'GOOD CHANCE' SEASON IS OVER FOR GIANTS ROOKIE PITCHER
Before Friday’s game, the Giants placed left-hander Kyle Harrison on the 15-day injured list due to an impingement in his throwing shoulder. The placement is retroactive to Sept. 4. Righty Austin Warren was called up from Triple-A to take Harrison’s spot on the active roster.
Given the timing of the injury and the fact that the Giants have fallen out of contention, there’s “probably a good chance” Harrison’s season is over, manager Bob Melvin told the San Francisco Chronicle’s John Shea and other reporters. Harrison underwent an MRI on Thursday and will get more tests done this coming week, and even if everything comes back clean, it seems unlikely he’d build his arm strength back up just for the sake of a few meaningless innings at the end of September. Melvin said Harrison had already been battling shoulder soreness for his last few starts.
If this is indeed it for Harrison’s 2024 campaign, the former star prospect will finish his first full MLB season with a 4.56 ERA over 124 1/3 innings. That ERA was inflated by 11 earned runs in his last two starts and 7 1/3 innings when Harrison was trying to pitch through pain, though Harrison’s 22.2% strikeout rate was below the league average for the season. The southpaw also ranked only in the 12th percentile in both hard-hit ball and barrel rates, as opposing batters had a lot of success against everything but Harrison’s primary pitch, a 92.5mph fastball.
The 124 1/3 innings represents a new career high for Harrison, topping the 113 frames he threw in the minors in 2022. Melvin suggested that Harrison’s winter will involve “identifying what he needs to do as far as building himself up, getting a little stronger maybe,” which is typical for a rookie pitcher who now knows the grind of a 162-game season. Beyond this shoulder impingement, Harrison also spent about a month on the IL due to an ankle sprain earlier this summer.
It was still a decent rookie season for a pitcher who only just turned 23 last month. Widely regarded as one of baseball’s best pitching prospects, Harrison did nothing to shake his status as a critical piece of San Francisco’s plans. Harrison is the most highly-touted of a group of younger arms the Giants hope can continue to develop into rotation reinforcements behind ace Logan Webb and other more experienced arms like Robbie Ray and (if he returns to starting pitching) Jordan Hicks. It is safe to assume the Giants will still look into adding pitching this winter, considering that Blake Snell will almost surely opt out of his contract, though re-signing Snell remains a possibility.
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