SF Giants may have to cut bait on promising young pitcher while they still can

A lot of talk this offseason for the SF Giants will have to do with pitchers they should add, but they may have to consider whether they should hold onto young pitcher Hayden Birdsong who had an up-and-down campaign in 2025.

In spring training prior to the 2025 season, Birdsong was one of the most promising young players in camp. He pitched very well and was narrowly beat out by Landen Roupp for a spot in the rotation, but he pitched well enough to earn a spot in the rotation to begin the year.

SF Giants have a choice to make on Hayden Birdsong

He looked absolutely dominant in a relief role for San Francisco early in the season. Manager Bob Melvin was able to utilize him as a sort of super-reliever because he was able to bring him in for two or more innings.

He had a 2.31 ERA as a reliever before he pitched well enough, and Jordan Hicks pitched poorly enough, that he was promoted to the rotation. After a solid first start in which he went five innings and did not allow an earned run, it seemed like he was going to be a fixture of the rotation. That is not how things turned out.

Slowly but surely his command deteriorated to the point where he could just not be counted on to find the strike zone. Things came to a head in his final start of the year for the Giants in Atlanta when he walked four batters and allowed five earned runs without recording a single out.

He was sent down to Triple-A after that and things did not improve very much. He had a 6.23 ERA in 39 innings pitched. The Illinois native had 30 walks compared to 47 strikeouts, and that walk number is definitely concerning although he did have a 10-strikeout performance.

Birdsong did not pitch well enough to warrant a call-up back to the majors, though. With how depleted the team's pitching staff was by the end of the year, that shows that the Giants did not fully trust him to come back and be effective.

Looking ahead to 2026, Birdsong is obviously looking to bounce back after a difficult 2025. But the Giants are going to have to decide whether they believe more in the Birdsong they saw early in 2025 or later in 2025.

He is just 24 years old and clearly has a lot of potential, but this may be their last chance to get something for him in a potential trade if he simply cannot stay in the strike zone going forward.