SF Giants managed to screw up Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson's MLB debut even though he pitched great

There aren’t many reasons to watch the SF Giants right now, but odds are the interest of fans was piqued by the promise of Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson making his big league debut on Wednesday night against the Cleveland Guardians. He pitched great, but the Giants still managed to mess things up.

Wilkinson got the start and pitched two clean innings. He allowed one baserunner, no runs, and only threw 25 pitches. Yet, for some reason the Giants pulled him after the second inning which confused and upset some fans.

He didn’t appear to be injured or anything and it’s not like he’s been on a pitch count in the minor leagues. He’s pitched five innings or more in each of his last three minor league starts so he’s definitely been stretched out and has been a starting pitcher all season in the minors.

The Giants pulled Wilkinson in favor of Adrian Houser who pitched very well, delivering five scoreless innings, but that’s not really the point. Why not see if Wilkinson can go five innings? They definitely want to give him a chance as a starter and in a meaningless season it’s the perfect time to see what he’s got.

Maybe the Giants just want to ease him into the big leagues. He had a 5.15 ERA in Triple-A so it’s not exactly like he forced his way up to the big leagues based on performance. The Giants probably wanted to get a look at him, knew they could get fans interested based on his nickname, and wanted to give him a chance to face the team that traded him.

Giants should give Tugboat more leash going forward

Still, it would’ve been cool to stretch him out and let him go. Best case scenario he goes five or six innings and pitches really well, gaining a ton of confidence in the process. Worst case he gets roughed up a little and can take both positives and negatives away from the outing. Either way he would’ve learned more than just pitching the two innings.

The Giants should be giving all of their young guys as many chances as possible. They have let Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell pitch through struggles so they should treat Wilkinson the exact same way. He may not have the same raw stuff as those guys but if he displays plus control then he could factor into the team’s plans next year. 

In the grand scheme of things pulling Wilkinson early probably doesn’t matter all that much, but fans want to see the Tugboat in action. One can only hope they will stretch him out more going forward but it definitely feels like a missed opportunity that they didn’t give him more leash in his first big league outing.

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