Why the Diamondbacks did not call up Brandon Pfaadt to replace Madison Bumgarner

When the Diamondbacks pulled the plug on Madison Bumgarner on Thursday, designating the reeling veteran for assignment, it seemed to clear a path to the majors for Brandon Pfaadt, the club’s top pitching prospect.

Instead, the Diamondbacks opted to recall Tommy Henry from Triple-A Reno. In a news conference at Chase Field on Thursday afternoon, General Manager Mike Hazen said the biggest reason for the decision to promote Henry instead of Pfaadt was logistics, and added that Pfaadt is ready to pitch in the majors.

Henry pitched on Tuesday night, setting him up to take Bumgarner’s turn in the rotation against the Royals on Monday on five days’ rest, a standard schedule. Pfaadt is scheduled to pitch for Reno on Thursday. If he had been tabbed to replace Bumgarner, the Diamondbacks would have had two options, neither of which Hazen liked.

One was to preserve Pfaadt’s schedule as well as possible and pitch him this weekend — potentially Friday. That would have created a cascading effect with the rest of the rotation being pushed off schedule. The other was to slot Pfaadt in on Monday, on nine days’ rest.

“I don't think that's necessarily the best idea for a debut,” Hazen said.

From a pure talent perspective, Pfaadt would likely have been the better option. Every reputable prospect ranking sees him as the Diamondbacks’ best pitching prospect. A year ago, he led the minor leagues in strikeouts despite pitching in a pair of hitter-friendly environments. And in three starts this year, he’s struck out 17 and walked three in 13 1/3 innings, even if his 5.40 ERA doesn’t jump off the page. Hazen acknowledged that he “probably has the best stuff” of the team’s young pitchers.

"All these decisions we've been talking about, I understand, have centered around Brandon," Hazen said. "Brandon is gonna pitch up here and he's gonna be a very good player for us. And it's going to come. But it's not going to come right this second."

Henry had a 5.36 ERA in nine major league starts after debuting last season. In Reno this year, he has a 6.33 ERA with 22 strikeouts and eight walks in 21 1/3 innings.

In addition to those two, the Diamondbacks already have two rookie pitchers in their rotation — Drey Jameson and Ryne Nelson. Both have mostly been successful since debuting down the stretch last year. That depth of young pitching talent, Hazen said, impacted the decision to cut ties with Bumgarner now.

“If I didn't have somebody to take the ball five days from now, we may have continued to go down this road,” Hazen said. “But part of the calculus was we felt like there was somebody that needed to come up here and take that spot.”

Hazen acknowledged that there is some risk to having three inexperienced pitchers in the rotation, but played down his concern with that roster construction.

“They have really good stuff,” Hazen said. “They can all pitch. Some of them are already showing it right now. There's gonna be some volatility for sure. We know that. But they all have really good stuff and we've seen most of them up here pitching.”

There remains one moving piece to the Diamondbacks’ rotation. Right-hander Zach Davies is on the injured list with a left oblique strain and has yet to begin his rehab process. When Davies does return, Hazen said he sees him coming back as a starter.

Even with that logjam looming down the line, Hazen knows that he’ll need his pitching depth again, whether that be because of injuries or underperformance.

“We're gonna need all these guys, from now and the rest of the season,” Hazen said, referring to Henry and Pfaadt. “So you're gonna see all those guys pitch. And more, is my bet.”

Ultimately, that lessened the long-term implications of the decision on how to replace Bumgarner.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why the D-Backs did not replace Bumgarner with Brandon Pfaadt