San Francisco Giants News: Madison Bumgarner Won’t Need Surgery

San Francisco Giants ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner will not need surgery on his pitching pitching shoulder, and is expected to be back in the lineup within two months. Bumgarner underwent an MRI Monday night that determined no structural damage had been done and he can begin the rehabilitation process within the next week. During the team’s off day last Thursday, Madison Bumgarner went dirt bike riding with two of his family members and was on his way back to the family’s truck when he went down in the dirt. Bumgarner had admitted to falling off his bike as a child but never anything as serious as this incident. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area wrote about the incident and even quoted Madison Bumgarner during his first interview following his injury.

Bumgarner says he’s feeling a little better each day. Apologized to teammates 1 on 1. Says he’s crashed before as a kid but nothing serious. pic.twitter.com/ANWHrPH65P — Casey Pratt (@CaseyPrattABC7) April 25, 2017

“I was actually being pretty safe the whole time. It was just a freak deal. We were on the way out, almost back to the truck … I wish I had some kind of cool story that it was some kind of crazy wreck. It wasn’t anything spectacular.”

Despite saying he was safe the whole time, Bumgarner still placed himself out of the Giants’ pitching rotation for the next two months because of this mishap and isn’t expected back until sometime in July. Before the injury, Madison Bumgarner had a record of 0-3 with and ERA of 3.00 in four starts this season. To say that the Giants will miss Bumgarner is an understatement. The team currently sits with a record of 7-14 and is in last place in the NL West. The team has struggled to mount any offense so far this season and scored only seven runs in Bumgarner’s four starts. With him out of the lineup, fans can expect the pitching to suffer just as much as the offense has throughout the month of April. The injury to Madison Bumgarner could not have come at a worse time with fellow pitcher Matt Cain going down with a hamstring injury in the middle of Monday night’s start. Cain allowed just two hits in six innings of work against the Los Angeles Dodgers before being pulled because of soreness in his hamstring. With a history of injuries from his hamstring, the Giants took precautionary measures to make sure he didn’t make matters worse. Chris Haft of MLB reported on Cain leaving the game early and quoted him after the game was over.

“It just kind of bit on me a little bit. It was something I was kind of monitoring in between the inning and I went back out there. I didn’t want to go down that road again. With the history of it, I didn’t want to push it.”

With arguably San Francisco’s two best players on the shelf, they must look to their offense to carry them for the time being. They may find themselves out of the hunt in the NL West if there isn’t a massive turn around over the next month or so. As for Madison Bumgarner, many people will wonder how this injury will affect his contract in the near future. Bumgarner signed a five-year, $35 million contract back in 2012 which will end at the end of this season. The team has an option to pick up his contract for the 2018 season at $12 million. However, with the injury Bumgarner sustained, the front office must begin to wonder if he is worth the risk for the future of the franchise. The Giants have a long way to go before calling themselves a contender in the National League, but getting Bumgarner healthy and back in the lineup is their best hope.

[Featured Image by Jamie Squire/Getty Images]