May 20, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher Santiago Casilla (46) follows through on a pitch against the Washington Nationals in the eighth inning at AT&T Park

It’s been a rough couple of days for the San Francisco Giants pitching staff. In addition to losing Ryan Vogelsong to a broken hand, the Giants lost Santiago Casilla to the disabled list with a knee injury.

The injury to Casilla’s knee isn’t anything new. In fact, the Giants knew of the issue last year – deeming it a “cyst”, but the pain has continued to linger for Casilla this season which resulted in a handful of missed games, which then lead to a stint on the disabled list.

The rest isn’t helping apparently and Giants general manager, speaking on KNBR yesterday, stated that the team may need to get ready to be without Casilla for quite a while as it appears surgery is in his future.

Per Alex Pavlovic:

On that note, here’s an important quote from Brian Sabean yesterday on KNBR: “I think we’re going to lose Casilla for an extended amount of time. I would anticipate there’s some form of surgery coming.”

After losing Vogelsong, the Giants are already stressed with their thin pitching, though the injury to Casilla should all but squash the idea of Chad Gaudin moving to the starting rotation.

May 15, 2013; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (32) throws against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been an active morning for the San Francisco Giants front office.

Today, they placed Ryan Vogelsong on the disabled list after he broke his hand last night, but also placed Santiago Casilla on the DL as well with a knee injury.

To fill their roster spots, the Giants re-called Brett Pill and pitcher Sandy Rosario.

With an off-day Thursday, the Giants don’t exactly need to rush to replace Vogelsong’s spot in the rotation, so the addition of Pill should give the Giants an extra bat for a few days.

Rosario’s recall isn’t much more than a replacement for Casilla.

Rosario pitched one third of a inning earlier this season for the Giants and oddly enough, won his first Major League game in the process, before being sent down just a day or so later.

Casilla isn’t expected to be out longer than the required fifteen day period, though, Pill could be sent back to Fresno later this week as the Giants will most likely be in need of an additional arm come the weekend. The Giants could opt to run with Chad Gaudin in Vogelsong’s role, but manager Bruce Bochy appears to like Gaudin in the bullpen and may not want to rock that boat.