San Francisco Giants: Who Will Replace Madison Bumgarner in the Rotation?

As if the 2017 season did not get off to a rough enough start for the San Francisco Giants, the team received their biggest blow of the young season Friday when the team learned they would be without their ace Madison Bumgarner for an extended period of time after sustaining an AC sprain in his left shoulder and bruised ribs while dirt biking.

As a result of this devastating news, it is time to think about who will replace Bumgarner in the San Francisco Giants rotation.

To say the San Francisco Giants have not gotten off to the start they envisioned in 2017 is an understatement. The season opened with the team losing three out of four to the Arizona Diamondbacks with the pitching rotation struggling as a whole.

The upside to that series loss was the offense was on fire, and the consensus that the Giants have a talented starting rotation that should not be a concern throughout the course of the season.

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Since that opening series, the Giants rotation has rebounded like everyone thought they would, but the bats have gone silent on the offensive end.

Any optimism fans had for this team to pull it together soon dissipated as it was reported that Madison Bumgarner sustained either a grade one or grade two AC sprain in his left shoulder, as well as bruised his ribs while dirt biking in Colorado during the team’s off-day.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that it is expected that Bumgarner will be out 6-8 weeks, which is a huge blow to the team. It is the first time in his career that Bumgarner will find himself on the DL, and nerve racking considering the initial tests.

The team will have a clearer picture of just how severe Bumgarner’s injury is when he is re-evaluated this week.

In the hours since Bumgarner’s injury, the team called up Chris Stratton from Sacramento to replace him on the roster. Despite this, I do not anticipate Stratton being the ultimate solution to replacing Bumgarner in the starting rotation — in fact, I believe he will simply be a long relief option.

Instead, I have compiled a list of players who I think will fill his role in the rotation while he is on the disabled list.