© Ron Chenoy | 2019 Aug 4
It seems a breakup between Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants was a long time coming.
That was the theory floated by Bumgarner’s former teammate Michael Morse when he joined “Papa & Lund” on Wednesday morning, and broke news that the Giants did in fact offer the three-time World Champion an extension at some point around the 2017 season. The extension was so paltry — either in years, money or both — that Bumgarner may have taken it personally.
“The biggest thing that I think is when they did offer him an extension, it was very, very short of what he was thinking, to the point that it might’ve been even a slap-in-the-face kind of thing,” Morse said on KNBR.
“I don’t think anybody knows of it. It’s kind of something that happened around that period. It was almost like a slap in the face and Madison is the kind of guy, if you mess with Madison one time, that’s it, it’s over. I think after that he kind of saw the direction the team was going and he said, ‘I’m going to put my head down and work and bust my butt, and I see now that my time here might be done.’”
Bumgarner now infamously missed two months of the 2017 season following an April shoulder injury sustained in a dirt bike accident. It was shortly after this that Morse says Bumgarner was offered the extension on a deal that had two years remaining. Morse believes that Bumgarner shouldered much of the blame for the team’s struggles upon his return later that season.
“It’s pretty obvious that there really wasn’t communication between him and San Francisco and re-signing, and I think it could go back to the dirt bike accident, because after that there was a lot of talk of, ‘Oh, his velocity is not there anymore and he’s not the pitcher he was.’ You’re talking about a guy that rehabbed harder than any guy I’ve ever seen to get back and better than he was before, and it just so happens the team wasn’t as good.
“I know him, I know Ali, his wife, and they love, love, love San Francisco. If it was in the cards, he would’ve definitely signed back. The whole thing about Arizona was his number one choice, that tells me San Francisco was out.”
Listen to the interview below.