PHOENIX — The D-backs closed out the house a part of their schedule Sunday afternoon as they fell, 3-2, to the Giants, however the information of the day got here earlier than the sport began when Arizona supervisor Torey Lovullo stated veteran left-hander Madison Bumgarner wouldn’t pitch once more this 12 months.
Bumgarner, 33, is wholesome, Lovullo stated, however there have been a pair of causes the workforce elected to not have him make yet one more begin this 12 months.
The primary is that they need to proceed to get seems at a few of their younger pitchers like lefty Tommy Henry and righty Drey Jameson, who tossed 5 1/3 scoreless innings Sunday towards the Giants.
“I might say the vast majority of it’s that we need to see some totally different arms, some youthful arms,” Lovullo stated. “On high of that, Bum has had a full season.”
Bumgarner has made 30 begins this 12 months, throwing 158 2/3 innings. It began out properly after which he hit a tough patch, and for almost all of the remainder of the season, he was continually working and trying to find a strategy to get again on monitor.
Bumgarner’s optimistic efficiency in that sport was one more reason why Lovullo selected to not have him begin once more.
“I made the choice that he had an unbelievable begin in his final begin and I simply felt like let’s finish the 12 months on that and get after a wholesome offseason,” Lovullo stated. “Bum has labored very laborious this 12 months, extraordinarily laborious, to get issues pushed in the appropriate path and I felt like this was a extremely good strategy to say transfer off into the offseason with that final begin behind him and hold shifting ahead.”
Bumgarner signed a five-year, $85 million free-agent deal previous to the 2020 season and continues to be owed $23 million subsequent 12 months and $14 million in 2024.
To this point throughout his three years in Arizona, he’s 15-29 with a 4.98 ERA in 65 begins.
The main focus over the previous few seasons, it appears, has been to discover a strategy to get Bumgarner again to the shape he had when he was profitable World Sequence video games with the Giants, however Lovullo needs to hit a reset on that.
“[His] stuff grades out in a reasonably comparable strategy to when he was profitable world championships in San Francisco,” Lovullo stated. “However I’m going to work laborious and I need everybody else to work laborious at not going backwards and say what he was once, however I’m going to essentially work laborious and deal with what he can change into.
“This can be Act II of his profession. The Arizona Diamondbacks are right here and supporting him and instructing him every part we will. He’s accepting that. We’re going to push by way of this with Bum. We’re going to get that act proper. That’s our job. It wasn’t a very good 12 months. We all know that. In speaking to him, some changes have to be made. He’ll make these high quality changes. He needs to have a very good 12 months subsequent 12 months and assist us win baseball video games.”
Over the previous week, Lovullo and the entrance workplace have had end-of-the-year conferences with gamers and it was throughout Bumgarner’s that Lovullo delivered the information about him being accomplished for the 12 months.
Whereas he needed to maintain most of their dialog confidential, Lovullo did share a few of what the 2 mentioned.
“Nearly how vital he’s to this rotation and what it means for him to exit each fifth day and assist us win baseball video games,” Lovullo stated. “There’s some minutia in there that we have been speaking about. He and [pitching coach Brent Strom] are at all times going again to the drafting board and making an attempt to determine what to do and tips on how to get it accomplished. Bum’s obtained an extended offseason. He’s going to go to work. He’s going to take a while off after which he’s going to choose up a baseball and begin to get to work with an eye fixed on 2023 and serving to us win.”
