Excitement is building for the San Francisco Giants, as Opening Day creeps ever closer … we’re just six days away, now. But unfortunately, the news on Thursday is anything but exciting: a few hours before the Giants play one of their final Cactus League games and their Spring Breakout contest, the Giants announced that right-handed pitcher Hayden Birdsong will undergo Tommy John surgery.
That seemed likely ever since the Giants revealed that Birdsong was sidelined with a UCL injury. Birdsong and the staff
were openly weighing surgery against a lengthy rehab treatment, and opted for a second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister. From there, the decision for surgery was made, and Meister will perform Tommy John on the team’s young starter next week.
It’s a huge blow for Birdsong, who was hoping to rebound from his brutal second half of 2025, and has as much talent as any pitcher in the Giants organization. And it’s quite a hit for a Giants team that is desperately hoping some of their young starting pitchers will step up and be able to fill in when the rotation needs it, while also bolstering the bullpen. They still have Trevor McDonald, Carson Whisenhunt, Blade Tidwell, and Carson Seymour, but after designating Mason Black for assignment, trading Kai-Wei Teng, and now losing Birdsong to injury, that depth has taken quite a hit.
On the bright side, Tommy John surgery is not the death sentence it once was for pitchers. These days, nearly every hard-throwing pitcher has to have TJ at least once in their career, and the vast majority return to pitch at their previous levels. If Birdsong needs reason to feel optimistic, he need just talk to the two pitchers at the top of the team’s rotation, Logan Webb and Robbie Ray. They’ve both been through it, and emerged with excellence on the other side.
But it will take a while. The surgery means that Birdsong won’t pitch at all this season, and is likely to miss the first few months of the 2027 season, as well. Given that his spot on the active roster is no sure thing, and that it could take him a while of rehab appearances to shake off the rust, it wouldn’t be surprising if Birdsong doesn’t pitch in the Majors again until 2028.
