Prior to yesterday’s game, the Giants placed left-hander Kyle Harrison on the 15-day injured list due to an impingement in his throwing shoulder. The placement is retroactive to September 4. Righty Austin Warren was called up from Triple-A to take Harrison’s spot on the active roster.
Given the timing of the injury and the fact that the Giants have fallen out of contention, there’s “probably a good chance” Harrison’s season is over, manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea and other reporters. Harrison underwent an MRI on Thursday and will get more tests done this coming week, and even if everything comes back clean, it seems unlikely he’d build his arm strength back up just for a sake of a few meaningless innings at the end of September. Melvin said Harrison had already been battling shoulder soreness for his last few starts.
If this is indeed it for Harrison’s 2024 campaign, the former star prospect will finish his first full MLB season with a 4.56 ERA over 124 1/3 innings. That ERA was inflated by 11 earned runs in his last two starts and 7 1/3 innings when Harrison was trying to pitch through pain, though for the season, Harrison’s 22.2% strikeout rate was below the league average. The southpaw also ranked only in the 12th percentile in both hard-hit ball rates and barrel rates, as opposing batters had a lot of success against everything but Harrison’s primary pitch, a 92.5mph fastball.
The 124 1/3 innings represents a new career high for Harrison, topping the 113 frames he threw in the minors in 2022. Melvin suggested that Harrison’s winter will involve “identifying what he needs to do as far as building himself up, getting a little stronger maybe,” which is normal for a rookie pitcher who now knows the grind of a 162-game season. Beyond this shoulder impingement, Harrison also spent about a month on the IL due to an ankle sprain earlier this summer.
All things considered, however, it was still a pretty decent rookie season for a pitcher who only just turned 23 last month. Widely regarded as one of baseball’s best pitching prospects, Harrison did nothing to shake his status as a key piece of San Francisco’s future plans. Harrison is the most highly-touted of a group of younger arms the Giants hope can continue to develop into rotation reinforcements behind ace Logan Webb, and other more experienced arms like Robbie Ray and (if he returns to starting pitching) Jordan Hicks. It is safe to assume the Giants will still look into adding pitching this winter considering that Blake Snell will almost surely be opting out of his contract, though re-signing Snell remains a possibility.
I was wondering why bring up a relief pitcher and not a starting pitcher? I understand that the Giants are out of the race and unless they are planning on signing 2-3 starting pitchers, they need to see if anyone in their farm system can handle the majors. Because after Logan Webb there is basically nobody. I know that Farhan Zaidi don’t believe in starting pitchers. Farhan Zaidi is the main reason the relief pitchers are used up by the all star break. The dumb bullpen games is using up the bullpen. Of course this is all my opinion.
I can’t answer your first question from Zaidi’s perspective, but perhaps the Starter the Giants need is already in the Pen? Maybe Hicks comes back out? Regardless, you’re right about the tangible lack of SP depth in the Gigante’s system. I believe Snell opts out, leaving you guys that much shorter for ’25. Either way, good luck in the Offseason.
They did call up a starter. Mason Black.
Farhan’s shortsighted, misguided approach to building the Giants past seasons, this season and probably next, leave the Giants 2025 in worse shape than before despite having some young players. The man is an accountant and stats guy and simply has no sense for baseball
“…shortsighted, misguided approach to building the Giants…”
Are you under the impression that that easy? There’s no formula. It’s not like building your own brick barbeque from plans.
This is what I don’t understand about the Zaidi critics. Every complaint is some sort of wide sweeping generality with zero specifics.
Pete, who was Zaidi supposed to have signed, that would be willing to come to the Giants that he didn’t? There is some truth to what’s said about players not wanting to come to SF, but that’s about hitting at Oracle. No PBO in baseball is going to overcome that reluctance on the part of hitters.
Should he not have acquired the guys he did, like Ray, Yaz, Wade, Estrada, or Miller? FA signings are always a crap shoot, as evidenced by Conforto and Soler, but Chapman Lee, and Snell offset them.
I wish the Zaidi critics would be more specific and say exactly what they would have done instead of the simplistic analysis of only looking at the bottom.
As far as attracting players, he controls what he can control.
“I’ve already had people reach out to me saying that now that I’m here that they want to come here,” Chapman said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a hard sell. This organization is amazing. They do everything they can for their players. We have a lot of good players. I think we’re going to continue to build here. I think that people will see that from the outside.”
I’m hoping Chapman can attract some good players. But I think it’s clear that some players, like Harper, and JD Martinez, don’t want to try and hit at Oracle. Apparently Martinez signed for less than what the Giants offered. But certainly having Chapman on board can’t hurt.
Sorry. Farhan Zaidi doesn’t believe in starting pitching is a ridiculous opinion. His words contradict it. A starting pitcher going deep is the best option. They use bullpen games when they have to. Necessity. It’s an emotion inducing occurrence for fans when it happens, but it’s not a preference of Zaidi’s.
And yet it was Zaidi who said Giants pitching would take them to the playoffs as well as showng no interest in improving the woeful offense.
Yes. That was the plan. It’s a volatile sport. Probably the most volatile team sport there is when it comes to individuals performing consistently. Cobb had setbacks and didn’t get going, Winn and Beck got scratched due to injury, Snell only got himself going when financial implications loomed. Baseball stuff wrecked the plan. If they made the playoffs it would have been on the back of pitching.
No interest in improving the offence ? Really ? The players he has gone after hasn’t represented a desire to improve the offence ? C’mon. There is plenty of evidence to suggest he is desperate to improve the offence.
Birdsong and Black are already up. Roupp isn’t stretched out as a starter anymore. Without giving up a spot on the 40-man, that’s all the depth they have
I like what I have seen from Birdsong in limited action. Not impressed with Black in the same sample size, but time will tell. Harrison just turned 23. I think he will continue to improve but needs to stay healthy
Might as well shut him down. Giants season is over. Going to be very interesting to see what they do this offseason. When Snell opts out their staff if going to be just a couple good starters and a lot of question marks.
Yep, could be Webb, Ray, Harrison, Winn, and Beck unless they sign someone next offseason. Maybe Birdsong over Beck.
So giants fans still excited about having Bob Melvin as their manager?
Just want to say thank you for taking him so we could hire Schildt.
lol. Yes.
The problem is more Zaidi than BoMel.
I do regret the Melvin signing. I was happy when they did, but he’s the one responsible for putting together the coaching staff. I don’t see the problem being Zaidi. I blame the horrible approach the hitters bring to the plate. They’re trying too hard to hit HRs, even with 2 strikes, in a park that’s difficult to hit HRs in. The entire roster, with only a few of exceptions, have underperformed their career averages. That’s not Zaidi’s fault.
When it comes culpability for trying to go big too often, what sort of weighting do you put on the man holding the bat ? You got the coach having more responsibility than the player ?
Yeah, I do, when it’s an approach you see throughout the team. If it is the hitters, then to get a different approach at the plate, then what, does a team have to replace 3/4s of them?
Maybe I’m wrong, but it sure looks like the hitters this season are going after more first pitches, even when they’re marginal. And it seems like there are more SOs w/RISP. I am guessing, but it looks like the coaches aren’t telling hitters to take swing out, and try and make contact with 2 strikes. This season they’re 10th in SOs, and tied for 17th in hits.
Fair enough. I was going with youthful exuberance combined with a slightly more relaxed attitude towards youth from the Manager. All guesswork though. My eye is not skilled enough to be over that sort of detail.
I’m sure some youthful exuberance plays a role. Nothing is ever completely one thing or another. But I remember last year hearing K & K talking about Matos, and how the MiL coaches had been preaching to not swing at pitches outside the zone. Last season he had 20 BB to 33 SOs, a 1.6 SO/BB ratio This season he has 5 BBs and 22 SOs, a 4.6 SO/BB ratio. almost 3 times worse.
I was never big on the bomel signing, just happy it wasn’t kap anymore. The organization needs to change something though. Zaidi has role drafted role players(though Bryce eldridge does look like a possible superstar), and the hitting with RISP is both historically and comically bad. Maybe they should just hire bonds as a hitting coach and be done with it. He’s helped quite a few giants in the past with small tweaks
I don’t know if it’s Melvin or just the staff he brought in. Melvin has made some questionable moves, like leaving pitchers in too long, but that’s so hard for fans to know, one way or the other, if he should have done differently.
It will be interesting to see if there are coaching changes in the offseason.
Melvin is also awful with bullpen management. He won’t be gone, but he’s a huge problem with the risp issue. He’s old school, but forgot bunts exist
Harrison had a good rookie campaign. If he had more run support his numbers would look better. Also, his last few starts he was squeezed by the umpires; don’t know how many times I’d see him hit the white box of the strike zone only to see it called a ball.
I think we’ll see better results from Harrison next season. Good time now to shut him down.
Good start for Harrison. Not the ideal Paul Skenes experience every Giants fan would want, but good enough for a young man to work up from.