The Houston Astros are one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, but that won't stop them from trying to make an impact addition ahead of Wednesday's MLB trade deadline.
Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports reported Tuesday an update on trade talks between the Astros and San Francisco Giants involving left-handed starter Madison Bumgarner.
Bumgarner is in the final year of his contract and would be a rental for any contending team pursuing him. He's enjoyed a productive season for the Giants with a 6-7 record, a 3.67 ERA and 140 strikeouts over 139 2/3 innings. He's been strong of late, too, throwing seven innings or more and giving up an average of 2.6 earned runs over his last three starts.
The Giants are in a tough spot because they're only 2.5 games out of the second wild-card playoff berth in the National League but have several pitchers contenders would love to acquire at the trade deadline. Relief pitchers Will Smith and Tony Watson, in addition to Bumgarner, would be tremendous additions for teams with World Series hopes.
Several teams, including the Boston Red Sox, have talked to the Giants about Smith.
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The Astros have the best run differential (plus-126) and record (68-39) in the American League entering Tuesday. They won the World Series in 2017 but couldn't handle the Boston Red Sox's dominant offense in last year's American League Championship Series loss in five games. Adding a starter with Bumgarner's playoff pedigree (three World Series titles and a 2014 World Series MVP) would make the Astros the favorites to win the AL this season -- if they aren't already.
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