The San Francisco Giants are frantically trying to patch together some innings this week, and, as most teams do, they’re keeping things fresh by cycling arms in and out. Ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks — their second game is a stretch of 10 games in 10 days — the team announced that right-handed pitcher Keaton Winn had been optioned to AAA Sacramento, while fellow righty Trevor McDonald had been called up.
It’s not a surprising move given the situation. With Carson Whisenhunt
on the IL (but scheduled to make a rehab start tonight for Sacramento), the Giants are already operating with a four-man rotation, and will have a bullpen game of sorts today, with long reliever Tristan Beck getting the start. And they taxed the bullpen during Monday’s blowout loss, in part because of the controversial decision to pull starter Kai-Wei Teng after just four innings and 73 pitches, even though he pitched well.
That bit of in-game management possibly cost the Giants the game, as it took the team three pitchers to get through the six-run sixth inning. It also cost them some freshness, as Matt Gage (17 pitches), Joel Peguero (15), and Joey Lucchesi (22) all threw a decent number of pitches. But Winn had to eat the bulk of it, pitching the final two innings of the blowout, and throwing 33 pitches. That means he won’t be able to pitch for a few days which, combined with tonight’s bullpen contest, made it a near certainty that be replaced.
The Giants had three options for players to replace Winn: Mason Black, Hayden Birdsong, and McDonald. They went with McDonald, who will be making his season debut. McDonald, who made his MLB debut in the final game of the 2024 season — his only day on the MLB roster — has had a difficult year, with a 5.31 ERA and a 5.53 FIP. But he can give the team length, as he’s been starting in Sacramento, and in his last three starts has thrown six innings once and seven innings twice. He’s also the type of pitcher the Giants like to use in a pinch: he throws a far number of strikes, and has a high groundball rate.
While tonight will technically be a bullpen game, the Giants now have a trio of pitchers in McDonald, Beck, and Carson Seymour who are all capable of eating a large chunk of innings. We’ll see how it works out.
