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Randy Rodriguez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery In Late September

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Giants closer Randy Rodríguez will undergo Tommy John surgery at the end of September, the team informed reporters (including Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle). The club announced in late August that doctors had recommended he undergo surgery. This finalizes those plans and all but officially rules the right-hander out for the 2026 season.

Rodríguez had taken over the ninth inning after San Francisco traded Camilo Doval to the Yankees at the deadline. He would’ve been the favorite for the closer role going into next year. The 25-year-old turned in a 1.78 earned run average while striking out more than a third of opponents over 50 appearances. He collected his first four career saves and picked up 13 holds.

Elbow injuries have been the only real concern over his first two big league seasons. Rodríguez missed six weeks in the second half of the ’24 campaign to elbow inflammation. He avoided surgery at the time, and his 97-98 MPH fastball and wipeout slider carried him through the first five months of this season. An elbow sprain sent him back to the injured list last month, and it seems the ligament damage was severe enough that he’ll need to go under the knife.

Rodríguez entered this season with 148 days of service time. He picked up a full service year in 2025 and will do the same in ’26. He’ll qualify for arbitration for the first of four times as a Super Two player during the 2026-27 offseason. The Giants will need to carry him on the 40-man roster over the offseason but can place him on the 60-day injured list at the beginning of Spring Training.

Giants Select JT Brubaker

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With rosters expanding from 26 to 28 today, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that the Giants are recalling outfielder Grant McCray and selecting right-hander JT Brubaker. Fellow righty Randy Rodríguez has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Brubaker, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Rodríguez will likely be undergoing Tommy John surgery, which means he may not pitch again until 2027.

Brubaker, 31, just signed a minor league deal with the Giants a few weeks back after being released by the Yankees. He has had some decent years in the majors but has largely been held back by injuries lately. From 2020 to 2022, he tossed 315 2/3 innings for the Pirates with a 4.99 earned run average, 23.3% strikeout rate, 7.8% walk rate and 44% ground ball rate.

Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 campaign. He was on his way back to the mound in 2024, after having been traded to the Yankees, but an oblique strain set him back. Coming into 2025, he was hit by a comebacker and fractured three ribs, putting him on the shelf yet again.

He did eventually get to don the pinstripes and tossed 16 innings for the Yankees with a 3.38 ERA, working as a long reliever. That’s likely the role the Giants have in mind for him as well. He can soak up some innings out of the pen as needed. The Yankees are on the hook for the majority of his $1.82MM salary this year since they released him. The Giants will only have to pay him the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time he spends on the roster. He has at least five years of service time and therefore can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent.

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images

Randy Rodriguez Recommended To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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A breakout season for Giants reliever Randy Rodríguez has come to an unfortunate end. The team announced that multiple doctors have recommended the All-Star righty undergo Tommy John surgery (relayed by Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News). Rodríguez will make his decision this weekend, but it’s tough to see this going any other way.

The procedure will almost certainly cost him the entire 2026 season. Rodríguez had taken over the ninth inning after San Francisco traded Camilo Doval to the Yankees at the deadline. He would’ve been the favorite for the closer role going into next year. The 25-year-old turned in a 1.78 earned run average while striking out more than a third of opponents over 50 appearances. He collected his first four career saves and picked up 13 holds.

There are 102 pitchers who have thrown at least 50 innings out of the bullpen this season. Rodríguez is seventh among that group in ERA and eighth in strikeout percentage. He has the fifth-highest gap between his strikeout and walk rates. He’s among the top 30 relievers in swinging strikes. He had emerged as one of the league’s best young relievers.

Elbow injuries have been the only real concern over his first two big league seasons. Rodríguez missed six weeks in the second half of the ’24 campaign to elbow inflammation. He avoided surgery at the time, and his 97-98 MPH fastball and wipeout slider carried him through the first five months of this season. An elbow sprain sent him back to the injured list this week, and it seems the ligament damage is severe enough that he’ll need to go under the knife.

Rodríguez entered this season with 148 days of service time. He picked up a full service year in 2025 and will do the same in ’26, assuming he indeed undergoes surgery and spends the entire season on the injured list. He’ll qualify for arbitration for the first of four times as a Super Two player during the 2026-27 offseason. The Giants will need to carry him on the 40-man roster over the offseason but can place him on the 60-day injured list at the beginning of Spring Training.

The injury is a massive hit to a bullpen that already looked like a weakness going into the offseason. Ryan Walker, who will finish this season in the closer role, has had a strong second half after a rocky start. He’ll be back in high-leverage spots. José Buttó, acquired from the Mets in the Tyler Rogers trade, will be in the setup mix. They’re the only two locks.

Joel Peguero has huge stuff but has made three career appearances. Journeyman lefty Matt Gage has pitched well, yet he’s a 32-year-old without big velocity. Erik Miller, their top left-hander in the season’s first half, has been rehabbing an elbow sprain of his own. The Giants could look at putting Hayden Birdsong back into the bullpen after he struggled to throw strikes as a starter. Even if they do that, they’ll need to add multiple arms from outside the organization during the winter.

Giants Notes: Rodriguez, Walker, Roupp, Eldridge

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The Giants placed closer Randy Rodríguez on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 23, with an elbow sprain. Keaton Winn was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento to take a spot on the active roster.

Manager Bob Melvin said Rodríguez is headed for a second opinion (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). It’s not known if that means initial evaluation suggested he was facing significant injury or if that’s a merely an abundance of caution for any kind of elbow concern. Rodríguez missed around five weeks in the second half of last year with elbow inflammation. The Giants have dropped five games below .500 and are essentially playing out the string. There’s a decent chance this ends Rodríguez’s season even if there’s no significant ligament damage.

This has been a breakout year for the 25-year-old righty. Rodríguez earned an All-Star selection and carries a 1.78 earned run average through 50 appearances. He has fanned more than a third of opposing hitters and took over in the ninth inning after the Camilo Doval trade. Melvin said Ryan Walker will step into the closer role for the time being. Walker was the early-season closer and has picked up 11 saves, but he’s had an up-and-down year. He has been pitching well of late, turning in a 2.45 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 14 2/3 frames since the All-Star Break.

The Giants also provided an update on starter Landen Roupp, who went on the injured list last week. Testing has confirmed that the righty sustained a deep bone bruise in his right knee (relayed by John Shea of The San Francisco Standard). That comes with a month-long recovery timetable that’ll very likely end his season.

It’s nevertheless a relief as Roupp revealed he’d immediately feared a torn ACL when he stumbled on the mound and needed to be carted off the field at Petco Park. He finishes his second big league season with a 3.80 ERA over 22 starts and should have the inside track at an Opening Day rotation spot next year.

While there’s not a ton of intrigue for the final few weeks of San Francisco’s season, one question is whether top first base prospect Bryce Eldridge will get to Oracle Park. As part of a longer feature about the 20-year-old’s development, Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle writes that it’s “more likely” that Eldridge’s big league debut will wait until 2026. The ’23 first-round pick has hit well against older pitching at virtually every minor league stop. He’s holding his own in 49 Triple-A contests, batting .232/.303/.497 with 14 home runs in 208 plate appearances. Eldridge has fanned in 32% of his plate appearances at the top minor league level, though, including 31 strikeouts in 91 trips (34%) this month.

Exciting as it would be for the fanbase to get their first look at Eldridge, it’d make more sense to let him play out the year in Triple-A. Their season runs through September 21, only one week shorter than the MLB schedule. Eldridge would not be eligible for the Rule 5 draft. The Giants wouldn’t need to carry him on the 40-man roster throughout the offseason unless they call him up. That also means they wouldn’t burn a minor league option year to have Eldridge start next season back in Triple-A if he struggles during Spring Training.

Giants Select Kai-Wei Teng; Randy Rodriguez Named Closer After Doval Trade

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The Giants announced they’ve selected right-hander Kai-Wei Teng onto the MLB roster. Reliever José Buttó, acquired from the Mets in the Tyler Rogers deal, has reported to the team and will be active tonight. San Francisco also recalled outfielder Grant McCray. Those three players replace Rogers, Camilo Doval and Mike Yastrzemski.

Teng is up for the first time this season. The Taiwanese pitcher made four relief appearances last year. San Francisco non-tendered him but brought him back on a minor league contract. He has been at Triple-A Sacramento all season. Teng has logged 54 innings across 25 appearances, mostly out of the bullpen, and turned in a 3.67 earned run average. He has recorded a monster 38% strikeout rate against a serviceable if slightly higher than average 9.3% walk rate.

The 26-year-old Teng has never had any issues missing bats in the minors. He has been held back by well below-average control, however. This year’s walk rate is his best since he was in rookie ball. He issued free passes at a 12% clip (with an uncharacteristically low 17.3% strikeout rate) en route to an 8.60 ERA at the Triple-A level a season ago. His performance this year has been far better.

Teng is expected to start tomorrow’s game against the Mets, according to Justice delos Santos of the Mercury News. He’d started four of his past five minor league appearances and has gotten up to 5 2/3 innings. He could take on a reasonable workload, but it’s nevertheless an indictment of the San Francisco rotation that they need to turn to a pitcher who has spent the bulk of the year in the Triple-A bullpen. They recently lost Landen Roupp to elbow inflammation and demoted struggling fifth starter Hayden Birdsong to Triple-A. The state of the rotation is a big reason the Giants pivoted late to trading away three notable players. They’ve fallen below .500 and are six games back in the Wild Card race.

Doval had operated as San Francisco’s closer for most of the season. As expected, Melvin has tabbed Randy Rodríguez as the team’s closer with Doval and Rogers now out of the picture (relayed by Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle). The 25-year-old righty has had a breakout season, earning a deserved All-Star nod with a 1.20 ERA while striking out 36% of opponents across 45 innings. He has recorded 13 holds and one save — the only one of his career — while blowing two leads. He’s under team control for another five seasons and will not reach arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason.

Giants Open To Offers On Relievers; Camilo Doval Drawing Interest

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The Giants have informed other teams that they’ll listen to offers on some of their bullpen, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network. Francys Romero reports that Camilo Doval, in particular, has drawn interest from several teams. San Francisco has dropped five consecutive games and is now sitting .500 on the season — nine games back in the NL West and five games out of a Wild Card spot.

Doval, 28, popped up in trade rumblings back in the offseason, but the Giants held onto him rather than sell low on the heels of a down season. That’s proven to be the right call, as Doval has bounced back with a 3.15 ERA, a 25.1% strikeout rate, 15 saves and seven holds on the season. His 12.8% walk rate is too high but is down from last year’s even uglier 14.4% mark. Doval sits 98.1 mph with his cutter and can run the pitch up over 100 mph, though his velocity is down a bit from the past three seasons, when he sat over 99 mph. Doval couples the cutter with a slider and what’s now a seldom-used sinker.

The 2025 season is Doval’s first year of arbitration eligibility. He’s earning $4.525MM and is slated to receive raises in each of the next two seasons. He’s a free agent in the 2027-28 offseason. If the Giants are amenable to a deal, he’d join names like David Bednar, Dennis Santana, Jhoan Duran, Griffin Jax and Cade Smith as one of the market’s more appealing relievers with some remaining club control.

Presumably, if the Giants are open to trading any veteran players, righty Tyler Rogers would be available. The submariner has been a steady member of San Francisco’s bullpen since 2019 but is in his final season of club control before free agency. The 34-year-old has pitched to a pristine 1.80 earned run average in 50 innings this year. Rogers has never missed many bats but has a 20.2% strikeout rate this season that — while still lower than average — represents a step up from the 17.3% mark he posted over the past four seasons. His command has long been a strength, but this year’s minuscule 2.1% walk rate is a career low.

Rogers offsets his lack of strikeouts with that plus command and also by inducing some of the weakest contact in the sport. His unique arm angle and 83 mph sinker regularly prove difficult to square up. Opponents are averaging just 84.8 mph off the bat against him this year, and Rogers has allowed just a 32.2% hard-hit rate. He’s also kept a massive 64.4% of batted balls against him on the ground.

Doval and Rogers stand as the two most logical trade candidates in the San Francisco bullpen, but if the Giants wanted to pursue an even more substantial return, they could hear out teams who have interest in Ryan Walker or Randy Rodriguez. Walker is in the midst of a down season but was one of the National League’s top relievers just last year, when he notched a 1.91 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate and 5.8% walk rate. He’s controllable for four years after the current season but is a late-blooming arm who’ll turn 30 in November.

The 25-year-old Rodriguez would be overwhelmingly difficult to pry away. He’s controlled for another five years after the 2025 season and currently boasts a 1.20 ERA with a massive 36.3% strikeout rate against a 5.3% walk rate. Rodriguez sits 97.4 mph with his four-seamer, pairing it with a plus slider that’s helped him land in the 90th percentile of big league pitchers in both whiff rate and chase rate on pitches off the plate, per Statcast.

Giants’ Randy Rodriguez Shut Down With Flexor Strain

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Giants reliever Randy Rodríguez was diagnosed with a flexor strain over the weekend, tweets Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic. He’ll be shut down from throwing for two weeks before going for further evaluation.

It’s a concerning diagnosis considering how frequently flexor strains serve as a precursor to some kind of elbow surgery. There’s no indication that’s under consideration for Rodríguez at the moment, though the team should provide more information after follow-up testing a couple weeks from now. San Francisco already placed the rookie right-hander on the 15-day injured list last week.

Rodríguez, 25 next month, has had a quietly strong debut campaign. He has tossed 50 1/3 innings across 33 appearances, turning in a 3.93 ERA with encouraging peripherals. He has fanned nearly a quarter of batters faced with a solid 7.6% walk rate. Rodríguez has done a nice job staying off barrels and has gotten swinging strikes at a robust 13.7% clip. While he worked primarily in low-leverage spots early in the season, Rodríguez had clearly earned manager Bob Melvin’s trust of late. No San Francisco reliever has more frequently come into key spots (as measured by the game’s leverage index) than Rodríguez since the All-Star Break.

That’s on hold for at least the next few weeks. With five-plus weeks on the regular season schedule, there’s no guarantee Rodríguez makes it back this year. Even a best-case scenario where he’s cleared to resume throwing early in September wouldn’t leave much time for him to build back into game shape. The Giants recently optioned scuffling closer Camilo Doval back to Triple-A, leaving them with Ryan Walker, Taylor and Tyler Rogers and former starter Jordan Hicks as their top late-inning arms.

NL West Notes: Black, Treinen, Graterol, Rodriguez, Jones

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As the Rockies trudge through another rough year, there isn’t yet any indication over whether or not manager Bud Black could be returning for his ninth season.  GM Bill Schmidt told the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders that the team and Black will “talk at the end of the season” and that “there’s nothing more to report on that” for the time being.  It isn’t exactly a vote of confidence for Black, who is on pace for his sixth straight losing season and his second straight year of at least 100 losses.

While Black’s contract is technically up after the season, his deal has been described in the past (by reporter Nick Groke) as “a rolling year-to-year contract.”  In both February 2022 and 2023, the Rox announced a new one-year extension to Black’s deal, yet no such extension was announced this past spring even though the two sides had some talks about Black’s future.  It could be that owner Dick Monfort’s well-known penchant for loyalty to his employees was running a little thin coming off a 103-loss season, or perhaps Black himself might be considering a different role at age 67.  Saunders writes that Black “loves teaching young players and participating in the Rockies’ attempts to improve,” but has also “remained mum about” the possibility of returning as Colorado’s skipper.

More from around the NL West…

  • The Dodgers’ list of forthcoming reinforcements off the injured list includes Blake Treinen, as manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya (links to X) and other reporters that Treinen is expected to be activated on Tuesday.  This means Treinen will miss just the minimum 15 days after some left hip discomfort sent him to the IL back on August 5.  Shoulder injuries limited Treinen to five innings in 2022 and he didn’t pitch at all in 2023, and despite this minor hip issue and a bruised lung/rib fractures suffered during Spring Training, he has still posted a 2.67 ERA in 30 1/3 innings for Los Angeles this year.  In more positive news about the relief corps, Roberts said Brusdar Graterol will soon throw a bullpen session, as Graterol is making a quicker recovery than expected from a hamstring strain.  There was some concern that Graterol’s season might’ve been in jeopardy when he was put on the 15-day IL back on August 7, but it looks like he’ll be able to return and try to salvage something from what has thus far been a lost year.  Shoulder inflammation prevented Graterol from making his season debut until August 6, and he faced just three batters (recording one out) before hurting his hamstring.
  • Giants reliever Randy Rodriguez was placed on the 15-day injured list earlier this week due to right elbow inflammation, and manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle) today that tests didn’t reveal any structural damage.  Rodriguez will still be shut down for a couple of weeks before being re-evaluated, so his absence should extend well beyond the 15-day minimum.  The hard-throwing Rodriguez has made a solid accounting of himself in his rookie season, posting a 3.93 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, and 7.6% walk rate over 50 1/3 innings.
  • Circling back to the Rockies for one final note, Colorado activated Nolan Jones from the 10-day injured list today, and optioned catcher Hunter Goodman to Triple-A.  After a seeming breakout year in 2023, Jones has hit only .202/.311/.313 in 191 PA this season, while playing in just 49 games due to two lengthy IL stints related to lower back pain.  Jones also had extra concerns off the field, as he told Patrick Saunders that his newborn daughter had some breathing problems but is now thankfully doing better.

Giants Recall Randy Rodriguez For MLB Debut

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The Giants announced Thursday that right-handed reliever Randy Rodriguez has been recalled from Triple-A Sacramento. Fellow righty Daulton Jefferies was optioned to Sacramento in his place. It’ll be Rodriguez’s MLB debut if he gets into a game.

Rodriguez, 24, is out to a terrific start in Sacramento, tossing 10 2/3 innings and yielding only a pair of runs on seven hits and four walks with 10 strikeouts. He entered the 2024 season ranked 11th among Giants prospects at FanGraphs and 28th at MLB.com. Both outlets praise him as a potential big league reliever, with FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and Travis Ice being a bit more bullish on Rodriguez’s athleticism improving his chances of eventually improving currently shaky command.

Rodriguez misses plenty of bats with an upper-90s heater and hard slider, but he also walked 14% of his Double-A opponents last year and turned in a mammoth 20.7% walk rate in a sample of 37 2/3 innings following a move to Triple-A. He’s more than halved that walk rate in his first 10 appearances of the ’24 season (9.5%). That’s an encouraging trend, particularly since Rodriguez’s window to hone his command and cement himself as a big leaguer is dwindling — despite only just being called up for his debut. The Giants selected him to the 40-man roster following the 2021 season, meaning Rodriguez is already in the last of three minor league option years. He’ll be out of options in 2025.

Overall, Rodriguez has a 3.75 ERA in 261 2/3 minor league innings, but nearly all of his success has come at the Low-A, High-A and Double-A levels. This early stretch in 2024 is his first run of success in Triple-A. He’ll give the Giants a fresh arm following a bullpen game that saw them use five different pitchers to get through eight innings in a road loss to the Red Sox.

Giants Select Three Players, Designate Jay Jackson For Assignment

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The Giants have selected outfielder Heliot Ramos and right-handers Sean Hjelle and Randy Rodriguez to the 40-man roster. The moves keep them from being eligible for the Rule 5 draft. To create roster space, San Francisco designated reliever Jay Jackson for assignment and returned Rule 5 pick Dedniel Nuñez to the Mets.

Ramos is among the better prospects in baseball, entering the 2021 campaign as Baseball America’s #83 overall farmhand. A first-round pick out of Puerto Rico in 2017, the right-handed hitting Ramos has compensated for a lot of swing-and-miss by hitting for a lot of power. He’s regarded as a potential above-average everyday right fielder and hit .254/.323/.416 with 14 homers in 495 plate appearances between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento.

Hjelle was a second-rounder out of the University of Kentucky in 2018. The big righty draws praise for his deception and control, but his minor league track record has been mixed. The 24-year-old dominated in the low minors but has run into some trouble at the higher levels, particularly in Triple-A. BA ranks him eleventh in system and calls him a potential back-end starter.

Rodriguez, 22, is a former amateur signee out of the Dominican Republic. Working exclusively as a reliever, he pitched to a sterling 1.74 ERA with a huge 39.1% strikeout rate and a fine 8.9% walk percentage over 62 innings with Low-A Augusta. Rodriguez has never appeared on an organizational ranking at FanGraphs or BA.

San Francisco’s decision to DFA Jackson comes as a bit of a surprise, considering the club just exercised a 2022 option on his services a few weeks back. Signed to a minors pact in January, the 34-year-old Jackson made the big league club in July and worked 21 2/3 frames down the stretch. He struck out a strong 31.1% of opposing hitters in that time, although he also handed out free passes at an alarming 13.3% clip.

Nuñez never appeared in a regular season game with the Giants. Selected out of the New York organization in last year’s Rule 5 draft, he suffered an elbow injury in Spring Training and eventually underwent Tommy John surgery. He’ll return to the Mets but won’t occupy a 40-man roster spot.

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