Kyle Harrison’s season has taken a hard left turn, and it’s given the Giants at least one small reason to exhale.
For a while, it looked like San Francisco might be staring at the worst possible version of the Rafael Devers trade. Harrison, the Bay Area native who grew up a Giants fan, was flashing like a future star early in the year, while Devers was struggling badly at the plate. That combination had the trade looking rougher by the week.
Now the picture is completely different.
Harrison is no longer starting, and his recent stretch has been brutal. Over his last seven appearances, he’s posted a 9.51 ERA in 23 and 2/3 innings.
In each of his last two outings, he allowed four earned runs - one of those appearances ended before he recorded an out, and the other lasted just 1 and 2/3 innings. His velocity is down, and the IL stint he had earlier in the season appears to have knocked him off track after things were rolling smoothly before that.
There’s even a chance he won’t make Milwaukee’s playoff roster, which would have sounded impossible back in June.
At the same time, Devers has swung the trade back the other way. He was recently placed on the IL because of an injury, but before that he was on an absolute heater and had changed the complexion of the deal.
No one is exactly rooting against a traded-away player, unless maybe it’s A.J. Pierzynski, but the Giants have to feel a little better right now that Harrison hasn’t turned into the All-Star, Cy Young-level arm he seemed poised to become earlier in the season.
That matters in a year when San Francisco has already taken plenty of hits on the public-relations front. The last thing the Giants needed was for a homegrown fan favorite to blossom elsewhere into one of the game’s best young pitchers.
Harrison is only 25, so this story is far from finished. He could still get healthy and bounce back, and maybe in 2027 he finds the form he showed in the first half of 2026. But for now, that possibility has been pushed back.
And in a season that’s already been rough enough for the Giants, that delay is enough to count as a relief.
In Other News...
Bryce Eldridges Sudden Absence Leaves Giants With One Big Concern
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For a club still trying to manage its roster carefully, any sudden absence involving Eldridge is worth watching closely. The Giants did get some encouraging development elsewhere, as top pitching prospect Jackson Flora opened his Double-A stint with two perfect innings and four strikeouts, while infielder Marcelo Mayer remains a possible late-season addition. Even so, Eldridges status is the immediate concern, especially with the Dodgers on the other side of the field and no clear sense yet of how long the issue might linger. [Read more 🡒]
Giants Face One Uncomfortable Final Week Decision After Logan Webb
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The bigger question is what the Giants do next with the rest of the roster, because Webbs shutdown naturally pushes attention toward other players who could be candidates to sit as well. Landen Roupp, Jung Hoo Lee and Dylan Smith all fit into that conversation as the organization weighs present-day usage against longer-term health, and the uncomfortable part is that those choices can shape how this season is remembered well after the standings stop changing. [Read more 🡒]
Giants May Have Found A Long Term Center Field Answer
A familiar kind of roster gamble is starting to take shape in center field, where the Giants are looking for a player who can bring speed, athleticism and enough bat to stick. Jonah Cox, one of the prospects acquired from the Athletics in a 2024 deal by former president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, has already shown the kind of quick-twitch skill set that can make a front office dream on a longer runway.
The current group under Buster Posey has already signaled real belief in Cox by pushing him straight from Double-A, a move that says plenty about how the organization views his ceiling. There is still work to do, and plenty can change in a hurry at this level, but the Giants appear to have a legitimate center field candidate worth watching closely as the season unfolds. [Read more 🡒]