Preview, #86: 6/30 Diamondbacks @ Giants

It’s a battle of southpaws today in the series finale between the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants. Robbie Ray will face off against Madison Bumgarner on the mound in the rubber match. Bumgarner’s remaining days with the Giants organization are seemingly limited. He’s on track to become a free agent at the conclusion of this season and could be of more value to a team in the playoff race in need of a rotation arm. It’s likely more beneficial for the Giants to trade him now rather than float him a qualifying offer in hopes of receiving draft pick compensation. Bumgarner has missed roughly half of each of the last two seasons with injury and has been less effective this season than he was in his heyday in the middle of the decade. The chances of him earning a Patrick Corbin sized free agent contract are slim, and the Giants run the risk of him accepting the qualifying offer and handcuffing their finances next season.

Arizona is in an odd position themselves with Robbie Ray. He’ll be younger than Bumgarner when he reaches free agency after next season, and it’s difficult to determine what to expect of his future performance. He has enormous potential as one of the premier strikeout pitchers in the league but the results have been all over the place for him since 2017. Mike Hazen truly cannot afford to trade one of his starting pitchers without receiving one in return because of a lack of depth. Ray might bring back a respectable return package, pitching is always in demand, but as it stands Arizona is not far enough out of the wild card picture to start selling off assets like Ray. The flip side is that Ray’s value is far from certain. He’s exceeded 160 innings only twice in his career which has resulted from a combination of injuries and failure to pitch into the latter innings of a game.

Your complaints of inaccuracy in the comments will go unreturned. I’ll be busy praying to the porcelain gods this afternoon.