result, their minor league system isn’t as strong as it once was. So are they as willing to make the move for a player that will likely only be here for two months and hopefully a playoff run while shipping out more of their top prospects?

That remains to be seen, but if they truly feel he will help get them to their goal of making it to the World Series they have to at least consider it.

Base on what we have seen so far the Milwaukee Brewers likely need to make some sort of move to bolster the starting rotation and even though Bumgarner isn’t the same pitcher that he used to be, we’ve seen a change in scenery revitalize Justin Verlander in Houston. So perhaps bringing Bumgarner to Milwaukee could have the same effect.