Could a relief role be the future for top SF Giants pitching prospect?

The SF Giants have to figure out what the future is going to look like for some of their young arms. Top pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt flashed some positive signs in 2025, but could be be better suited for a relief role in 2026?

The Giants had to dig deep into their pitching depth as 2025 wore on with several pitchers going down or being effective. They called Whisenhunt up hoping he could be a reliable force in the rotation but that is not what he ended up being.

SF Giants may need to make Whisenhunt a reliever

In five starts, the lefty had a 5.01 ERA in 23 and 1/3 innings pitched with 16 strikeouts compared to 12 walks. He also gave up an alarming six home runs in that short span.

He had one very solid start in New York against the Mets in which he went 5 and 1/3 innings and allowed just one earned run.

Outside of that, he was quite shaky on the mound. A big reason for this had to do with the fact that his changeup, his most highly touted pitch in the minor leagues, seemed to abandon him at the big league level.

Maybe opposing batters were just sitting on it or it was not effective enough to fool anyone, but opponents hit his best pitch hard which was a bit surprising.

It was a small sample size for Whisenhunt so perhaps not too much should be read into it, but it is hard to see him earning a spot in the starting rotation to begin 2026 barring injury to other arms.

That is why a relief role could make sense for him. In Andrew Baggarly's most recent piece in The Athletic, he openly mused whether Whisenhunt could be turned into a reliever, writing, "The Giants could look at converting left-hander Carson Whisenhunt to a relief role."

This was in the context of the Giants deciding to non-tender left-handed reliever Joey Lucchesi and offering Whisenhunt as a potential option to slide into his role. Now that the Giants have signed another left-handed reliever they may not be willing to use Whisenhunt in a late-inning role as Lucchesi was used due to necessity.

However, maybe trying to use Whisenhunt in a role similar to the one Hayden Birdsong filled early in 2025 could be an interesting experiment. Birdsong was a sort of super-reliever who would come in and usually eat up two innings in relief.

Birdsong enjoyed great success in this role so why not try Whisenhunt out in a similar capacity? It would give the bullpen more length and allow the Giants to rest some of their other arms so it may not be a bad idea even though the left-hander has been primarily used as a starter in his career.

It may take creativity to get the most out of the pitching staff next season though, so having Whisenhunt fill a relief role may be a solid move.