{"id":443673,"date":"2026-08-26T03:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443673\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T03:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T03:31:22","slug":"carson-whisenhunt-to-require-ucl-surgery-in-latest-blow-to-sf-giants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/443673\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Whisenhunt to require UCL surgery in latest blow to SF Giants"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Facing reporters and what is likely a grueling year-long recovery process, Giants pitcher Carson Whisenhunt<\/a> projected an optimistic attitude despite staring down the possibility of UCL surgery<\/a>, commonly known as Tommy John surgery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0The left-handed pitcher left Monday\u2019s game against the Reds during the third inning after experiencing pain in his throwing elbow.<\/p>\n

\u201cCould be a minor tweak or something worse, and then obviously, at that point, I\u2019d be out the rest of the year,\u201d Whisenhunt said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Less than an hour after conducting that interview, the Giants announced the diagnosis was the latter: A torn UCL and surgery being recommended.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He could join Trevor McDonald and Hayden Birdsong as the third Giants pitcher to undergo UCL surgery this season. Rowan Wick and Randy Rodriguez also underwent operations on their UCL prior to the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whisenhunt pitched 34 2\/3 innings for the Giants this season across eight starts, going 3-4 while striking out 26 and walking 21. He also made 17 starts in Triple-A Sacramento, where he threw 82 1\/3 innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the injury-riddled Giants have lost another starter, manager Tony Vitello opted to view the latest injury as another opportunity for other pitchers in the Giants system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco brought Spencer Bivens back up to the majors from Sacramento, and Vitello said the organization has an interest in getting more looks at rookie Matt \u201cTugboat\u201d Wilkinson<\/a>, also in Triple-A.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the door is open for some of the guys that we have in the organization that are teetering on \u2018Is this guy going to be a starter or not,\u2019 \u201d Vitello said. \u201cThe opportunity is there more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Whisenhunt\u2019s surgery required so late in the season, the timing puts his 2027 season in jeopardy. The 25-year-old believed he had begun to find his form before the injury, and opted to believe that he would be able to return to the field at some point next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday, the first 2.2 (innings) felt great, and I was finally putting all that stuff in that works, and finding my comfort level with all of it,\u201d Whisenhunt said. \u201cGoing into 2027, it\u2019s going to be the same thing as what yesterday was, of just finding that comfort level and continuing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants also provided updates on a pair of ailing position players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shortstop Willy Adames injured his left elbow sliding into home plate on Sunday, and was diagnosed with a left UCL sprain. The team announced he is seeking a second opinion, and that an update would come in the next few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo rule anything out would be a little bit drastic or jumping the gun a little bit,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cNon-throwing arm, it\u2019s a sprain, and it\u2019s something I think he can work to rehab, see where it\u2019s at, get it reevaluated, and then go from there. So there\u2019s a wide range of possibilities if you\u2019re looking at what dates he\u2019s going to come back, what is the procedure, if any, is there going to be a rehab status.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Outfielder Victor Bericoto injured his knee after running into the Green Monster at Fenway while trying to catch a ball, and the team diagnosed him with a bone bruise. Bericoto will rehab and be reevaluated at the end of the homestand, which concludes on Saturday with a doubleheader against the Diamondbacks.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 Facing reporters and what is likely a grueling year-long recovery process, Giants pitcher Carson Whisenhunt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[7,1334,101,4820,103,102,104,106,105,127],"class_list":["post-443673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-california","tag-mlb","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}