The Giants announced that right-hander Blade Tidwell has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a “high-grade” sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow. Fellow righty Braxton Roxby has been recalled as the corresponding move. Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com was among those to relay the info.
At this point, surgery isn’t a foregone conclusion. The announcement from the Giants says that Tidwell will be meeting with a doctor to discuss next steps. But given the “high-grade” nature of the sprain, it seems surgery is certainly a possibility, if not a likelihood.
That would obviously be an unwelcome development for Tidwell and the Giants. Tommy John surgery generally comes with a recovery timeline of 14 months or more, so that would wipe out his entire 2027 season. The internal brace alternative can sometimes lead to quicker timelines but even that procedure would likely prevent Tidwell from pitching next year.
Tidwell made a brief big league debut with the Mets last year before coming over to the Giants in the trade that sent Tyler Rogers to Queens. He has mostly been in a depth role this year but injuries elsewhere on the staff have opened opportunities for him. He has logged 56 2/3 innings over 17 appearances, allowing 4.45 earned runs per nine. He departed last night’s start with elbow discomfort and fears of ligament damage were pretty quickly on the radar.
The Giants have all kinds of rotation uncertainty going into next year and a lengthy absence from Tidwell would only add to that. Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald and Carson Whisenhunt all required Tommy John surgery this year. Birdsong underwent his surgery in March and could be a factor at some point next year but McDonald and Whisenhunt went under the knife in August and September, respectively.
Logan Webb and Landen Roupp have two spots locked down. Adrian Houser could be lined up for one but he got moved to the bullpen for a time this summer and is currently sidelined by a forearm strain. Guys like Matt Wilkinson, Anthony Molina, César Perdomo, Yunior Marté, Seth Lonsway and other could compete for spots but they’re all pretty inexperienced. Molina is the only one in that cluster with more than 25 big league innings pitched. Tidwell could have competed with those guys but that will no longer be the case if he requires surgery.
Even if Tidwell somehow avoids surgery, the Giants should be looking for rotation reinforcements in the offseason. For Tidwell, he is on the 15-day IL and could go on the 60-day IL if the Giants need a 40-man spot in the next few weeks. The IL goes away five days after the World Series, so he would need to be reinstated for the offseason, assuming the Giants want to keep him through the winter.
The club is going to have some really tough decisions to make in that department. They already have a shocking 16 players on the 60-day IL but only one impending free agent, so they will have to do a lot of roster maintenance once the IL is gone. If Tidwell requires surgery and survives the roster cull, the benefit of his lengthy recovery period would be that he collects big league pay and service time next year.
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