One player from every MLB team to watch during spring training

Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants

The unquestioned ace of the Giants for quite some time now, Madison Bumgarner is entering his final year of team control before hitting free agency. After being a workhorse for San Francisco between 2011 and 2016 (at least 200 innings pitched each year), injuries have limited him to 240.2 since the start of 2017.

MadBum has remained productive on the mound, but there are warning signs that things might be changing as he approaches his 30s. Although he limited hard contact to a 25.8% clip in 2013, that number has increased each year since, including a career-worst 41.6% rate in 2018. The southpaw has also dealt with some declining fastball velocity — after sitting around 91-92 mph throughout the early parts of his career, it’s now sitting 90-91 mph.

That doesn’t seem like much of a difference, but it’s forced him to shift his pitch mix — he threw his fastball at a career-low 34.2% rate last year. And for the Giants, who have new leadership in the front office and are clearly trying to hit the reset button, a good (and healthy) start to 2019 for Bumgarner could mean he gets traded by the summer time.