SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants are a better team with three-time All-Star Rafael Devers than without him. Their offense was a weakness, so they dipped into a strength — their pitching — to acquire one of baseball’s best bats. Now, Buster Posey and San Francisco’s brass has a different question to answer:
After sending Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks to the Boston Red Sox, how does their rotation shake out for the rest of the season?
The Giants’ rotation has been one of baseball’s best up to this point. Through Sunday, that unit — currently featuring Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Justin Verlander, Landen Roupp and Hayden Birdsong — ranked fifth in WAR. Webb is on his way to a second All-Star appearance, Ray has been fantastic in his first season post-Tommy John surgery and Roupp quietly has a 2.74 ERA since May.
But without Harrison and Hicks, the Giants have significantly less major-league quality rotation depth. The Giants demoted Hicks to the bullpen in favor of Birdsong (3.99 ERA over six starts) but he was at least capable of a spot start if needed. San Francisco has already had eight different pitchers start a game this year, and it’s very unlikely they can rely on their current quintet to account for every start until October.
The Giants do have plenty of arms waiting in the wings at Triple-A Sacramento, a list that includes Keaton Winn, Mason Black, Trevor McDonald and the trio of Carsons: Carson Ragsdale, Carson Seymour and Carson Whisenhunt.
That said, this group collectively has very little experience starting in the majors.
Winn’s 17 starts in the majors are the most of the bunch, but he hasn’t pitched since April 15 due to a shoulder injury. Black had a 6.44 ERA over nine games (eight starts) last season with the Giants and has 4.57 ERA over 14 appearances with Sacramento this season. McDonald pitched only three innings last year for the Giants; none of the Carsons have pitched in the majors.
Whisenhunt, the Giants’ top pitching prospect, stands out as an option to start at some point for the Giants this season. The 24-year-old left-hander pitched well to begin the season, posting a 3.00 ERA over his first nine starts and twice winning PCL Pitcher of the Week, but he has a 6.11 ERA over his last five starts.
The Giants’ bullpen also currently features Joey Lucchesi, who has made 77 major-league starts in his career, but the left-hander has exclusively pitched as a reliever with both Sacramento and San Francisco this season. Lucchesi could provide a multi-inning spot start in a pinch, but he hasn’t pitched more than two innings in a single outing this season.
For the Giants, it’s when — not if — they’ll have to use another starter. While Webb is on pace for another 200-inning season, San Francisco will have to manage the workloads of other arms.
Roupp, 26, threw 76 2/3 total innings last season between the majors and minors. Following six scoreless frames on Saturday, Roupp is up to 76 innings this year. As a professional, the most that Roupp has thrown in a single year is 107 1/3 innings in ’22.
“I’m not worried about it at all. I’m just going to go out there and keep competing,” Roupp said. “Like I said during spring training, I want to start and I feel better when I’m starting. When we get to that point, it’s kind of their decision and we’ll talk about that, but we haven’t talked about anything like that so far.”
Added manager Bob Melvin: “I think still here in the first half, we’ll kind of let it play out a little bit and see how it goes. If we see at some point where the velo is coming down or the stuff’s not as good, but I don’t think we’re there yet.”
Ray is in a different position than Roupp, but San Francisco will have to be cognizant of his innings as well.
The 33-year-old left-hander is in the midst of his first full season since 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery in ‘23. He threw 30 2/3 innings last year upon returning and is already up to 92 1/3 innings this season.
The Giants can handle Ray differently than Roupp since the veteran lefty has thrown a high volume of innings in the past. Ray averaged about 163 innings per year from 2015-22, excluding the COVID-19 impacted 2020 season. Still, San Francisco should be mindful given the spike between last year to this year.
“It’s not really something we’ve talked about,” Ray said. “I think it’s going to be predicated on how I feel. They’ll kind of give me a little more leeway than they would somebody else just being over 10 years in baseball.
“There will probably be conversations at some point. We’ve already talked about some games where I don’t reach the 100-pitch plateau or don’t go over it — just trying to limit it that way.”
There’s also the matter of Verlander, the oldest active player in baseball. The 42-year-old just missed a month due to right pectoral soreness and threw a career-low 90 1/3 frames last year. How many innings can the Giants depend on Verlander to throw?
Birdsong is a ways away from matching last year’s inning total. The 23-year-old right-hander is only at 52 2/3 innings after beginning the year in the bullpen and likely won’t match last year’s output of 129 1/3 total innings until deep into the season.
The Giants have already swung the big trade to sign Devers, but do they potentially swing a smaller one to add major-league rotation depth? Perhaps look for some waiver candidates? Or, do they roll the dice with their litany of in-house options?
