Carson Whisenhunt, Adrian Houser injuries may finally force SF Giants to change their ways

In a season filled with injuries for the SF Giants, perhaps it’s fitting that in back-to-back games the team’s starter was pulled after just a few innings as they stretched their elbow out wincing in pain. That’s basically the universal “Uh-oh” sign for pitchers.

The “uh-oh” fears were confirmed with Carson Whisenhunt who tore his UCL and will likely need Tommy John surgery. Adrian Houser sounded more optimistic after Tuesday’s game as he said it felt similar to a flexor strain he has before which kept him out five week.

Still, that likely means the Giants will be without both pitchers the rest of this season which throws the rotation into disarray for the remainder of 2026 and raises some serious questions about next year’s rotation, but it remains to be seen whether the Giants will change their ways by spending meaningful money on pitchers.

For the rest of this season at least, expect Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson to get called back up after his somewhat surprising demotion and probably Tristan Beck as well. The rotation still has Logan Webb, Landen Roupp, and Blade Tidwell (for now, at least) and those other two rotation spots will probably have to be filled by some sort of hodgepodge of Tugboat, Beck, Spencer Bivens, Carson Seymour, Trent Harris, and Anthony Molina who pitched great in relief on Tuesday.

It will likely be a mess and maybe it will finally convince Greg Johnson to allow the front office to spend some real money on a starter.

Giants need to commit real money to the rotation after injury woes

The class of free-agent starting pitchers isn’t especially exciting outside of Tarik Skubal and everyone expects him to stay with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Some other big names could include Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burns (player option), Michael King (player option), and Sonny Gray (mutual option).

Some names the Giants might be a bit more comfortable with include old friend Kevin Gausman and Arizona Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen. A Gausman signing would make a lot of sense given his familiarity with the Giants and Buster Posey from the 2021 season. He’s 35 so he probably wouldn’t get more than a two or three-year deal which is probably as much as the Giants would want to commit to a pitcher.

There are also stopgap options like Trevor Rogers, David Peterson, and…dare I say Tyler Mahle? After being traded to the Atlanta Braves for Molina, he has been superb with a 1.52 ERA in four starts.

If the Giants don't make any additions, they would have to be comfortable rolling into 2027, or whenever baseball is next played, with a rotation looking something like: Webb, Roupp, Houser, Tidwell, and Wilkinson That doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence, but they don’t have a lot of other options at this point.

Let’s remember that Hayden Birdsong underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this year as did Trevor McDonald. A lot of the young starters the team has been hoping would take a step forward and grab hold of a rotation spot have either underperformed, been injured, or both.

Maybe the Giants could get creative and swing something akin to the Robbie Ray trade which turned out to be a very good move for the team.

These injuries just reinforce what we’ve known all along: the Giants have to invest more into the pitching staff. They didn’t do it last offseason and they’ve been reluctant to fully commit for a while. Will these injuries force a change or will it be the same old thing yet again? 

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