Tim Lincecum Rumors: Pitcher Reportedly Has Guaranteed Contract Offer

Starting pitcher Tim Lincecum reportedly has a "guaranteed contract offer from a team that's not the [San Francisco] Giants," according to Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles. 

A Lincecum comeback seems highly likely, as the pitcher worked out for teams last week, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com:

Lincecum, 33, last pitched in the major leagues for the Los Angeles Angels in the 2016 season, going 2-6 in nine starts with a 9.16 ERA, 2.37 WHIP and 32 strikeouts in 38.1 innings. It was a far cry from the Lincecum who dominated baseball in his prime, winning two Cy Young Awards (2008-09), going to four All-Star Games and winning three titles with the Giants.

From 2008-11, Lincecum was one of the top pitchers in the game. But by the 2012 season, he started to struggle, and the Giants utilized him in a bullpen role in that postseason. He didn't recover his elite form from there, with injuries affecting him later in his career. 

As he told Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports in May 2016, hip issues contributed to his decline:

"I didn't know which days were gonna be the good days and which were gonna be the bad ones. Some days my hip would bite at me. Some days it would be fine. But I didn't have a lot of stability and strength in it. I wasn't able to sustain the end of my motion, when my foot hit. It felt very erratic, very wild. It didn't feel like much of a drive. It felt like I was jumping. That's where I lost it all. The power was lost in my legs, and it didn't drive through my hips, my mid-back and up into my shoulder. I was throwing a lot with my arm."

After his struggles upon returning to MLB in 2016, he didn't sign with a team in the 2017 season. San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy, however, is rooting for him to return to the big leagues.

"Timmy's like my kid," he told Chris Haft of MLB.com. "I love him to death."

Many fans of Lincecum, one of MLB's most dynamic players in his prime, likely would love to see him return to the game as well.