Giants to promote pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt for debut Monday vs. Pirates

New York Times

7 days ago

SAN FRANCISCO — With their rotation in a bind and the losses beginning to pile up, the San Francisco Giants will seek a boost from their top pitching prospect on Monday. The team will promote left-hander Carson Whisenhunt from Triple-A Sacramento to make his major-league debut with a home start against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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'We've been waiting for this for a little bit now,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said following the Giants' 5-3 loss on Sunday that capped the New York Mets' three-game sweep. 'We thought maybe he'd be here last year, too. With what's gone on here … there's a need for it. It'll be exciting to see him pitch.'
What's gone on will have to change quickly for the Giants to stay in the National League playoff picture. They've lost nine of 11, and their rotation is down to three healthy and established pitchers — All-Star right-hander Logan Webb, All-Star left-hander Robbie Ray and 42-year-old right-hander Justin Verlander — after right-hander Landen Roupp was placed on the 15-day injured list with elbow inflammation and erratic right-hander Hayden Birdsong LaLooshed himself to Triple-A Sacramento.
So the Giants will turn to Whisenhunt, a fringe top-100 prospect who was widely considered the best collegiate left-hander in his 2022 MLB Draft class before a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance resulted in a suspension that caused him to miss his junior season at East Carolina University. The Giants thought they got a steal when they selected Whisenhunt in the second round, and although he didn't post overpowering numbers in the upper minors, his changeup consistently grades out as a plus major-league pitch.
Whisenhunt, 24, compiled a 4.42 ERA in 18 starts while spending his second season in the Pacific Coast League, which tends to warp most pitching statistics. His progress could be measured in a walk rate (2.6 per nine innings) that he nearly halved from the previous year. He's also striking out fewer batters, though (7.9 per nine innings, down from 11.6 in 2024).
The Giants won't expect Whisenhunt to dominate. They'll be happy to receive five or six competitive innings one day after relying on a bullpen game against the Mets. Giants catcher Patrick Bailey, a fellow North Carolina native, said he's confident Whisenhunt will have what it takes to compete.
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'I'm very excited for him,' Bailey said. 'Awesome dude, awesome player. I think he'll be ready. He's got really good stuff. Obviously, he's got the plus-plus changeup, and I hear the fastball command is getting better and he's throwing some different breaking balls. It's well deserved.'
The Giants could air a Carson special Monday night. They didn't use Whisenhunt's former Sacramento rotation mate, right-hander Carson Seymour, in Sunday's bullpen game. So he'd be available to back up Whisenhunt.
'It just depends on how efficient he is,' Melvin said.
The bullpen game — which included two home runs off right-hander Randy Rodríguez after he'd allowed just one in his first 43 appearances — wasn't the reason the Giants dropped their series finale against the Mets. The Giants didn't get any offensive production outside of two home runs from third baseman Matt Chapman and, continuing a cruel theme, went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position. Mets closer Edwin Diaz struck out Willy Adames and Chapman to strand the bases loaded in the ninth, concluding a series in which the Giants went 0-for-23 with runners in scoring position. According to research by NBC Sports Bay Area, it was the first time since 1931 that the Giants played a series in which they had at least 20 at-bats with runners in scoring position and failed to get a hit in any of them.
The tragicomic detail: They would've been credited with one in the third inning Sunday when Adames failed to check his swing and sent a roller up the third-base line. But Heliot Ramos' base-running foibles continued. He got hung up between second and third, and Mets third baseman Ronny Mauricio tagged him to complete a fielder's choice.
Of course, there isn't much Whisenhunt can do to alleviate the Giants' most persistent problem this season. The best he can do is keep the team in the game. He's coming off a shortened outing last Sunday against Oklahoma City in which he threw 68 pitches while allowing a run in 3 2/3 innings, but he had an earlier run of four consecutive seven-inning starts and twice earned PCL pitcher of the week honors. On July 12, Whisenhunt represented the Giants in the All-Star Futures Game in Atlanta and retired both batters he faced.
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The Giants must make space on the 40-man and active roster for Whisenhunt, who was scratched from his start for Sacramento on Saturday night and added to the major-league taxi squad. After Sunday's game, there was a locker in the Giants clubhouse with a No. 88 jersey hanging in it. A duffel bag and a pair of dimpled, ostrich leather boots signified Whisenhunt's arrival.
Roupp, another fellow North Carolina native who brings a strong boot game to the clubhouse, has competition now.
'I've seen him since we competed against each other in college,' Roupp said. 'I'm excited. I think it's past due. He's been throwing pretty well this year and threw well last year.
'Everybody knows his changeup is really good, but the other pitches are coming around, too.'
The Giants need their offense to come around if they hope to remain relevant in September and beyond. But they also need to stabilize a pitching staff that has thrown the most bullpen innings of any team since the All-Star break.
Chapman said he has no doubt that club president Buster Posey will remain an active buyer as Thursday's trade deadline approaches.
'It sucks to lose 9 of 11 and slip out of the standings a little bit, but we're still right there,' Chapman said. 'We'll play a lot of the teams that are right in front of us and right in the thick of it with us. Buster has made it clear: We go out and get Rafi (Rafael Devers), and it makes sense to continue to try to improve this team for this year and the foreseeable future. So I think we expect to add and to continue to get better and to continue to make a push to make the playoffs.'