Blade Tidwell’s injury has put another harsh spotlight on the Giants’ pitching pipeline, and it also raises the stakes on the last two trade deadlines under Buster Posey.
Tidwell was reportedly recommended to undergo surgery after spraining his UCL, the setback that forced him out of his start prematurely on Monday night. It is the latest blow in a year that has already seen four young Giants starters require Tommy John surgery, a run of injuries that has left the organization staring hard at its depth and wondering whether anything can be done to keep this from happening again, even if this is simply the cost of pitching in the modern game.
What comes next is where Posey’s front office gets tested. The Giants have spent the last two deadlines stockpiling young arms, and now those bets are going to be measured in real time. The big question is how much usable pitching talent San Francisco actually has on hand, because these injuries are forcing the club to find out.
There are at least some arms already in the mix. Cesar Perdomo, Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, Anthony Molina, and Yunior Marte have all flashed enough to give the Giants something to work with. San Francisco would still be wise to add two or three starters this offseason, but that quartet gives them a fallback if the injury pile keeps growing.
Marte, who came over in the Mike Yastrzemski trade last year, has a 4.66 ERA that doesn’t jump off the page. Still, he’s had some useful stretches, including five scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres earlier this month.
Molina, acquired for Tyler Mahle at this year’s deadline, has also given the Giants some encouraging signs. He has done a nice job attacking the zone, which matters in a big way for a staff that has struggled there all season. In 34 innings with San Francisco, he has walked only seven batters and posted a 3.97 ERA.
The organization may also be looking toward some of the pitchers it picked up at the last two deadlines. Trystan Vrieling, who arrived in the Camilo Doval trade last year, has become part of a deal that looks better and better from the Giants’ side.
The 25-year-old finished the season with a 5.01 ERA across Richmond and Sacramento, including a 4.23 ERA in 23 starts with the Flying Squirrels and a rough 9.68 ERA in four starts with the River Cats. That’s still a small enough sample that if he opens next year back in Sacramento and sharpens up, he could become another option.
The deadline arms from this season are part of the picture too. Ramon Marquez came to San Francisco in the Luis Arraez trade and made only two starts with the Eugene Emeralds, but his 2.22 ERA on the season stands out, and he is viewed as one of the best young pitchers in the system.
Miguel Mendez, acquired from the San Diego Padres in the Robbie Ray deal, struggled in Richmond with an 8.44 ERA in four starts. Henry Lalane, who came from the New York Yankees in the Heliot Ramos trade, posted a 4.57 ERA with the Emeralds.
There’s even a scenario where Richmond’s 2027 rotation is made up of Marquez, Mendez, Lalane, and Jackson Flora, which would be a revealing test of how well the Posey era has done at gathering pitching through trades and the draft.
The injuries are brutal, and it’s hard not to feel for these young starters getting knocked off course before they can really establish themselves. But the next wave is here now, and the way it performs will say plenty about the Giants’ ability to keep building arms that can actually hold up.
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