SF Giants have no other choice but to play with fire when it comes to Landen Roupp

The SF Giants have lost three young pitchers to severe elbow injuries this year. Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, and Carson Whisenhunt have all had to undergo elbow procedures this year. While in a perfect world the Giants would be able to limit Landen Roupp’s innings count, they really have no other choice than to play with fire the rest of this season.

Roupp has thrown 134 and 2/3 innings this year when his previous high in innings was 109 and 2/3 innings last year. It’s important to keep in mind that Roupp missed time last year due to elbow inflammation and then ultimately went down with a knee sprain. Maybe that helped save his arm a bit for this year, but the Giants still have to feel like they’re playing with fire.

The thing is, they really don’t have much of a choice. Logan Webb, Roupp, and Blade Tidwell are the only three starters the Giants have right now. It’s a little bit like last year when the Giants only had Webb, Robbie Ray, and Justin Verlander with those final two rotation spots being a real conundrum to figure out.

The Giants are going to have to get creative to get through the rest of this season, but they’re also going to need to make sure Roupp stays healthy since there’s a pretty good chance he’s going to be in next year’s rotation.

Giants' rotation for next year is a big question mark

In an ideal world, Roupp would go into next year competing for the No. 5 spot in the rotation based on his underwhelming 4.34 ERA in 25 starts in the year. He’s certainly shown promise but has not been anywhere near consistent enough and has walked way too many batters.

Still, there seems to be a pretty decent chance he will be the team’s No. 3 starter going into next year unless the organization shakes things up and actually invests in a legitimate No. 2 and No. 3 starter behind Webb.

Trading for Emerson Hancock and signing Kevin Gausman would be a nice way to boost the rotation, but don’t be surprised if they just sign Taijuan Walker and David Peterson and call it an offseason.

Either way, Roupp staying healthy is a big part of the plan. If he were to go down with an injury like Whisenhunt and McDonald then that would really shake up the team’s rotation plans. The Giants would have to sign at least three starters then and one could probably make a bet on Kalshi right now, just like the Giants want us to do, that at least two of them wouldn’t be premium arms and would probably just be innings-eaters.

One cannot help but be worried about Roupp because he’s blown by his innings limit, but the Giants have no choice other than to push him the rest of the season just so they can get through it. 

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