TODAY: Butto underwent his surgery yesterday, the Giants announced (hat tip to Susan Slusser). The right-hander’s recovery timeline has now been increased to 5-6 months, meaning that Butto’s 2026 season is almost certainly over.
APRIL 4: The Giants announced today that Butto’s recovery timeline is 2-4 months.
APRIL 3: Giants reliever José Buttó has a blood clot in his throwing arm, the team told reporters (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). He’s undergoing a procedure this evening to remove it.
Buttó landed on the 15-day injured list yesterday. The team initially announced that only as arm fatigue. The clot provides a little more clarity, but there’s no return timeline. Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle relays that it appears Buttó had pitched through the issue for a while before the clot was diagnosed earlier today.
Blood clotting can be associated with thoracic outlet syndrome. That was the case for Phillies ace Zack Wheeler, for example. The Giants have not said anything about whether that’s a fear for Buttó. However, skipper Tony Vitello told Slusser there are a few possible procedures that the right-hander might undergo.
San Francisco acquired Buttó from the Mets as one of three players in the Tyler Rogers deal last summer. Blade Tidwell, another part of the Rogers return, was coincidentally recalled to take his place in the bullpen yesterday. Buttó turned in a 4.50 ERA across 20 innings down the stretch. He surrendered five runs on six hits and four walks over two innings to begin the 2026 season.
That sounds painful.
As an Astros fan should know, potentially worse than painful. Thank goodness they are better able to deal with such things now than in the time of JR Richard.
Richard was before my time, but yes, I know about him. I think the Astros should retire his number in honor. In 1976, something clicked, and he just became a monster.
Sickening
Lard is not good for you.
You are mistaken. The cause of most blood clots at his age and his profession (pitching), are caused or related to T.O.S.. The repeated throwing motion can cause clots to form in the arm. That’s it. Not lard related.
Lard is not good for you
Get well soon Butto!
Get well soon prayers
Tough break. Rough stuff. Get well soon, worry about your health before baseball.
Blood clots are no joke. Had one myself I
n my arm last year. Hope he recovers
What were your symptoms, and what was it caused by?
I had really bad swelling in my arm. Part of the clot broke off and was in my pulmonary artery. They don’t know what caused it
Bad timing for Butto.
Not really effective in his outings this year, and quite a few hungry arms waiting for a spot. Hope he recovers soon, but in reality he may lose his job. Tough break.
Scary. Get well dude
Tough for Butto, but the one area SF has depth is its middle relief so not as crippling as if it was a position player
Bummer. Looked good in the WBC
Some things are bigger than baseball. Get well soon, dude. It’ll still be here when you return.
Scary I’m glad they found it. Hopefully he recovers quickly
For now they will do catheter thrombolysis/thrombectomy but then shortly after he will need surgery for vascular thoracic outlet syndrome with first rib resection on that side. And he will be on blood thinners for 3-6 months. He will be on IL for a while. Opportunity for Tidwell .
Incidences of blood clots are sure up since the whole Covid fiasco. But nobody really wants to point a finger at what could possibly be contributing to it more than anything else….
It’s harder to convince somebody they’ve been fooled, then fool fool them in the first place.
I’m surprised people aren’t more angry.
But that would mean accepting that they were fooled!
You’re a funny guy.
They’re so easy to fool though.
That’s a big loss for an already thin Giants bullpen.
The writer should have included the information that Butto made five appearances for Venezuela in the WBC, including back-to-backs. Very poor reporting when the cause of his problem is in plain sight.
Man… are we still blaming the WBC for injuries?
Blood clot would have happened regardless.
Borucki is so sucky.
Please replace him with any creature with an arm. Thanks.
MLBTR has reported nothing on the Giants in over a week.
OTOH, nothing has happened.
They don’t want to embarrass Buster.
Blood clot is due to pitchers doing weight training and hypetrophy of the chest and shoulder muscles which pushes the blood vessels and nerves tighter and tighter against the first rib which is bone and cannot give more room. With weight training more pitchers are gaining velocity but risking the elbow joint and shoulder AND vascular thoracic outlet syndrome
So if a pitcher has a procedure to shave down their rib bones, they could have a competitive advantage?
Cannot shave down the rib; the surgery is first rib resection meaning cutting it out to create
More space. It’s not an advantage but would reduce risk of thoracic outlet syndrome an upper extremity blood clot. However , removing rib 1 can meaningfully impact pitching mechanics and most pitchers who go through the surgery never fully regan their prior form.