Philadelphia Phillies Rumors: Madison Bumgarner seems too risky to trade for

Despite reports indicating the Philadelphia Phillies expressing interest in Madison Bumgarner, this may not be worth the trade.

To say the rumor mill has been swirling like crazy this week would be a huge understatement for the Philadelphia Phillies when seeing how they seem to get linked to a new player each day, with Madison Bumgarner being one of the latest.

After Patrick Corbin visited earlier this week, the Phillies have made their intentions clear about the importance of adding another weapon to their rotation this offseason to make the unit that already consists of Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta even more dangerous.

While some reports indicate that Philadelphia is pretty high on Corbin, it will be interesting to see if the recent link to Bumgarner ends up going anywhere.

Not too long ago, Bumgarner was viewed as one of the league’s most dangerous pitchers, and played a key role in helping the San Francisco Giants put together a few World Series runs.

However, Bumgarner hasn’t exactly looked like the elite pitcher he used to be over the last two seasons, even if the argument can be made that San Francisco as a team hasn’t exactly been all that great.

After five seasons in a row if winning records, Bumgarner’s 10-16 record since 2017 is most likely one of the reasons why the Giants are flirting with the idea of a potential trade.

But when seeing how the Phillies could easily be better off with Corbin or saving the money to use on other players at different positions, would it even be worth it to explore the possibility of adding Bumgarner to the mix?

The whole point of Philadelphia’s aggressive approach this offseason with free agency or trades is to make sure they bring on the best talent possible to put them in the best position to contend during the 2019 season.

As tempting as it would be to acquire Bumgarner in a trade with the hope of him returning to his elite ways from a few years ago, this may seem like too much of a risk for the Phillies. So at the end of the day, it may be best for Philadelphia to just remove their name from the list of potential suitors, and focus their attention on better fits for the team in 2019.