The Giants have the worst record in the NL. They are seven games back in the NL West already, and it’s just April 23. Madison Bumgarner might not throw another pitch this year.

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Giants lose Yastrzemski, Anderson early, roar back to sweep Mariners, climb above .500 So should they try to tank this season?

Let’s preface with this: you don’t ask that question of players, you ask it of management.

Players don’t try to tank games. They are competitors. If a front office wants to run out a Double-A team for a year or three, knowing they’re likely to be overmatched and lose something near to 100 games, then that is a decision made above the manager’s pay grade.

The Giants do not have Double-A players. They have Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Joe Panik, Hunter Pence and Eduardo Nuñez. They have an All-Star closer in Mark Melancon. They have Johnny Cueto, who started for the NL All-Star team last year.

And yet …

Tanking this season might be the best thing for the franchise’s medium- to long-term health. From a baseball operations perspective, anyway. And Bumgarner’s shoulder injury, sustained in a dirt bike accident last Thursday, might give the Giants the impetus to go through with it.

No, it wouldn’t be a multiyear rebuilding plan employed recently by the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs or the current Atlanta Braves. Maybe it’s just a one-year thing. Call it a Turbo Tank, maybe.

The Giants won’t have to make this decision for a couple months, when they would have to posture as buyers or sellers at the trade deadline. But the early returns aren’t good. They are 6-13, which matches their worst start through 19 games in modern franchise history. Taken together with their miserable second half last year, they are 36-55 since the All-Star break. And that projects to a 64-98 season.

It’s already evident based on these first few series that the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are better than a lot of experts predicted. They are younger and more athletic. Even the Padres took a series from the Giants. And while the Dodgers aren’t having the greatest April, there is no disputing the riches in their farm system. Shortstop Corey Seager could be a perennial NL MVP candidate and he turns 23 on Thursday. Cody Bellinger is on his way soon.

In other words, the rest of the NL West is getting younger and better. And the Giants? They were maybe a year away from their comeuppance, when a team suddenly looks old overnight. Think of the 2010 Phillies that the Giants beat in the NLCS. That team was an absolute juggernaut. But even in that series, watching players like Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, there were small signs that they were no longer players capable of performing at an elite level five or six days a week. Maybe two or three days. And the next year, maybe one or two.

It’s a frog-in-a-pot deal. You grow deeply connected to these players. You’re used to seeing them succeed and achieve great things together. You come to expect it. You allow yourself to forget that their window to be an elite performer at this level is incredibly small. You end up saying your goodbyes way too late.

Giants officials had to know that a significant restructuring was coming soon, and you can only do so much on the free-agent market to build a team these days. It turns out that restructuring may be happening sooner than anyone thought. The outfield already has splintered. And now Bumgarner wiped out on a dirt bike.

We should know more about Bumgarner’s shoulder injury in the coming days, but does anyone really expect him to throw a pitch before the All-Star break? And if the Giants are cooked in the standings by mid-July, what would be the point in having him attempt to come back at all?

A summer out of contention might be just what this organization needs. Fields must remain fallow for a season, or they eventually turn to dust.

No, the Giants will not try to lose games. Bruce Bochy will do everything in his power to ensure that his team stays focused and motivated, and shows up ready to win as often as possible. That is what he is paid to do. That is what the players are paid to do.

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Well, the Giants could trade Cueto and Nuñez prior to the July 31 deadline and add a few prospects to the system. They could free up money from Cueto’s departure to be opportunistic elsewhere. They could get innings and at-bats for Tyler Beede and Christian Arroyo so their top prospects could learn at the last level of development.

In the meantime, outfielder Bryan Reynolds gets another year to get closer to the big leagues (he tripled off A’s top prospect A.J. Puk on Sunday). They could see if first baseman Chris Shaw or third baseman Ryder Jones is ready to make a jump. They could throw Austin Slater into the fire, and perhaps discover if they have another Matt Duffy on their hands. Their bullpen would gain another year of experience. And next year, if all goes well with Will Smith’s Tommy John rehab, they’ll have a pretty good left-hander to throw back into the mix.

The Giants might even finish low enough in the standings to get a top-10 pick for John Barr, which has turned out pretty well for them. Their last top-10 choices were Zack Wheeler, Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum. That’s a whole lot of WAR right there.

It’s not as if they need to hold a fire sale. They still have a pretty decent framework for a team through 2020 at least, with Posey, Crawford, Belt, Panik, Bumgarner (if healthy), plus some innings stability from Jeff Samardzija and Matt Moore and an All-Star closer in Mark Melancon. This doesn’t have to be a painful process.

The Giants would never claim that losing could be a good thing for their long-term health. They are PR masters. Remember when they wanted you to think they were bitterly disappointed not to re-sign Pablo Sandoval? Or how they refused to say they had no interest in bringing back Tim Lincecum, instead hiding behind, “He wants to start, we’d like him to relieve, oh well!”

But Posey’s shattered ankle gave them an excuse to miss the playoffs in 2011. Perhaps Bumgarner’s injury gives them the same excuse now.

Sure, the sellout streak would end, in all likelihood, unless they hire Sean Spicer as a consultant. But that’s been a fabricated number for some time, anyway. The Giants still offer one of the greatest ballpark experiences in the major leagues. Their ballpark debt service is paid off. They would survive a few months drawing crowds of 30,000, and maybe a few non-renewals from their season-ticket holders.

Sure, some fans would be upset. But after three World Series titles, many others would understand. They might even prefer watching the Austin Slaters of the world while munching on their crab sandwiches.

It’s better than watching the Giants get even older in 2018, while the rest of the NL West outruns them in the standings.