The Giants have put left-hander Sam Hentges on the 15-day injured list with a left forearm strain, a move made retroactive to August 27. To fill his spot, the club officially recalled left-hander Matt Wilkinson from Triple-A, though Wilkinson had already been around as the 27th man for yesterday’s doubleheader.
For Hentges, the timing points toward a quiet finish to his 2026 season unless this is the mildest possible version of the injury. San Francisco is already out of contention, which removes any urgency to push him back, and with a forearm issue in the picture, caution makes plenty of sense after the run of injuries that have followed him in recent years.
Hentges first reached the majors with Cleveland in 2021 and settled in as a dependable piece of the Guardians’ bullpen before shoulder trouble surfaced during the 2024 season. He had shoulder surgery in September of that year, then followed it with arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in September 2025. Cleveland non-tendered him after those setbacks, and the Giants signed him to a one-year, $1.4MM free agent deal.
That knee rehab slowed his offseason throwing and pushed his season debut back to May 10, his first MLB appearance since July 10, 2024. Once he finally got back on the mound, Hentges looked like himself again in plenty of ways, working to a 3.27 ERA with a 22.7% strikeout rate and a 46.1% grounder rate across 33 innings.
His hard-contact and barrel numbers were strong, and he still hasn’t allowed a home run this season. The concern has been the walks: a 14.9% walk rate, well above the 8.4BB% he carried over 206 2/3 innings before this year.
There’s also a longer-term wrinkle here. Hentges has one year of arbitration eligibility left, which gives the Giants the option to keep him for 2027 at a salary not far above this season’s $1.4MM.
He previously made $1.337M in 2025 after avoiding arbitration with Cleveland. But if this forearm strain turns out to be a sign of something more serious in the elbow, his future could be back in question.
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