SF Giants manager Bob Melvin outlines plan for top lefty prospect

SF Giants manager Bob Melvin met with reporters (hat tip to NBC Sports Bay Area) to discuss a number of topics. He outlined that the plan for top lefty pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt is to get stretched and be ready for the season.

SF Giants manager Bob Melvin outlines plan for top lefty prospect

The Giants have a need for a second left-handed pitcher in the bullpen following the Taylor Rogers trade. Erik Miller is currently the only lefty reliever on the 40-man roster. Most teams like to carry multiple southpaw pitchers in the bullpen, so that is one competition to watch this spring.

While Whisenhunt is one of the many left-handed pitchers in Giants camp as non-roster invitees, it does not sound like he is a candidate to make the Opening Day bullpen. If the goal is to get him stretched out, it means the Giants view him as a starter.

Later in the interview, Melvin (at the 4:00 mark) reiterated this point saying, "He's [Whisenhunt] a high-end starter that we look to down the road." If you want to read between the "down the road" part of that quote, it could certainly be viewed as Whisenhunt potentially being an option out of the bullpen in the short term while being stretched out as a starter in the long term.

The Giants had a similar approach with Landen Roupp last spring. He came into camp as a non-roster invitee and impressed the coaching staff enough to win a spot on the Opening Day roster. Roupp did have a nice finish to the season even if he was not consistently stretched out as a starter.

Melvin did mention a couple of times that the plan is for Whisenhunt is to get stretched out as a starter. This feels like it would preclude him from being an option in the bullpen. Sometimes, performance dictates that narrative and maybe Whisenhunt just performs way better than everyone else.

The lefty pitching prospect is coming off of a nice season with the Sacramento River Cats where he tallied a 5.93 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 11.6 K/9, and 2.55 SO/W rate in 25 starts. He eclipsed the 100-inning threshold and mixed in a breaking ball as a third pitch to go with his sinker-changeup combination.

The 24-year-old still needs to show improvement in his control to be able to stick in the rotation. However, the automatic strike zone in the Pacific Coast League has been a tough adjustment for many pitchers even if it is not universally used yet.