Madison Bumgarner figures to be the Giants’ biggest trade chip — I’m using chip instead of chit because chip sounds better — at this year’s trade deadline, and so it’s reasonable to presume that he’s being heavily scrutinized by the front office and every team in the league.
His season opener against the Padres in San Diego was remarkable in that he really looked like a solid version of his former self. No sign of the fatigued, laboring Bumgarner of last season and no evidence that the dirt bike accident in 2017 was still affecting his velocity and spin rate, as it seemed to even through last season.