Giants pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt will make his Major League debut on Monday as San Francisco’s scheduled starter against the Pirates. The move seemed to be in the cards since Whisenhunt was scratched from a planned Triple-A start on Saturday, and he arrived in the Oracle Park clubhouse today as a member of the Giants’ taxi squad. The corresponding transaction(s) will be announced tomorrow to add the left-hander to both the active roster and the 40-man roster.
Manager Bob Melvin officially confirmed the call-up when speaking with reporters (including Justice delos Santos of the San Jose Mercury News) after tonight’s 5-3 loss to the Mets. “We’ve been waiting for this for a little bit now,” Melvin said. “We thought maybe he’d be here last year, too. He’s our top pitching prospect, I believe. With what’s going on with the injury and [Hayden Birdsong] going down, there’s a need for it.”
Birdsong was optioned to the minors earlier this week, and Landen Roupp was placed on the 15-day injured list on Friday due to right elbow inflammation. This dropped the Giants’ rotation down to just Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Justin Verlander, and the club had to deploy a bullpen game for tonight’s contest with New York. The loss was the Giants’ ninth in their last 11 games, and the 54-52 team is now three games back of the Padres for the final NL wild card berth.
Starting pitching is a target area for the Giants as the deadline approaches, but getting some quality results from Whisenhunt at the beginning of his MLB career would be an enormous help for the club. A second-round pick for San Francisco in the 2022 draft, Whisenhunt was garnering top-100 attention prior to a 2024 season that saw him post a 5.42 ERA over 104 2/3 innings at Triple-A Sacramento. Whisenhunt hasn’t been a ton better this year, with a 4.42 ERA in 97 2/3 IP. While the southpaw has reduced his ERA and walk rate, his strikeout rate has also dropped from 28.4% in 2024 to 21% this year.
Pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League could very well be a factor in Whisenhunt’s struggles, yet he’ll face additional challenges by moving up to face big league hitters. Whisenhunt’s signature pitch is a 70-grade changeup that has drawn raves from evaluators, and his 92-94mph fastball is considered a plus pitch with enough sink to overcome somewhat average velocity. That fastball is a little inconsistent, however, which is an issue since the lefty doesn’t have a reliable third pitch in his arsenal. The development of Whisenhunt’s slider could be the determining factor whether or not he can stick as a starting pitcher or if a move to the bullpen could be in his MLB future.
As much as San Francisco’s lack of offense has been the team’s biggest obstacle, the lack of reliable rotation depth behind Webb and Ray is another issue for the playoff push. Adding a veteran arm to support the big two starters would help at the deadline, and is perhaps a more readily fixable problem given how the Giants may not need to add bats as much as they need several of their slumping hitters to get rolling. There’s plenty of opportunity here for Whisenhunt to carve out a niche for himself in the rotation and set himself up for a starting job heading into next season.
Looks like Eric Trump a little.
Poor guy. That’s a fate worse than death.
TDS is bad for your health, bud.
Very scientific 🧪 🤔
That’s nothing to be proud of.
Eric T is a billionaire and you’re not. That’s nothing to be proud of.
First of all his dad’s rich, Eric did nothing to be rich. Second Trump is not a billionaire, he’s worth several hundred million. Lastly, imagine standing up for a trust fund baby like that’s something to be proud of? Weird comment.
How do you know what Eric Trump does? Trump is a billionaire and that’s a well known fact. Why you so worried who I defend? Or is it specifically who I defended that hurt your feelings? Weirder comment.
Trump is a billionaire because of all the DJT stock he owns. Before then…. not so sure, but definitely currently a billionaire
More Trump derangement. He lives in a lot of empty heads…
Y’all always say someone feelings are hurt, never understood that.
I know Trump would have made more money investing his dad’s inheritance into to the S&P500, its try look it up lol. You really think Eric Trump has made a billion dollars? Man that’s genuinely wild, no one on the right even says that.
Let’s celebrate billionaires who don’t pay their employees and abuse young women while veterans die on the street, MERICA!
Facts are either facts or they are not. Well known doesn’t make a non fact a fact.
Nope. Look it up. He’s wealthy tho.
So Forbes saying he is worth $5+ billion last month means nothing, because Candlestoked says so. You can’t make up your own facts
@guild I agree with you. Thanks!
Why are you even posting about that. Nothing to do with baseball.
I was responding to you, so why’d you bring up something unrelated to baseball? Weirdo
Muted. Done.
Wonder why the Giants didn’t give Mason Black another shot? I know he stunk last year but he’s been just as good as Whisenhunt this year in AAA and he is already on the 40 man roster.
Problem is not just the injuries to the pitchers and the lack of performance of some of the pitchers; a team needs to get hits and score runs. For that you need players who can generate offense.
The Giants have difficulty in drafting and developing outfielders.
They overpaid and took a financial bath to get Devers.
Chapman is underperforming.
They got screwed on the Adames signing.
The signing of Lee isn’t looking so hot either.
They kept Yastremski after last year and he is on fumes this year.
Matos is a waste of a roster spot.
Their back-up catchers are jokes and castoffs.
They don’t have a regular second baseman and are trying to man the position by committee..
After Wade Cratered they turned to retread Smith to field a first baseman and are now resorting to Devers on occasion; who was such a bad fielder they didn’t even play him at Third when Chapman was out. Now they are trying to spoon feed him into playing first when he got dumped by the Red Sox for not playing that position for them.
Bryce better work out and be ready SOON !!
Their once promising catcher can’t hit his weight.
Time to raise the white flag.
Clean house of the coaches.
Clean house of a BUNCH of players.
Who was the last STAR outfielder that SF developed?
Do we have to go all the way back to Chili Davis? I can’t think of anyone.
Willie Mays
Bryan Reynolds
Might have something to do with that ballpark. The problem with all these teams using the same strategies looking for launch angle hitters is every team doesn’t play at the same park. Show me some teams who have been looking for bats for 5,10,15 years I show you they play in a pitchers park, giants, mariners and royals, guardians always seem to be looking for offence.
Who
Tyler Anderson would be a nice low cost buy for SF. He’ll give you 6 innings and a chance to win most nights.
Then look for someone better as well.
I guess it’s good for fan enthusiasm to pick up a deadline acquisition, but it may not be wise. They have to beat out the Padres and the Reds, and hold off the Cards. Forgetting about the Cards, even giving a slightly optimistic 50% chance of beating one of the Padres or the Reds, there is only a 25% chance of beating both of them. At this point in the season you are what your record is (thank you, Bill Parcells). They should hold tight or trade off a player for minor leaguers.