New San Francisco Giants president Farhan Zaidi floated the notion of the team using an “opener” in the 2019 season, but his most prominent starter is not a fan.
Giants manager Bruce Bochy revealed at Saturday’s fanfest that Madison Bumgarner had heard Zaidi’s opener comments, and made clear immediately to Bochy what he thought of the idea.
Bochy said Bumgarner sent him a text after Zaidi said Giants might use openers. “If you use an opener in my game I’m walking right out of the ballpark.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) February 9, 2019
Some teams, most prominently the Tampa Bay Rays, used an “opener” — a reliever who faced a lineup once through before bringing in a starter in the second or third inning to handle the bulk of the middle innings — in response to the fact that starters are at their worst the third time through an order. Bumgarner, whose name popped up in trade rumors during the offseason, is a gamer who wants to go all nine innings every time he gets the ball. It’s no surprise that he’d hate that kind of idea.
