Giants ace Madison Bumgarner isn't a fan of baseball's "opener" trend, popularized by the Rays last year. The three-time World Series champion told manager Bruce Bochy, "If you use an opener in my game I’m walking right out of the ballpark," according to NBC Sports' Alex Pavlovic.
San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi discussed the potential embrace of the opener in December.
“We have to think a little because of the uncertainty we have from a health standpoint,” Zaidi told the Mercury News. “We’re going to have to explore different forms of pitching staff construction and whether that’s using openers, whether that’s having tandem days where you have two pitchers each throwing three-to-four innings and taking down the majority of the game, I think we’re going to have to develop a plan for the pitching staff that fits the personnel that we have.