The Giants are placing Justin Verlander on the 15-day injured list with a pectoral nerve issue, manager Bob Melvin told the teams’s beat after today’s loss to Kansas City (relayed by Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle). They haven’t announced a corresponding move.
Melvin indicated that the Giants are confident it’ll only cost Verlander two turns through the rotation (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). They can backdate the assignment to May 19, so he’d first be eligible to return on June 3. The veteran righty’s tenure in San Francisco has gotten out to a pedestrian beginning. He’s averaging just over five innings per start and has tallied a 4.33 earned run average in 10 appearances. He’s striking out only 18.2% of batters faced, though his 11.4% swinging strike rate is up from the 9-10% range of the previous two seasons.
It’s a moderate improvement over Verlander’s final season in Houston. He posted a 5.48 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout percentage through 90 1/3 innings. Injuries have become increasingly prevalent for the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer. Verlander began the 2024 season on the IL with shoulder inflammation. He was knocked back out in mid-June with a neck problem that was initially expected to be minor. It ended up costing him two months.
Verlander was rocked over seven starts after returning from the neck injury. He allowed more than eight earned runs per nine innings while opponents raked at a .322/.369/.483 clip. The Astros felt they couldn’t carry him on the playoff roster given the form he carried into October. It was an unfortunate end to an illustrious run in Houston. The three-time Cy Young winner signed with the Giants for $15MM as a free agent.
The Giants had operated with the same rotation for the season’s first six weeks. Verlander slotted alongside Robbie Ray, Landen Roupp and Jordan Hicks behind Logan Webb. They made an (arguably overdue) swap of Hicks for Hayden Birdsong over the weekend, pushing Hicks to the bullpen after he posted a 6.55 ERA through nine starts.
Verlander would have been lined up to take the ball on Saturday. The Giants have an off day tomorrow, so they could theoretically delay their decision on a fifth starter by a couple days if they wanted to move Ray up from Sunday’s start. They probably won’t move Hicks back to the rotation for what they expect to be a minimal absence from Verlander.
Kyle Harrison is in the big league bullpen after working out of the Triple-A rotation for much of the year. Prospect Carson Whisenhunt has a dominant 52:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over nine starts in the minors. He’s not on the 40-man roster, though, so the Giants may not want to bring him up yet. Carson Seymour, Trevor McDonald and Mason Black are all in the Triple-A rotation and occupy 40-man roster spots. McDonald started yesterday, while Seymour is lined up to take the ball today, which probably rules them out for a promotion. Whisenhunt pitched on Monday; Black’s most recent start came last Friday.
Buster Posey the “Savior” lol
Dude. Cmon. You can do better than bagging Buster posts. Just makes you look stupid. Use your licence to troll better.
DarrenDreifortsTrolling
Trolling and LOLing.
Must be a bored pimply teenage gal.
Really calling it in here. We expect better!
On the IL with an irritated/inflamed disposition
He made that sour face now it’s stuck like that
Verlander and Scherzer both need to retire.
LOL……
There appear to be an endless stream of desperate large-market teams that don’t have a problem laying out $20m-plus a year to buy some pub. Those guys, their spouses and agents, aren’t as stupid as large market baseball fans are. The teams make back all that money – and more – in offseason ticket sales for doing the signings……and the ticket buyers write the purchase prices off their taxes as a “business expense”.
Endless stream?
How about 8 teams? Do you need a list?
It’s time to cut bait, the fat lady has sung, he’s spit the bit. I’ll spell out for you, it’s over, O-V-E-R. Ahahahahahaha!
“Pectoral nerve issue”
So he has jumpy boobs?
Maybe he got it from his wife.
This requires research
He pitches to contact with his wife.
Wouldn’t we all. Soft contact. Hard contact. Any kind would do!
Perhaps he aggravated the nerve while working on his mechanics with his wife.
Wow how shocking
Tigers will sign him a one-day contract like contact lens.
It will be interesting to see what he does at retirement. Does he do the final contract in Detroit or Houston guess we wait and see. Aldo a one day contract won’t work. They will have to do a 15 day contract he will hurt something signing the contract and have to go on the IL.
One day contract with the Mets and retire his number.
There goes leading the league in Games started.
It looks like a no win situation.
Why not, every other pitcher spends time there.
Not very often baseball players produce much past 40. But the team keep paying them big money.
Maybe the can make a trade with KC to get Rich Hill to fill in for Verlander.
He hasn’t pitched bad, just had some very badly timed mistakes. Also the giants offense giving him the matt cain treatment doesn’t help
For a backend #5, he’s fine but not at $15M. That’s the crux of it.
Not when considering the pitching only. But that’s not the only reason why he is there.
And water is wet. I say this as a big fan of JV – the neck issue last year that cost two months, and really the whole season based on how he came back, should have been the end of it. You can only beat Father Time so long.
That said, if billionaires want to keep giving you millions for part-time work, I am not going to fault you for that one bit.
Water isn’t wet. It’s a liquid that makes things it touches become wet.
Who gives a damp?
Who gives the Giants the best chance of winning? It’s Harrison. He should start in Verlander’s absence.
I’m going Whisenhunt. Already on the Verlander pitching schedule and been throwing 7innings 90 plus pitches in high quality AAA starts. Think they have a spare 40man spot as well.
They do, and need to add him anyway.
He’s a stud and most likely will be on the 26 man all next season. I do think the Verlander signing was unnecessary in the first place. Let the young guns play !
I’m fine with it. Anything taking some off field load from Webb is cool with me. With hindsight you could say unnecessary, but they have been blessed with good health so far.
True that. He does provide some veteran leadership and mentoring. I still think they should lean in on the pitching depth they have and spend to improve the offensive side.
Yeah. You are a young starting pitcher on the cusp, you could only be loving having Verlander in the clubhouse. That real life human stuff is just not quantifiable in what it has brought. Maybe nothing, maybe plenty.
No one saw this coming, right?
I am impressed that he got someone to give him $15M on his name alone, because he’s been done for a couple years now.
What the hell was SF thinking?
$15 million for average when not injured.
And people wanted him and/or Scherzer to come back to Detroit, lol. I knew this was gunna happen and low and behold