Major League Baseball had discussions about a pitchers-only home run derby, Buster Olney revealed during Sunday night's contest between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.
"There's actually been talk about the idea of a pitcher challenge-type home run derby, where maybe that Madison Bumgarner faces Noah Syndergaard of the Mets," Olney said (h/t SI.com).
Bumgarner's relative proficiency at the plate, at least among pitchers, has fueled talk he should be included in this year's Home Run Derby. He has two home runs this season (13 for his career) and can regularly be seen ripping the ball out of the park during batting practice.
SportsCenter on Instagram shared one of his noteworthy batting practice sessions:
Bumgarner told Olney last week he wanted to participate in the Derby, though Giants manager Bruce Bochy said the team wouldn't allow its ace pitcher to partake in the event even if MLB invited him to do so.
Bumgarner isn't the only pitcher who would like to give the event a try.
Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta advocated for a pitchers' derby and broke down both his and Bumgarner's approach to the craft of hitting.
"We both love to hit," he told of MLB.com. "You talk to a lot of people who don't like pitchers to hit, but we love it. We take it really seriously. We're in the cage hitting, we're actually trying to work on things. We have the ability to help ourselves out. I'm not going up there trying to make an out."
St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright then expressed interest in a home run derby:
Noah Syndergaard of the New York Mets threw down his support too:
Of course, most managers would likely take Bochy's stance. Any possibility that an ace might injure himself during a home run derby is enough of a risk to make most teams wary of such an event. It's also been suggested that Derby winners in the past have ruined their swings by participating in the event and plunged into slumps, though evidence suggests such a phenomenon probably isn't true.
Nonetheless, the uncertainty of how participation in a derby might affect a pitcher going forward is enough for most teams to prefer their aces avoided the event. It would be a fun twist on a yearly tradition, but pragmatism seems likely to keep it from becoming a reality, at least for the time being.
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