Giants lefty Carson Whisenhunt will undergo surgery to repair the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. He’s getting one more opinion before having the procedure, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle adds, but it seems that’ll likely be to give a better idea as to whether he’ll need an internal brace procedure or a full reconstruction (i.e. Tommy John surgery). Either option will likely knock him out for all of the 2027 season, although an internal brace comes with a slightly shorter timeline and would leave the door cracked for a return late next September.
San Francisco selected Whisenhunt 66th overall back in the 2022 draft. He’s ranked among the system’s best pitching prospects since and received some top-100 love a couple years ago. He’s yet to cement himself in the Giants’ rotation, pitching to a 5.90 ERA in 13 starts (58 innings) dating back to last year’s MLB debut. Of course, we can’t know exactly how long the elbow troubles have been impacting him. Whisenhunt has pitched well in Triple-A this year (4.15 ERA, 24.9 K%, 10.5 BB%, 42.5 B%, 82 1/3 innings) and pitched decently in his first two major league starts this season before running into a rough patch late last month.
Over his past six starts, Whisenhunt was tagged for 21 runs in 24 innings. He recorded an ugly 20-to-15 K/BB ratio along the way (16.9 K%, 12.7 BB%). He’d cruised through 2 2/3 shutout innings in his most recent start against the Reds before exiting abruptly due to elbow discomfort. A subsequent MRI revealed a ligament tear, making today’s revelation wholly unsurprising.
Slusser and Pavlovic both noted that Whisenhunt has already spoken to teammates Hayden Birdsong and Trevor McDonald about their own UCL surgeries this season. Both had Tommy John surgery — Birdsong back in March and McDonald earlier this month. Birdsong could be back in the Giants’ rotation or bullpen early next summer, but Whisenhunt seems likely to be out until 2028 and McDonald may be on a similar timeline.
That series of injuries is only exacerbated by yesterday’s early exit from Adrian Houser, who’d just moved back into the rotation after a nice run in long relief. Houser is undergoing an MRI today. At the moment, the Giants’ only established rotation arms are Logan Webb and Landen Roupp. Blade Tidwell and Matt Wilkinson figure to get plenty of looks down the stretch.
The Giants beat also notes that righty Braxton Roxby has a locker in the clubhouse today; he’s worked exclusively as a reliever in the minors this season and isn’t likely to get any rotation work down the stretch, but he could give the Giants a fresh arm in the bullpen if he’s indeed selected to the major league roster today. Lefties Joe Whitman and Cesar Perdomo seem like the top candidates to be called to the big leagues for a late rotation audition, though it’s possible the Giants could look to recent DFA casualties with other clubs (e.g. Zack Littell, Michael Lorenzen) to simply soak up some innings over the final month in an otherwise lost season.
Whisenhunt will now spend the rest of the current season and most or all of the 2028 campaign on the 60-day injured list. He’ll finish the season with 129 days of major league service and, assuming a full year of rehab in 2027, would be at 1.129 years of service at season’s end. That’d put him on track to be a borderline Super Two player following the 2028 season, but he’ll still have minor league options remaining beyond the current season, so that could change depending on whether he’s able to stick on the 2028 roster.
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