SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants G.M. Brian Sabean shot down Tim Lincecum trade speculation right out of the gate Sunday.
"Timmy is going to be a Giant," Sabean told the San Francisco Chronicle.
In Sunday's Boston Globe, baseball columnist Nick Cafardo of Lincecum: "He will be available in trade, and it will be interesting to see who bites on the two-time Cy Young winner. The Giants insist his problems this season were strictly mechanical, but opposing teams wonder why his usual 96-mile-per-hour fastball was around 92 most of the season, and why his first-inning problems (28 runs) were the worst in baseball. Lincecum, 28, is due $22 million in the final year of his contract. Would someone take the gamble?"
Lincecum is coming of a career-worst season, but Sabean said he expects a bounce-back season in 2013 as Lincecum continues his reinvention.
"(Lincecum) has got to learn what it's like to be knocked down,'' he told the Chronicle. "He hasn't experienced anything like this. College. Minor leagues. Major Leagues. It'll be interesting he turns this around. He knows what he has to do."