The Giants’ Pitching Depth Has Gone Out the Window

For the past few years, the San Francisco Giants have gone into the season with a healthy amount of pitching depth in the upper minors. Whether it was Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong, or another exciting arm, there were always a few names ready for the call around the midpoint of the season.

The 2026 campaign was no different.

Although they weren’t the most significant additions, Buster Posey brought in veteran starters Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser to help bolster the back end of his rotation. Both were coming off career years despite lacking significant track records of success in the past.

When you especially consider their injury histories going into the season, there was no question that the Giants would need to tap into some of the pitching depth they had in the upper minors at some point.

While there were bright spots throughout the year, nobody could’ve guessed how this year would go for some of the organization’s most intriguing young arms.

An Elbow Epidemic

Across the last decade, the Giants have done a fairly good job in terms of limiting arm injuries and avoiding significant surgeries. Even in this run of mediocrity, that’s felt like one facet of the game they excelled at.

Naturally, the health of their pitching depth was not even a conversation heading into the spring. Their five-man rotation appeared to be set, and everybody was ready to go.

However, the arms highest on the totem pole in Triple-A were still trying to force their way onto the Opening Day roster, whether that was by taking a rotation spot or making it as a long-relief option.

Perhaps the Giants should’ve taken Hayden Birdsong’s first start of the Cactus League as a sign of things to come. In San Francisco’s first game of the spring, the talented righty failed to make it out of the third inning after allowing a whopping eight earned runs.

The biggest hit came shortly afterward, when it was announced Birdsong had a Grade 2 flexor tendon/UCL sprain. Just days later, he would undergo a full reconstruction of said UCL, ending his 2026 season before it even started.

While it was a tough blow to the top of their pitching depth, the injury felt like a one-off for a couple of months.

Fast-forward to the early days of May, and Trevor McDonald was the first arm to get his crack at the Giants’ rotation. In the 70.1 innings he threw across 2026, it was an underwhelming 5.12 ERA, striking out just over seven hitters per nine innings.

However, there were enough flashes of a solid starter — including two outings where he threw seven innings of one-run ball — for the Giants to most likely feel comfortable with him manning a spot in the rotation heading into 2027.

Well, that all changed on July 20 when McDonald exited his start with an eventually diagnosed UCL sprain. Again, just days later, he would undergo a full UCL reconstruction.

Fortunately for the Giants, this opened up some runway for one of their top pitching prospects in recent years — Carson Whisenhunt. While a lot of his stuff hasn’t performed well in a few cups of coffee in the big leagues, his changeup has arguably been the best secondary pitch in the minor leagues throughout recent memory.

Unfortunately, I’m sure you could guess where this is headed.

After throwing just 34.2 innings on the year, Whisenhunt exited a start in the middle of August after clutching his throwing arm in pain. Say it with me now — just days later, the southpaw would undergo a hybrid UCL reconstruction.

The last arm standing in terms of names who could legitimately steal a spot in a future Giants rotation was Blade Tidwell. The right-hander is a relatively newer face to the organization but offered some intriguing stuff coming over from the Mets organization at last year’s deadline.

It wasn’t the smoothest ride for Tidwell this year, but in 56.2 innings, he had a 4.45 ERA with a handful of strong outings sprinkled in. With the injuries that had already taken place, he looked like a shoe-in to make the Opening Day rotation in 2027.

That was until Monday night when Tidwell exited his start in the fourth inning with elbow discomfort. Tuesday night? Dr. Ken Akizuki recommended elbow surgery for a fourth Giants starter 25 years old or younger.

Tidwell’s decision hasn’t been made official, but when asked about it, he told Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, “It’s pretty concerning… It’s not something that I want, but it happens to most pitchers in today’s game, so I know I can get through it.”

Final Thoughts

Nothing could’ve prepared Buster Posey, Tony Vitello, and the San Francisco Giants for the disastrous 2026 campaign they’d go through. Mixing in what looks like it’s going to be four elbow surgeries to a handful of their most talented young arms takes it to a whole other level.

While a handful of rookie manager Vitello’s pitching decisions have been questionable, it’s pretty difficult to blame him for any of these when all four of them were starters. It simply feels like the baseball gods decided to strike the Giants’ pitching depth all at once.

So, where do they go from here?

Well, outside of Logan Webb and Landen Roupp, there’s not a single arm locked into next season’s rotation. Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, Anthony Molina, and Cesar Perdomo have had a handful of solid starts over the last few weeks, but a team with its eye on a Wild Card spot would probably like some more certainty.

Even with it being a weaker free-agent class overall, you could probably say the starting pitching group is going to be the strongest part of it. Michael King (if he opts out), Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, Shota Imanaga, and a few others feel like fits, but we’ve also seen a hesitancy to spend on starters in free agency from this organization.

At this point, not a single dollar needs to be spent on the position-player side of things unless it’s an extension for Bryce Eldridge. The one sure thing is the fact that Buster Posey has his work cut out for him this winter and, most likely, will need to get creative.