By ANDREW BAGGARLY
By ANDREW BAGGARLY
Tribune News Service
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It took 33 days and three innings, but Madison Bumgarner, the pitcher who loves to swing the bat, finally received his first plate appearance of the spring Sunday.
He was as eager as a Bengal tiger when a steak plops into his enclosure. Bumgarner took a rip at the first pitch he saw. He grounded out. The next time up, he took another mighty cut at the first pitch and hit a booming, 415-foot out to the warning track in dead center.
“I mean, I don’t know what to say about that,” Bumgarner said. “I swing at strikes.”
See something to your liking and pounce. Bumgarner had the same instinct three springs ago, when the Giants offered him a five-year contract with two club options that would guarantee him $35 million.
It was one of the longest deals in major league history for a player with fewer than two years of service time. And now, given Bumgarner’s legendary ascension as a rotation ace and October legend, it might be the club-friendliest contract in either league.
Bumgarner will make $6.75 million this year, $9.75 million next year and instead of hitting the open market after that, the Giants control his rights for three more seasons: a guaranteed salary of $11.5 million in 2017, followed by those two club options worth at least $12 million per year (escalating to as much as $16 million if he wins a Cy Young Award).
The soonest Bumgarner could sign with another team is before the 2020 season. But he does not see himself as an indentured servant, nor does he have any regrets. And he certainly makes no demands about ripping up his contract and starting again.
“You know, that was life-changing money for me,” said Bumgarner, after holding the Angels to one hit in six innings at Scottsdale Stadium. “We’re set, my family is set forever. And I had a year, barely, at that time. I didn’t come (into the league) at 25 or 26 years old knowing exactly what I was going to be. I still had a lot of work to do. So for them to think that much of me, I was happy with that.”
For now, Bumgarner’s contract is not an action item for the front office. And Bumgarner, still just 25, won’t make it one. He said his contract was fair the day he signed it, and it’s fair now.
“Now that things turned out the way they are, it’s easy to ask these questions,” Bumgarner said. “But you know what, that’s good. I want to be asked these questions. It’s a lot better than the other way around.”
Bumgarner and his wife, Ali, don’t live an extravagant life. They bought their ranch in North Carolina even before he signed the $35 million contract. He pointed out that he doesn’t have to work a second job in the offseason, as players once did. He isn’t the type to hold out for more.
“I grew up poor,” he said. “I don’t need a whole lot of money to get by. I mean, I ain’t playing for money, I guess.”