Young SF Giants pitcher's key mechanical tweak may lead to breakout year

The SF Giants are going to need their young starting pitching depth to step up this season. That includes top pitching prospect Carson Whisenhunt who has made a mechanical tweak that could help him have a breakout season.

FanGraphs and PECOTA projections are both in agreement that the SF Giants will finish somewhere around 82-80 going into the season with the way the roster currently stands. A few good breaks, they could challenge for a Wild Card spot and finish second in the NL West, above the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

SF Giants could use a breakout season from Carson Whisenhunt in the worst way

A few bad ones, and they could settle into yet another losing year, which would probably lead to some murmurs about Buster Posey’s leadership and whether Tony Vitello was really the right guy for the job or not. However fair or unfair those murmurs would be, it’s more comfortable to think positively as we get ready for spring training games to get underway.

The bullpen still looks like it’s going to be a dumpster fire, and the team’s defense will probably be suspect at best, so a ton of pressure is going to be on the rotation. Tyler Mahle and Adrian Houser were brought in as low-ceiling, high-floor buttresses that help compensate for the losses of Justin Verlander and Kyle Harrison, who were with the team this time last year. Logan Webb will continue to be an ace, and Robbie Ray might not run out of gas in the second half being a year further removed from Tommy John surgery.

That’s a decent stable of veteran options, with Landen Roupp the odds-on favorite to complete the starting quintet. No team, though, will see all five of their top guys making 32 starts apiece – nine or ten pitchers will most likely make starts for the Giants in 2026, if not more.

Enter some names you’re already familiar with – Carson Whisenhunt, Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald, Blade Tidwell and Carson Seymour, with Keaton Winn for good measure. This is the stable of youthful depth options at Vitello’s disposal, and the Giants are undoubtedly praying that one or two of that group takes a giant leap forward into their long-term plans.

In addition to Birdsong, arguably the most interesting name on that list is the lefty-throwing Whisenhunt (and not just because that’s a really cool last name). Formerly the third-ranked prospect in the Giants’ system and their top pitching prospect, Whisenhunt made five starts in his first taste of the big leagues last season. They didn’t go especially well, as he compiled a 5.01 ERA in his 23.1 innings with just 16 strikeouts against 12 walks. His FIP was a ghastly 6.91, so he may have been even fortunate to post results that middling.

If you hear it from the man himself, though, he and the Giants’ pitching coaches identified a very fixable issue that could have led to some of his struggles. In his final start on August 27th against the Cubs, Whisenhunt earned his second career victory by completing five innings of three-run ball, but it didn’t come easy for him.

“That’s when I was like, ‘This is not working,'” Whisenhunt told Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. “I was thinking, ‘I’ve got one out pitch, I’ve got to use it and hope they aren’t sitting on it.’ And they probably were. Especially when I was tipping it… We figured out how I was tipping changeup. You could see my wrist (cocked) out of my glove in the stretch. So we worked on that. Can’t see it anymore. I was super focused on what I needed to do after that.”

Whisenhunt boasts a 70-grade changeup that projects to be his primary out pitch, so it’s no wonder that his strikeout rate was so low – and his walk rate so high – if opposing batters knew it was coming. Correcting this issue and adding a consistent third pitch – his fastball is his only average pitch aside from the changeup – will be key to working deep into games and cementing himself as a long-term fixture in the Giants’ plans.

In the first week of camp, his fastball has apparently touched 95 while sitting 93-94, which is a welcome sight after it averaged just 92.6 mph last season. He’s also working with pitching coaches to incorporate a slurve that’s a modified version of his old slider, as well as a cutter into his arsenal. With a promising spring and the elimination of the pitch-tipping issue, Whisenhunt could do a lot to help the Giants erase one of the many question marks plaguing their pitching staff as the regular season looms.