Madison Bumgarner never seemed like a fit in an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform, and the marriage ended after four dreadful starts to begin this season. In parts of four seasons with Arizona, Bumgarner registered a 5.23 ERA in 363.1 innings, striking out just 6.8 batters per nine innings. The veteran lefty has not had a season ERA below 4.00 since 2019.
So, why could Madison Bumgarner still help a team?
For one, the postseason experience and pedigree that Bumgarner would bring to a team is immeasurable and extremely valuable. Bumgarner has pitched to a 2.11 ERA in 102.1 postseason innings, winning three World Series rings. While Bumgarner has not appeared in a postseason since 2016, he can impart wisdom should his new hypothetical team reach.
Bumgarner has been painted as notoriously stubborn, and that extends to his pitch mix. The lefty has thrown roughly 70 percent fastballs and cutters since first showcasing the cutter in 2010. With his body taxed with nearly over 2,300 regular season and postseason innings, the velocity that made those two fearsome has disappeared. In particular, the cutter has lost effectiveness, with batters crushing the offering to the tune of a .314 average in 2022 and 2023. The once-feared cutter averaged just 86.2 mph in his four starts this season.
While the cutter has suffered with the diminished velocity, batters struggled mightily against Bumgarner’s fastball in four starts. Despite averaging just 89.5 mph this season, Bumgarner’s fastball yielded a .133 opposing batting average. Batters whiffed on 23.7 percent of the fastballs they have seen. Batters feasted on Bumgarner fastballs last season, but there was slightly more vertical movement and less horizontal movement in the 2023 version.
In the 2022 season, Bumgarner’s changeup, which he threw just 11.3 percent of the time, held batters to a .145 batting average. Even armed with more movement in both planes, Bumgarner’s 2023 changeup suffered, sacrificing velocity for the added movement. The fix could be as simple as throwing the changeup more often and harder, movement be damned.
So which teams could take a chance on the lefty, who would be available for the league minimum? Two quickly come to mind, and both play on the West Coast. The Los Angeles Angels are merely treading water despite employing two of the best baseball players we have ever seen. A lot of the issues stem from poor pitching, especially a rotation that ranks 24th in the league in ERA. Reid Detmers has been solid in his last two starts, but still owns a 4.87 ERA in eight starts. Maybe adding Bumgarner as a mentor could aid in the development of the team’s 2020 first rounder.
Second, the San Diego Padres are floundering despite a high-ticket payroll that many thought would take them to the top of the NL West. While pitching is not necessarily to blame, Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove have struggled a ton this season. With a new pitch mix, Bumgarner may be the stabilizer needed for the struggling team.
A bit of a longshot would be the Boston Red Sox. The team may be hesitant to add another struggling veteran to a rotation that already features Corey Kluber and his 6.26 ERA. But, Boston’s rotation ranks in the bottom five in the league for ERA, and the team is searching for answers, with eight different pitchers starting a game already.
Any team taking on Bumgarner will likely force a couple changes on the veteran, and his willingness to adapt could affect his employment status sooner rather than later.