Cardinals Rumors: Dodgers controversy, latest rotation rumors, and a dream pitching staff
By Mark Powell
Cardinals Rumors: Who needs a trade?
Madison Bumgarner and the Arizona Diamondbacks clashed stylistically, with MadBum being slightly more old school for what’s otherwise a younger pitching and coaching staff. In an article from The Athletic on Monday, general manager Mike Hazen made it perfectly clear what went wrong with MadBum in the desert.
A lot of times, highly successful people are resistant to change, and this was a highly successful guy,” Arizona pitching coach Brent Strom told reporters. “Perhaps the changes I tried to make and introduce and this and that, it just didn’t take. We had an amicable divorce.”
Bumgarner refused to take any shots at Arizona, but did mention that the way he prepared for opposing hitters was altered near the end of his tenure with the Diamondbacks. This perhaps could explain his high ERA in 2023.
Assuming the Cardinals don’t mind handing Bumgarner some sort of scouting report on opposing hitters — something Arizona reportedly wasn’t doing, at least not to Bumgarner’s knowledge — then this could be good match.
St. Louis is often mentioned in the pitching market, and for good reason. But rather than dealing away some valuable assets, could the instead first take a chance on an old dog resistant to new tricks?