SAN FRANCISCO -- Slightly more than a month after a line drive broke his pitching hand, Madison Bumgarner received medical clearance to resume throwing. Giants manager Bruce Bochy delivered the news about the ace left-hander on Tuesday.
"That's good news for us," Bochy said.
Bochy noted that Bumgarner, who's rehabilitating at the club's training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz., probably will throw three or four times on flat ground before proceeding to a pitcher's mound.
No specific timetable for Bumgarner's return to the Giants' staff has been publicly announced. Bochy indicated that Bumgarner will advance from step to step based on how he feels, not by dates on a calendar.
"He's a smart kid. And he's not a kid," Bochy said of the 28-year-old. "He knows that he has to be smart about this."
Bochy pointed out that right-hander Mark Melancon (forearm) recently resumed playing catch and is expected to throw lightly off a mound sometime this weekend.
Bumgarner, a four-time All-Star and the enduring hero of the 2014 postseason, was sidelined on March 23 when was struck on the hand by a ball off the bat of Kansas City's Whit Merrifield during the Giants' Arizona exhibition finale.