{"id":50985,"date":"2025-05-24T11:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/50985\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T11:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:23:13","slug":"sf-giants-kyle-harrison-to-start-in-place-of-injured-justin-verlander-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/50985\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants’ Kyle Harrison to start in place of injured Justin Verlander"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C. \u2014 Kyle Harrison is back in the rotation. At least, for now.<\/p>\n

The Giants announced before their game against the Washington Nationals on Friday that Harrison will start on Saturday in place of Justin Verlander, who was placed on the 15-day injured list<\/a> (retroactive to May 19) this week with a right pec strain. San Francisco also recalled right-hander Tristan Beck from Triple-A Sacramento to take Verlander\u2019s place on the active roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super excited to go out and compete,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI\u2019m ready to do it. I\u2019ve been waiting. Now, it\u2019s my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin anticipates Harrison will throw around 60 pitches against the Nationals in his first major league start of the season. Harrison\u2019s last start was on April 30 with Sacramento, where he allowed one run over five innings (80 pitches).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Harrison will also start the next time Verlander\u2019s spot comes up in the rotation, likely next weekend against the Marlins in Miami. As of now, it is unclear what Harrison\u2019s role will be once Verlander returns from the injured list.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, his focus is on the next two starts,\u201d Melvin said. \u201cThen, we\u2019ll see where we go from there. At this point in time, I think he just wants to help his team win however he can, and the next step here was getting the starting spot for a couple of turns around the rotation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left-hander Carson Whisenhunt, the Giants\u2019 top pitching prospect, was another consideration given how well he has pitched with Sacramento. Over nine starts, Whisenhunt has a 3.00 ERA with 52 strikeouts over 51 innings. Whisenhunt has thrown seven innings apiece in his last four starts, allowing four earned runs (1.29 ERA) with 28 strikeouts to two walks.<\/p>\n

Despite Whisenhunt\u2019s success, Harrison made more sense to take Verlander\u2019s spot given he was already with the team. The Giants also would\u2019ve likely had to demote Whisenhunt once Verlander returned; with Harrison, the team can place him back in the bullpen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about everybody, but again, Kyle got here because he was pitching the best,\u201d Melvin said. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t been that long since he started, so we just felt like he was next in line for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harrison, 23, began the season with Triple-A Sacramento, posting a 3.46 ERA over six starts with 38 strikeouts. Despite logging the second-most starts (24) and innings (124 1\/3) for San Francisco last season, Harrison began the year with the River Cats after losing roughly 15 pounds right before the start of spring training. Harrison also dealt with last year\u2019s nagging shoulder injury during camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeeling stronger, feeling confident out there,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cJust ready to give it my shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants recalled Harrison in early May to serve as a reliever<\/a>, a role he\u2019d never pitched in at the major-league level. The left-hander has made four relief appearances, allowing two runs over 5 1\/3 innings with seven strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Harrison\u2019s fastball velocity has noticeably increased, compared to last year, during his short time with San Francisco this season. In 2024, Harrison averaged 92.5 mph with his four-seam fastball. This year, by contrast, Harrison is averaging 95.8 mph with his heater while getting nearly two more inches of vertical movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little different, but at the same time, I just looked at it like I\u2019m competing every time I go out there,\u201d Harrison said of pitching in relief. \u201cThat\u2019s ultimately what I\u2019m going to take out there tomorrow \u2014 have that same intensity, take an inning-by-inning approach, batter by batter and get after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck, 28, posted a 3.24 ERA with 29 strikeouts over 25 innings with Sacramento before being called up. The right-hander was part of a deep pitching staff, which also featured Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour (3.59 ERA, 55 strikeouts), and Sean Hjelle (3.33 ERA, 25 strikeouts), among others.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the amount of talent we know is down there, everybody takes it a little bit personal as far as, \u2018All right, if you\u2019re doing that,’\u201d Beck said. \u201cSean Hjelle went on a stretch where he went over a month without giving up a run. I was pitching well, but I was sitting there like, \u2018All right, I guess it\u2019s time to really step things up.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep it loose. We have fun with each other about it. But at the end of the day, we\u2019re all trying to be the best on the staff \u2014 better than the guy next to you. It\u2019s fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Harrison, Beck\u2019s velocity has spiked up. Last year, Beck averaged 93.1 mph with his four-seam fastball. In his last appearance, by contrast, Beck averaged 96.0 mph. Beck has added a cutter to his repertoire along with the increased velocity.<\/p>\n

Originally Published: May 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON D.C. \u2014 Kyle Harrison is back in the rotation. At least, for now. The Giants announced before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,7939,5775,853,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-50985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-giants-alert","11":"tag-inside-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-san-francisco","15":"tag-san-francisco-giants","16":"tag-sanfrancisco","17":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","18":"tag-sf","19":"tag-sf-giants","20":"tag-sfgiants","21":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114562558666815311","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}