Madison

Bumgarner

Bumgarner hasn’t officially announced his retirement, but he also hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since a disastrous four-start stretch to open the 2023 season, which led to the Diamondbacks releasing him and eating the final $37 million left on his contract. The 35-year-old lefty cemented his legacy with the Giants earlier in his career as one of the legendary postseason performers of his era and appears likely to head back to the Bay Area in a limited role either as a guest instructor at spring training or front office consultant.

There figures to be some interest in Bumgarner from teams dealing with rotation injuries. Still, he was a poor enough bet coming into the season, and he seems like a significantly worse one now with his velocity down.

It’s a surprising call, though not as much because of his performance (10.26 ERA over four starts this season) but because of how much money the Diamondbacks still need to pay him. Bumgarner is still owed $37 million ($23 million this year, $14 million next year) of his five-year, $85 million contract. The 33-year-old will undoubtedly pass through waivers unclaimed before hitting free agency. It will be interesting to see if prospect Brandon Pfaadt gets the call for the Diamondbacks in the coming days.

This essentially wraps up a highly disappointing tenure in Arizona where Bumgarner posted a 5.23 ERA over 69 starts. The Diamondbacks will cover the remainder of his contract ($37 million through 2024) in order to move on. The 33-year-old undoubtedly pass through waivers and will be available to sign with a new club at the major league minimum. The Giants’ postseason legend will surely get another chance somewhere, but his best days are behind him at this point.

Bumgarner tried for an early exit by shouting at Willson Contreras, who had the audacity to swing at one of Bumgarner’s meatballs, but Contreras somehow resisted the temptation to take a swing at the one-time ace. In truth, a brawl would have given the Diamondbacks their only path to a win today. Bumgarner is 0-3 with a 10.26 ERA. At this point, the Diamondbacks’ best hope for making good on this contract is to find the Madison Bumgarner that Madison Bumgarner once dated and hope that maybe she has a knuckleball.

“We gotta talk it over,” said Lovullo. The one-time Giants ace was torched for seven runs over three innings on Wednesday in a loss to the Cardinals and holds an astronomical 10.26 ERA, 2.40 WHIP and 10/15 K/BB ratio across 16 2/3 innings (four starts).

Bumgarner has had three rocky starts, with the last one on Friday when he allowed five runs in five innings in a loss to the Marlins. His velocity was sitting about 1.5 mph lower than previous year, and Bumgarner dropped hints after the game that he was pitching through something. The 33-year-old veteran is scheduled to pitch Wednesday against the Cardinals in St. Louis and isn’t considered a streaming option for fantasy managers this week.

The Diamondbacks gave Bumgarner a couple of extra days off and an easier opponent in Miami, but it wasn’t enough to produce results. His velocity is down about 1.5 mph from last year, and it’s not like he was fooling anyone then, either. He’s 0-2 with a 7.90 ERA.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said late Monday that Bumgarner went “a little bit more than I was comfortable with” during his previous start last Friday against the Dodgers when he threw 103 pitches over 4 2/3 innings. He’ll get a few extra days to recover with Drey Jameson taking the ball on Wednesday.

Jameson had been scheduled to take the ball on Friday against the Marlins in Miami, but he’ll be moved up to face the Brewers at home instead while Madison Bumgarner will have his next start pushed back until Friday. Jameson registered a 2.26 ERA and 1.20 WHIP over 8 1/3 innings out of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen this season and is worth a look in all mixed leagues.