Phillies should explore potential trade for Madison Bumgarner

It looks like the Philadelphia Phillies are one of the teams Madison Bumgarner is willing to be traded to if the San Francisco Giants decide to move on from the pitcher.

Back in the offseason, there were some rumors over whether Madison Bumgarner could potentially be a trade target for the Philadelphia Phillies to help provide another reliable pitcher to use in the rotation that already consisted of Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta.

As baseball fans know, the Giants would end up holding on to Bumgarner with the hope of seeing things turn around in 2019.

While there is still plenty of time left in the baseball season since it’s only the middle of May, San Francisco isn’t exactly off to the best of starts, as they currently sit on the bottom of the NL West.

And if that wasn’t frustrating enough for the Giants, it looks like the team is already looking ahead with the intention of the struggles continuing in 2019 by considering the possibility of trading Bumgarner before the deadline.

First off, it’s understandable for a player like Bumgarner to prefer to end up playing for a contender at this stage in his career if the Giants decide to move on, and it’s great to see the Phillies finally become part of that conversation after all these years.

Around this time last year, Philadelphia never would have been considered a destination for Bumgarner since the team was going through rebuilding mode, but obviously the circumstances are much different now.

Despite sitting on top of the NL East standings at the moment, the Phillies still have a long way to go when it comes to making sure things remain this way since there’s still plenty of baseball remaining before October.

While Philadelphia earned considerations for being one of the big winners from the offseason thanks to additions of key players in Bryce Harper and Jean Segura, pitching has still been a concern at times with their inconsistency.

Bumgarner certainly won’t solve all of the issues the Phillies have been dealing with over the last two months, but his presence and experience would certainly pay off in a big way.

So now that Philadelphia knows Bumgarner considers the team a potential contender he’s willing to play for, now comes the fun part of seeing how this situation plays out moving forward.