Starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, who signed a five-year, $85 million contract to join the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, was the Washington Nationals’ “Plan B” if they couldn’t bring back free agent Stephen Strasburg, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported.
The Nationals re-signed Strasburg on a seven-year, $245 million deal last week.
Two notes on Madison Bumgarner: 1) Per sources, he was the #Nationals’ Plan B if they had not re-signed Stephen Strasburg. 2) A California-based team would have needed to offer him $100M to match the net after tax of $85M from the #Dbacks (h/t @SportsTaxMan).
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 16, 2019
At 30 years old, Bumgarner is just one year younger than Strasburg and has postseason experience few pitchers can rival. He won three World Series with the San Francisco Giants, including the 2014 World Series MVP, and has an 8-3 postseason record all-time with a 2.11 ERA.
Strasburg, though, just finished a playoff performance for the ages. The 2019 World Series MVP became the first pitcher in baseball history to finish a single postseason 5-0. He posted a 1.98 ERA in October with 47 strikeouts.
Bumgarner, a four-time All-Star spent his whole Major League career with the Giants before signing with Arizona. His performance dropped off after the 2016 season, which led to him being more affordable on the open market than Strasburg or Gerrit Cole.
Still, if Strasburg became too expensive for the Nationals or he signed somewhere else, adding Bumgarner to a rotation that already has Max Scherzer and Patrick Corbin wouldn’t have been a bad consolation prize for Washington.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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