Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters including The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan that purchase of big-ticket free agent Madison Bumgarner was removed from today’s game due to back spasms (Twitter links). Bumgarner is back in Phoenix to be seen by team doctors.
It’s been a disappointing start to Bumgarner’s career outside of San Francisco. The ace of the former Giants signed a four-year $ 72MM deal with rival Diamondbacks this offseason, and their union is off to a rocky start. Bumgarner is 0-2 with a 7.04 ERA / 6.03 FIP by 3 starts. Its strikeouts are down to 6.5 K / 9, while walks are up to 3.5 BB / 9, though feel free to apply all / all small sample size warnings here, as Bumgarner only charges 15 1/3 frames has got.
The big question with Bumgarner concerns his speed. The former World Series averaged just 87.9 mph on its four-seater this season to an average of 91.4 mph last season. The fear with this kind of speed step is that there is an arm issue, although there was no indication of Bumgarner or the Diamondbacks.
