Giants right-hander Hayden Birdsong recently underwent an MRI due to an issue in his elbow/forearm area, and the news isn’t encouraging. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area was among those to relay this afternoon that Birdsong has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 forearm strain and a UCL sprain. He’s weighing treatment options and expected to seek a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister in the coming days.
While the exact timeline for Birdsong’s return to action won’t be known until the right-hander makes a decision on his treatment plan, fans in San Francisco should expect him to be out for at the very least months after this diagnosis, if not much longer. As Pavlovic notes, Birdsong’s diagnosis is often one that ends in Tommy John surgery. That would wipe out the entire 2026 season and likely at least part of the 2027 campaign as well for the right-hander, although if he opts to rehab the injury he would likely have a chance to return to the mound at some point this year.
It’s a frustrating turn of events for Birdsong and the Giants, as the former top prospect is still just 24 years old and was one of the club’s top depth arms behind their starting five of Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Adrian Houser, Tyler Mahle, and Landen Roupp. Birdsong struggled badly with his command this spring, a trend that began last season, but has never wanted for velocity. Even during camp, the right-hander was throwing his heater at 97mph. He sports a career 4.77 ERA with a similar 4.81 FIP in the majors, but has shown flashes of excellence at times. That includes a 2.37 ERA and 3.50 FIP in his first 14 appearances last year, split between 11 relief appearances and three starts totaling 38 innings of work altogether. Pavlovic notes that the Giants were very encouraged by Birdsong’s latest spring outing, which saw him allow zero walks and strike out one batter while allowing just one hit in a scoreless inning.
If Birdsong had managed to finish Spring Training strong, it wouldn’t have been hard to imagine him as the next man up for the Giants’ rotation in case of injury headed into the season. That’s obviously off the table now, of course, and San Francisco will instead have to turn to a handful of other young arms if and when injuries force them to dip into their depth options. Top prospect Carson Whisenhunt is perhaps the most exciting name of the group, though he didn’t exactly impress in his 20 1/3 inning cup of coffee in the majors last year. The same can be said of Blade Tidwell, who posted a 9.00 ERA in four starts for the Mets before being dealt to San Francisco in the Tyler Rogers trade at the trade deadline. Swing man Carson Seymour also made his big league debut last year to mixed results, and after that trio the Giants could look towards non-roster invitees in camp like right-hander Caleb Kilian.
That’s unfortunate, especially that TJS is on the table. He’s only 24 years old, so if he does decide to have surgery, he’d still be 25 next season, still plenty of youth ahead of him. Good luck young man!
Trevor McDonald didn’t get any love.
Yeah McDonald is definitely first up when they need a starter.
Although he could try to rehab his arm that could turn out to be bad too as he could potentially tear his ucl during rehab and then have to require surgery anyway so as bad as it would be he should just go ahead with the surgery.
Gee. Pitcher maybe going to need elbow surgery. Seems to be all the rage.
Happens every spring training ,it’s just a matter of time
Never seems to end.
Seeing Meister normally means goodbye season.
I know a pitcher in the men’s league that was 5-3 with a 3.84 era last year if you need someone.
Here is a bit of good news for Giants fans, if Arraez is allowed to hit away instead of being told to bunt 16 times like Shildt did last season, his OPS will go up 17 points and his wRC+ will go up from 104 to 111 even if he doesn’t increase his average. If his batting average increases to his 3-year weighted average that puts his OPS+ at a very good 119. At a 111 wRC+ and with no change in his defense, his WAR will go from a 1.1 playing primarily 1B to a 2.3 playing primarily 2B. I think Giants fans are going to be happy with him at 2B.
I’m sure that is one sad Birdsong today….
birdful.org/which-bird-has-a-sad-song/