{"id":868882,"date":"2026-08-26T09:27:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868882\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T09:27:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T09:27:55","slug":"carson-whisenhunt-diagnosed-with-ucl-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/868882\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Whisenhunt Diagnosed With UCL Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

6:05pm: Whisenhunt was diagnosed with a torn UCL and has been recommended for surgery, the Giants informed reporters (including Susan Slusser of The San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>). It\u2019s unclear if he\u2019ll seek a second opinion. San Francisco placed him on the injured list tonight and recalled\u00a0Spencer Bivens<\/a> from Triple-A.<\/p>\n

11:30am: Giants lefty Carson Whisenhunt<\/a> exited last night\u2019s game after experiencing pain in his left elbow and is headed for an MRI to determine if there\u2019s a notable injury at play, reports Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>. Rubin adds that Whisenhunt had an elbow sprain back in 2023 but says this discomfort is different and that he\u2019s \u201cnever felt anything like this\u201d previously.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ominous development for the 2022 second-rounder, who previously ranked inside the game\u2019s top 100 prospects at MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus and has been considered one of the Giants\u2019 top arms since he was taken 66th overall four summers ago.<\/p>\n

Whisenhunt has yet to establish himself as a quality big league starter. He\u2019s pitched to a 6.49 ERA in eight starts and 34 2\/3 innings this season, though it\u2019s now fair to wonder whether those numbers were impacted at all by elbow troubles. Whisenhunt tossed 2 2\/3 shutout innings in his final appearance but was dinged for seven runs over four frames in his prior start \u2014 his fourth time giving up four or more runs in a span of five starts.<\/p>\n

While he\u2019s hardly been dominant in Triple-A this season, Whisenhunt has impressed in an extremely hitter-friendly setting (Sacramento and the Pacific Coast League in general). He\u2019s made 17 appearances, 16 of them starts, and delivered a 4.15 ERA, 25% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate in 82 1\/3 frames. For context on just how hitter-friendly the PCL is, Whisenhunt\u2019s 4.15 ERA ranks 10th among all pitchers who\u2019ve tossed at least 50 frames. Arizona\u2019s Mitch Bratt<\/a> is the only PCL pitcher (again, min. 50 innings) with a sub-3.00 ERA.<\/p>\n

Were Whisenhunt healthy, the final few weeks of the season would serve as a vital proving ground for him. The Giants traded Robbie Ray<\/a> and Tyler Mahle<\/a> at the deadline \u2014 they\u2019d have been free agents anyhow \u2014 and have little in the way of long-term certainty on the starting staff. Logan Webb<\/a> is locked into the top spot unless the Giants reconsider their stance on listening to trade offers this winter. Landen Roupp<\/a> hasn\u2019t been quite as sharp as last season, but he\u2019s shown himself to be a capable major league rotation cog.<\/p>\n

Beyond that pair, the Giants have nothing in place. Adrian Houser<\/a>\u2018s two-year, $22MM deal was an eyebrow-raiser the moment he signed it, and he pitched to an ERA well north of 5.00 in the rotation before being dropped to the bullpen. He\u2019s excelled in a long relief role and figures to get some starts down the stretch to show he can reclaim a rotation spot next year. Even if he\u2019s successful in doing so, Houser is a fourth or fifth starter. Other options like Blade Tidwell<\/a> and Matt Wilkinson<\/a> will get some chances in September, too, but haven\u2019t proven themselves in the big leagues yet. Newly acquired prospects like Ramon Marquez<\/a> and Henry Lalane<\/a> rank toward the top of San Francisco\u2019s system but haven\u2019t even advanced to Double-A yet. They\u2019re not plausible options for the 2027 season \u2014 at least not early in the year.<\/p>\n

If Whisenhunt avoids a major injury, he\u2019ll be in the mix for a spot on next year\u2019s staff, but the IL trip still has consequences. It prevents the team from getting a good look at him and establishing any sort of confidence in penciling him into next year\u2019s staff. The Giants will enter the winter feeling they need at least two new starters \u2014 and three would be preferable if they\u2019re aiming to contend. Whisenhunt\u2019s injury also impacts his trade value, of course, if president of baseball ops Buster Posey<\/a> looks to dangle him in a package for a more established veteran arm.<\/p>\n

In the short term, Whisenhunt\u2019s injury opens more innings for pitchers like Tidwell, Wilkinson and any other young arms\/prospects the Giants may want to consider (e.g. Joe Whitman<\/a>). The forthcoming MRI will tell us what sort of long-term impacts it might hold. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining after the current season, so he can head back to Triple-A in the future if need be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6:05pm: Whisenhunt was diagnosed with a torn UCL and has been recommended for surgery, the Giants informed reporters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,26001,591,85],"class_list":["post-868882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carson-whisenhunt","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}