Sadly, It Looks Like The Giants Were Right To Let Madison Bumgarner Go
It’s always hard to let go of one’s heroes, in sports or otherwise. And for San Francisco Giants fans- few were as big of a hero as Madison Bumgarner. Over the team’s run of three World Series titles in five years, Bumgarner was one of the rocks of the pitching staff, especially in 2014, when he clinched Game 7 of the World Series by providing five scoreless innings in relief. The 2019 season saw the end of his contract with the Giants and his arrival at free agency, causing a debate to rage within Giants fandom.
Should Madbum be retained at all costs or allowed to move on in order to help the team rebuild for the future? Unfortunately for the Giants fans who still hold Madbum near and dear to their hearts even though he now wears a different uniform, that debate may be in the process of being settled during the 2020 season. Giants’ President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi declined to trade Bumgarner at the 2019 trading deadline- whether this was throwing a bone to the fanbase or due to a lack of compelling offers, we may never know.
The Giants did tender Bumgarner a new contract during the 2019 offseason, offering him a four year deal worth a total of $70 million. However, it does appear that the organization was not particularly desperate to match the offer Bumgarner ended up taking from the Arizona Diamondbacks- for five years, $85 million. For the first time in a decade, the Giants would be without the left hander to start the season, with the departure of Bumgarner and manager Bruce Bochy marking a decisive end to the championship era, and the beginning of a new period of rebuilding in earnest.
Meanwhile, Bumgarner looked to get back to winning team baseball in Arizona. The team had finished 85–77 in 2019, and with the addition of Bumgarner looked to return to the postseason for the first time since 2017. He would replace Zack Greinke, traded to the Houston Astros, as the ace of Arizona’s pitching staff, and sure enough, when the 2020 season finally kicked off after months of being delayed by COVID-19, Bumgarner was named Arizona’s opening day starting pitcher. The future seemed bright in Arizona, and for Bumgarner.
Unfortunately, things would not go according to this script. Bumgarner’s first start could best be described as mediocre- facing the San Diego Padres, he lasted for five and two thirds innings, giving up three earned runs, walking three batters and striking out four. He put up a similar line in his second start against the Texas Rangers- not disastrous, but hardly the stuff that Arizona would have been hoping for from the man they had paid $85 million to be the new ace of their playoff-bound team. There were also concerning underlying signs, such as the fact that his fastball- which averaged 91.7 miles per hour in 2019, was sitting consistently in the 88–89 mile per hour range.
In Bumgarner’s third start, against the Houston Astros, the bottom began to fall out. In just over four innings, Bumgarner allowed eight runs, seven of them earned, including two home runs. Bumgarner’s struggles have proved to be symptomatic of greater issues with the Diamondbacks as they got off to a poor start to the season, possibly fatal to their playoff hopes during the abbreviated, 60-game season necessitated by the COVID pandemic. They have since fallen to the bottom of the standings in the National League West, behind even the “rebuilding” Giants.
Things have only gotten worse from there for both Bumgarner and the Diamondbacks, right up to his start on August 9, once again facing the San Diego Padres. He got off to a decent start, striking out young Padres star shortstop Fernando Tatis, Jr to lead off the game. But that would be the high point of Bumgarner’s afternoon. The very next batter was San Diego third baseman Manny Machado, who took one of Bumgarner’s fastballs- coming in at only 86 miles per hour- and launched it to left field for a home run.
Two batters later and Wil Myers would also take Bumgarner deep off of another fastball coming in at an underwhelming 87 mph. And in the very next inning Tatis came up to bat once again and this time sent a towering home run into the deserted upper deck of San Diego’s Petco Park off of Bumgarner. The nightmare seemingly would never end- when in that very same inning Manny Machado launched yet another home run off of Bumgarner, Padres’ color commentator Mark Grant observed “this is straight home run derby this afternoon for San Diego.”
It would become clear that not all was right with Bumgarner physically, although to what extent has yet to be determined. Reports have emerged that Bumgarner is suffering from back issues- which would be a major cause in loss of fastball velocity. It has since been announced that he will return to Arizona to be evaluated by team doctors.
Even though Bumgarner now plays for a Giants division rival, it gives me no pleasure to write about his struggles with a new team. But it does vindicate the decision made by Farhan Zaidi and the Giants front office to not overpay Bumgarner to an extension. As painful as it is to say, a large contract for Bumgarner at this stage would be only impeding the Giants’ rebuild.
While seeing Bumgarner drop off a cliff like this may not have been something most would have anticipated, a decline of Bumgarner as he entered his thirties was absolutely predictable. Many in the Giants fanbase decried the decision to let him go, but many of those exact same voices would be now bemoaning how “overpaid” he would be had the Giants kept him around. Letting Madison Bumgarner go was a tough decision for Giants leadership to make, but time is showing that it was, in fact, the right one.
