6:33pm: Bumgarner has a displaced fracture in his fifth metacarpal (that is, his pinky), Baggarly reports (Twitter links). He’ll have surgery tomorow to place pins that will remain in place for four to six weeks. Once his finger is back in working order, of course, Bumgarner will need to build back up to a starter’s workload.
The hope at this point is that Bumgarner will be be able to return before the All-Star break, per Baggarly, who notes that there is a worthwhile comp to consider. Former Giants righty Ryan Volgelsong missed about 11 weeks with a similar injury back in 2013.
6:10pm: Giants ace Madison Bumgarner has been diagnosed with a fractured left hand after being struck on the hand by a batted ball today, the club announced and Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic was among those to report on Twitter. Details on his anticipated absence are not known, but this is clearly a devastating injury for a player and team that were hoping for a major rebound from a disappointing 2018 season.
The 28-year-old Bumgarner has been one of the game’s preeminent workhorses ever since he took to the big league mound. Between 2011 and 2016, he never made less than 31 starts, threw fewer than 201 1/3 innings, or finished a season with an earned run average above 3.37. Over the past three seasons of that run, he took the ball 99 times and racked up 662 1/3 frames of 2.88 ERA ball. And that’s all before taking into account his legendary postseason efforts.
That all changed early last year, when Bumgarner was injured in a dirt bike accident. But he still made it back in time to finish the year with 111 innings of 3.32 ERA pitching on his ledger. And it seems fair to say that he has looked himself this spring. In his first five Cactus League starts, Bumgarner racked up 27 strikeouts against just three walks while allowing six earned over 19 frames.
In the aggregate, it seemed that the lost first half of the 2017 campaign might end up as little more than a blip on the radar for MadBum, a burly lefty who has long been a paragon of strength on the mound. While his shoulder does not appear to be a significant cause of concern moving forward, though, he’ll now have to work back from another injury.
As noted above, it’s impossible to say at this point how long the Giants will go without Bumgarner. The specifics of the injury, along with the course of treatment, could presumably result in a variety of scenarios. And he’ll clearly need to rebuild his pitch count before going full-bore at the game’s highest level. Position players frequently are able to return from this general sort of injury without terribly lengthy absences — less than six weeks in some cases — but perhaps it could take somewhat longer than usual for a hurler who suffered a fracture to his pitching hand. Regardless, we’ll need to await further word before any kind of timeline is available.
The news comes on the heels of the loss of another key starter, Jeff Samardzija, to open the season. Skipper Bruce Bochy said today that Samardzija is likely to miss something on the order of three to four weeks, as Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. That knocks out two of the team’s top three starters on the cusp of Opening Day.
As things stand, San Francisco is going to trot out a roster that features Johnny Cueto at the top of the rotation, followed by non-roster invitee Derek Holland and relatively unproven hurlers Chris Stratton and Ty Blach. There are some intriguing young talents that could conceivably take the fifth starter’s spot, once it’s needed, but the club will no doubt be on the look for outside additions. Of course, the luxury tax tightrope walk that the Giants have attempted this winter — which is why they shipped out a notable depth piece in Matt Moore — is going to make it hard to find any kind of impactful arm.
Sorry Giants fans.
1st Shark
and now Bum! That sucks Giant fans! Looks like Moore will be missed a little more than they thought . Good luck guys!
Gigantes Pobrecitos
RIP Giants’ playoff chances. If they even had any to begin with
And with the first pick of the 2019 draft, the Giants select ….
Rip giants fans
Crap. Crap. Crap.
This is suddenly a really really bad day. Much like that day in April last year.
Ouch. That just hurt the giants big time
At least it wasn’t a dirtbike accident
This is terrible to hear. I hate the Giants but MadBum is great for the game, get better soon big man
Wow, take about being snake-bit. I was really looking forward to seeing what the G’s could do this season.
then this.
Prime pickens for the Padres,ha
Who?
Padres likely remain ahead of the Giants again this year.
that really sucks
This makes those off-season moves look really bad. I can’t imagine how they can keep up in that division.
Don’t know why you’re getting any thumbs down. You’re right. He was their only saving grace in their rotation. Now they have to hope Cueto can return to form. They can’t depend on their offense to win 90.
Wow, I hate this. Sorry giants fans. This is bad for the game.
1. Cueto
2. Stratton
3. Holland
4. Blach
5. Beede?
Lookin real bad. This sucks.
that’s probably up there for the worst rotation in the NL
ummm #marlins
Don’t forget about the Padres !
I’ve seen better AAA rotations…
Forgot Mikolas
Yeah wrong team, whoops
Top 3 Cueto,Holland and Heston.
Two years in a row the season was torpedoed out of the gate. Ouch.
Perfect karma for never flying with the team to all his away starts. Being a good teammate is a skill this million dollar arm 10 cent head doesn’t have at all and never will.
His rep is so bad around MLB that he might not even get another contract from anyone else just because he’s a nightmare person to work with. Great talent, but not worth the time.
How’s he going to blow snot-rockets out of his right nostril?
Haha, he’ll have to aim high over his right arm. Sucks to be a Giants fan. Hope he gets back sooner than expected.
Wow if he’s out a significant amount of time, this season and last might be the deciding factor in his hall of fame case. He’s still young but a guy that had hall of fame but not upper tier hall of fame numbers ala Kershaw to have 2 prime years taken away does not bode well.
He’ll get in. And I’m a rival fan.
What bodes rather well is Madbum’s three WS rings to Kershaw’s zip.
Welp, that’s it for the Giants.
‘fraid your right. say it ain’t so, Bum!
Well there’s always Colon
and Nolasco and Niese! That’s 3 starters right there.
They’re automatically thinking that the Giants are going to have a disappointing 2018 season
It’s already been a disappointing season and the season hasn’t started yet.
well, after the spring they’ve had, there’s only one way to go, and that’s up. unfortunately when they look up they see the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
and Rockies and Padres
Padres? HAHAHAHAHAHA
‘”fjsakfalsdfaslkjdfasf;w0aefhoiasdfhoasfdjasdffjasdfjajvadsk” – My heart
Same.
This. Sucks.
So sorry Giants fans, as a Cards fan I know how this feels. Best of luck anyway, you never know who else might step up and have a career year.
Everybody on the Giants has already had their career year unfortunately.
Ha, I was trying to be optimistic, but touché.
You are probably looking at 3 young guys in the rotation, so no, none of them have had their career year.
Giants and Cardinals fans feeling sorry for themselves is hilarious. Just two more spoiled fanbases.
I’d write some snide comment at you, but you’re a Mets fan. It must be rough out there, Major Tom.
Whit Merrifield at your service…lol
No one else is laughing
This really hurts and it is even worse now that all the starting pitching free agents have been gobbled up plus we have no more money to spend. Maybe it wasn’t a smart idea to get both McCutcheon and Longoria and have only three legitimate SPs to start the season. We’re now down to one and he’s been bad in spring training. We need to dump Dyson and use his money to get a SP who may be on the verge of being optioned. Brian and Bobby, we need you to pull off some magic.
I disagree, I think we need to bring Suarez in and give him a shot, the expectation is that this will be about 2 months or so, that is doable with some combo of Suarez, Holland,blach, stratton, cueto in the rotation and even though there are issues maybe Heston or beede can come up for a spot of need be.
oh boy, really bad news Giants fans, I know this may sound drastic but no more spring trainning games, just team practices
If the Rangers drop Colon maybe he’ll surface in SF.
Not enough food for him and the Panda.
At the very least, they would have to put some reinforcements under the field for fear of a collapse into the bay.
Great news giants fans. Jonathan niese is available
Do commenters here even watch baseball? Not sure why everyone acts like this means the giants are done for the year. The video game generation is about as smart as a bag of rocks. Rocks are things kids used to have to pick out of the lawn and out in bags.
if you think this team has a chance to make the postseason with that rotation now, then maybe you don’t watch baseball enough
They didn’t have a chance before the injury.
Really? You think your generation has a monopoly on rocks now? I assume you also walked to school in the snow, uphill both ways too.
Every day he walked 15 miles in the snow to school, barefoot, cleaning chimneys along the way
The Giants had a chance at the playoffs if everyone stayed healthy. Missing MadBum out until July and Shark until mid-May at the soonest means they have no shot. None.
Their rotation was iffy before Shark and Madbum went down. Their offense is average and their rotation is competing with the Padres for the worst rotation in baseball at this point.
Stratton has looked really good. I think he’s now their best starter
Nah, still Cueto if he can bounce back, which is a possibility. Also, Marlins don’t have a great rotation now do they?
Unfortunately Giants are still screwed.
Well this is a really stupid comment. It’s past your bed time gramps.
Be respectful to your elders young man! You will be old one day soon enough.
this team was barely a playoff team before this now they’re done. this is a major loss and they lost the shark on top of that
They weren’t a playoff team before
With a rotation of Cueto and 4 meh pitchers? Giants will be lucky to win 80 games
I’ve only heard that Snot Rocket’s teammates lub him.
But I’ve also heard they are not fond of Posey, so….
Giants season ended before it began again in 2018. No MadBum, no Shark, no shot. When they are 10 games back at the end of May will they start the sell off?
I will make a bold prediction the Giant rotation will not hold them back this year.
Maybe, their offense is brutal as well.
Well, that was a quick end to SF’s season
As a Dodger fan this is a bummer
It is good for baseball to see the best competing and hopefully the recovery is quick
Agreed. Better for baseball when the best are on the mound. Hoping for a speedy recovery.
Lol Jeff Samardzija is not a key starter. He’d be a spot starter swing man emergency long relief guy in a blow out game in the 3rd inning on 29 other teams.
Perhaps, but I’d say a clear #3 guy in the rotation is pretty key.
for that rotation, he is a key starter lol
okay I’m not a big fan of the shark but that’s just ridiculous he’s a very solid back-of-the-rotation starter. he isn’t great on a rate basis but he does give you a lot of inings there is some value in that
yep, ‘ol Samardjzija, servin’ up them taters
John Lackey says Hi
Royals Revenge
Lol
yikes these injuries have completely ended their season before it started. well this kind of stuff can happen when you have a roster that’s barely able to contend as is.
The news on our pitchers today worse than 9/11 #neverforget
Idiot
That’s BS! Don’t ever compare anything like this to 9/11. You have no idea what you’re talking about moron!
Poor MadBum. One of the most reliable and consistent guys in baseball and then back to back years with injuries that shouldn’t have happened.
What a hayseed, twerp.
Honest question here: Why can’t he get his pins installed and pitch 15 days later? I don’t see the pinky carrying much of a load. Just the pain? Risk of shaking the bone shards apart? I’m not being critical, I’m just neither a doctor or an athlete.
Think about it. No, he can’t throw 90 mph fastballs with part of his hand being fractured.
Yes!!!! Now we just need Kershaw to slip a disc!
The nl West is falling apart!
Douche! Don’t ever wish injuries on any player! Ever!
The important question is: where does Madison land on the draft board now?
lmao
Madbum is probably the toughest guy I’ve ever seen on the mound. Hope he gets well soon. Would love to see him in philly next year.
There goes my fantasy team
Please Please Please can we stop with “MadBum”? Please?
You’re not wrong. I just got tired of writing Bumgarner over and over. But I’ll take it under advisement.
He himself said that he doesn’t like buing called “MadBum”. But he also said that everyone in the clubhouse calls him “Bum” so he just goes with that.
All baseball nicknames or this one only?
I thought this only happens to Mets pitchers?
As a doctor I just wanted to comment on the actual fracture itself. The beat writer Mr. Baggarly called it a fracture of his 5th metacarpal. In your article you make a point to clarify that is his “pinky” for those who might not know. Well technically you are wrong. The pinky is comprised of 3 bones called phalanges (distal, middle, proximal). The metacarpal is actually the bone that goes from where the joint is formed from the base of the phalanx furthest from your fingertip (proximal phalanx) to where it meets up with the 8 carpal bones that essentially make up your wrist (the hamate bone to be exact). So theoretically he should be able to move his pinky and wrist just fine, its the long bone in between that broke.
So this shouldn’t have any potential longer term effects on bending his pinky while gripping a changeup or anything. We will just have to wait the typical 6-8 weeks it takes for a bone to heal. Breaking the 5th metacarpal (same bone that is broken in “barroom” and “boxer’s” fractures) has a safer outlook than breaking one of the actual phalanx bones that make up the pinky.
Who says you cant learn anything reading a baseball rumors site!
I’ve had this fracture 3 times myself. Obviously, having not seen the X-ray to compare it’s all speculation but I was resuming sporting activities in 4 weeks, mostly pain free in 6 weeks and 99% recovered in 8. But I was 10 years older than Madison at the time, so he should heal faster in theory. If there’s one person who can return faster from this injury than the average it’s him.
If this were the NFL, they would make all the pitchers throw from behind an L screen.
What does that even mean
Baseball guys understand
If this was the NFL, they would just amputate that little pinky
I know SF is up against the luxury tax threshold and cannot conceivably take on any more payroll, but if they don’t go out and get one or two serviceable starters now they could be so deep in the hole by July that it won’t matter. I keep bringing up Scott Feldman as possibilities for other teams (MIA & BAL), but he’d at least keep the bus on the road and eat some innings in a pitchers park in Madbum & Shark’s absence. Colin McHugh is another SP they should consider.
Wiggy, you’re a sensitive little fella aren’t ya. Lol. Anyway Whit does feel bad about it. Injuries are a part of the game. It sucks but not avoidable.
Jordan Zimmermann is available.
Colone and Lackey are looking for work.
Stop it already. #SFGiantfanswiththewhining!
Die hard Reds fan here. BB a good baseball mind, your current team, division your in, stay within 8-10 back @trade deadline; their will be teams parting with quality starters/players MB will be back and all will be set for at least a shot for the wc if not the division crown. Relax, you can’t win or LOSE the division in April-July, maybe even August-September. How many WS you won in last 5 years? Mic drop…
#longerseasoninthenati! GoReds.