PHOENIX — Left-hander Madison Bumgarner, who signed a five-year/$85M deal to join the Arizona Diamondbacks before the 2020 season, was designated for assignment on Thursday. The Diamondbacks will eat the remaining money left on that contract and recalled Triple-A pitcher Anthony Misiewicz to take Bumgarner’s place on the roster. It was a somewhat shocking but not entirely surprising end for the Diamondbacks and Bumgarner, who pitched to a 5.23 ERA in 69 starts for Arizona.
His last start for the Diamondbacks was on Wednesday night when surrendered seven runs in three innings to the St. Louis Cardinals. That start raised his season ERA to 10.26. Bumgarner was 0-3 in four starts, while the Diamondbacks are 11-8 atop the National League West Division.
Host Millard Thomas of the Locked On Diamondbacks podcast discussed this move on Thursday's emergency edition of his show.
Thomas said, “D-Back fans everywhere can rejoice because this was not something I thought the D-backs would seriously do. I am so proud of them for taking this route because for a long time I thought they could potentially have a conversation about moving him into the bullpen.”
Thomas also thought the team would toy with a six-man rotation to prevent Bumgarner from having to pitch every five days. Or even possibly coming up with a phantom IL trip while he figured out what was wrong with him. Thomas added, “There were so many avenues the D-backs could have gone down to try and salvage this deal and this contract. (But now) this has turned into one of the worst contracts in baseball because the team are going to eat the rest of his $34M.”
Bumgarner is owed is $20.4M for the remainder of the 2023 season and $14M for 2024. He can sign with another team and earn the league minimum of $720,000.
Bumgarner’s longest outing resulted in a loss to the Miami Marlins on April 14. He pitched five innings, gave up five runs on nine hits, and only struck out one batter.
In his first start of the season on April 1 against the Dodgers, he only pitched four innings and gave up five runs on four hits with four walks and two strikeouts. He also gave up one of Trayce Thompson’s three home runs—a grand slam in the bottom of the first.
Another issue Bumgarner has had this season is the dip in his fastball velocity, which was sitting just a tick below 90 mph. A flat 90 mph fastball can’t play in a league where guys are throwing 98-99 with movement with regularity.
Following his rough start on Wednesday against the Cardinals, Bumgarner told reporters, “I wish I had some kind of answers. But I don’t.”
Bumgarner won three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants, made the National League All-Star team four times, and finished in the Top 10 of the National League Cy Young vote those same four seasons (2013-2016). He started pitching in the Majors at just 19 years old when he debuted in 2009. He’s turning 34 in August and has complied 2,209 innings. That’s a lot of innings. For his career, he’s 134-124 with a 3.47 ERA.
Now the question is, will another team take a flier on Bumgarner or is this the end of the road for him?
BE SURE to listen and subscribe to Locked On Diamondbacks wherever you get your podcasts!