SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are planning to call up left-hander Carson Whisenhunt, the club’s No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, to make his Major League debut in Monday night’s series opener against the Pirates at Oracle Park.
Whisenhunt, 24, earned his first look in San Francisco’s starting rotation after posting a 4.42 ERA with 86 strikeouts over 96 innings in 18 starts for Triple-A Sacramento this year. He is expected to fill in for the injured Landen Roupp, who landed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation last week.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a little bit now,” manager Bob Melvin said after the Giants fell, 5-3, to complete a three-game sweep at the hands of the Mets on Sunday. “We thought maybe he’d be here last year, too. He’s our top pitching prospect, I believe. With what’s gone on here with the injury and [Hayden Birdsong] going down [to Triple-A Sacramento], there’s a need for it. It’ll be exciting to see him pitch.”
A 2022 second-round Draft pick out of East Carolina, Whisenhunt is known for his elite changeup, which yielded a 47 percent swing-and-miss rate and generated 71 of his 135 strikeouts in Triple-A last year. He also features a two-seam fastball that sits at 92-94 mph, as well as a low 80s slider.
“It’s a legit changeup, for sure,” said right-hander Carson Seymour, the Giants’ No. 23 prospect. “But the fastball is good, the sequencing is great. Obviously, last year, I saw him a lot because he made almost every start [at Sacramento], and I was there for the whole season, so I saw it all. I kind of knew what he was going to throw, but obviously the opposing team had no idea. He’s a great pitcher.”
Whisenhunt isn’t on the current 40-man roster, so the Giants will have to clear a spot for him before activating him on Monday.
He last pitched for Sacramento on July 20, when he allowed one run on five hits over 3 2/3 innings. Whisenhunt hasn’t completed six innings in a start since June 11, so it’s unclear what kind of length he’ll be able to provide on Monday.
The Giants are short on pitching depth after using seven arms to get through Sunday’s bullpen game, though they didn’t have to use Seymour, which could allow them to piggyback both Carsons against the Pirates.
Even with its top pitching prospect now in the fold, San Francisco will likely be in the market for more rotation help ahead of Thursday’s Trade Deadline. The Giants are hoping Roupp will be able to return after missing only two turns through the rotation, but the 26-year-old right-hander is only six innings shy of matching the career-high mark he set in the Minors in 2022, so the club may need to be careful with him down the stretch.
Birdsong, meanwhile, lost his rotation spot after recording a 6.17 ERA over 10 starts this year and is currently working on fixing his control issues at Triple-A Sacramento.
“I think we’re keeping our options open,” president of baseball operations Buster Posey said during an interview on the ESPN broadcast on Sunday. “You always have an eye on pitching. Especially in our ballpark, pitching and defense is going to win you a lot of games. We have an eye on the pitching market, but we’re really just open mindset. But at the same time, the main thing for us and our group is we like the players that we have right now. We believe that we’ve got a good team. There’s a lot of baseball left to go. We haven’t really had the start that we wanted coming out of the break, but hopefully we can get on a roll here and put some wins together.”
The Giants also look like they could use another bat after finishing 0-for-23 with runners in scoring position over their three-game series with the Mets, though they aren’t necessarily making a compelling argument for more big additions after dropping nine of their last 11 games.
That skid has left them only two games above .500 (54-52) and three games out of the third National League Wild Card spot, but third baseman Matt Chapman said he still expects the Giants’ front office to stay aggressive and continue to seek out potential roster upgrades this week.
“We’re still right there,” said Chapman, who drove in each of the Giants’ three runs with his 13th career multihomer game on Sunday. “I think Buster’s made it clear -- we go out and get [Rafael Devers], it makes sense to continue to try to improve this team for this year and the foreseeable future. I think we expect to add and to continue to get better and continue to make a push to make the playoffs.”