San Francisco Giants Pitcher Santiago Casilla Most Likely Will Need Surgery

May 20, 2013; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants pitcher

(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.