San Francisco Giants: Madison Bumgarner Hits DL After Dirt-Bike Accident
After a dirt bike accident on the off-day, San Francisco Giants’ ace Madison Bumgarner is headed to the disabled list, while Chris Stratton comes up.
Bad news came rolling in even before Friday’s series opener with the Colorado Rockies, when the San Francisco Giants announced that their ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner was hitting the disabled list. During the team’s off-day on Thursday, Bumgarner was involved in a dirt bike accident and suffered bruised ribs and a grade 1 or 2 strain in the AC joint of his left (throwing) shoulder, according to Andrew Baggarly. Bumgarner is out of the hospital and resting at the team’s hotel in Colorado.
Bumgarner is hitting the disabled list for the first time in his nine-year major league career. His streaks of six consecutive seasons with 30 or more games started and 200-plus innings pitched are both certainly over. In four starts this season, Bumgarner owns a 3.00 ERA, 1.074 WHIP, and 9.3 strikeouts per nine innings, all right in line with his career totals, but the team is 0-4 in his starts because of an extreme lack of run support.
AC (acromioclavicular) joint injuries are ranked on a scale of one to six, with one being the most mild form of the injury. Grade one injuries (according to sportsinjuryclinic.net) involve only minor ligament damage and no actual shoulder separation. On the other end of the scale, grade 6 is much more severe, with complete ligament ruptures and visible deformities in the shoulder. If you’re looking for any type of silver lining here, an immediate takeaway is that this injury could have been much, much worse.
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Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the team expects him to be out six to eight weeks.
In just the third week of the season, this is already the third major injury the Giants have suffered during the regular season. The first was Bumgarner’s catcher, Buster Posey, who suffered a concussion in the home opener on April 10th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was hit in the head by Arizona pitcher Taijuan Walker with a 95-mile-per-hour fastball during his first plate appearance, and the team immediately removed him from the game and placed him on the seven-day disabled list the next day.
Posey has since returned, albeit only serving as the team’s designated hitter, but the threat of recurring concussion symptoms still exists.
Jarrett Parker broke his clavicle last Friday making a spectacular catch in left field, after he crashed into the outfield wall at full speed. The expectation for him is also to return to baseball activities in six to eight weeks after he has surgery to repair the break.
The Giants also lost left-handed reliever Will Smith, who figured to be a major piece of the bullpen puzzle, to the dreaded Tommy John surgery in Spring Training.
To take Bumgarner’s spot on the 25-man roster, the Giants called up starting pitcher Chris Stratton. How the Giants will fill his spot in the rotation remains a mystery. Bumgarner’s next start falls in the team’s first series with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and logic says that Ty Blach will get this start, as the Dodgers continue to be flustered by left-handed pitchers.
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In the meantime, Stratton could serve as the long reliever in Blach’s stead, which is a role in which he pitched in the big leagues last season. Top prospect Tyler Beede had his last Triple-A start on Wednesday, which would put him on schedule with Bumgarner’s turn in the rotation. He could be a call-up candidate if the team doesn’t want to roll with Blach in the rotation for the long-term. With no second lefty in the bullpen and Josh Osich still struggling in Triple-A, Blach continuing to serve as a reliever could be the best thing for the team.