{"id":663924,"date":"2026-04-05T03:20:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663924\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T03:20:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T03:20:26","slug":"jose-buttos-timeline-to-return-requires-giants-to-consider-bullpen-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/663924\/","title":{"rendered":"Jose Butto\u2019s Timeline to Return Requires Giants to Consider Bullpen Options"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3\u2019s<\/a> blood clot came as a bit of a surprise to the San Francisco Giants. But his surgery was successful and there\u2019s now a broad timeline for recovery.<\/p>\n

The Giants<\/a> told reporters in San Francisco, including the San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s<\/a> Susan Slusser on X (formerly Twitter) that Butt\u00f3 will require anywhere from two to four months to recovery. The clot was removed surgically on Friday. <\/p>\n

For now, that means Blade Tidwell \u2014 who was promoted to the Giants<\/a> in his place on Thursday \u2014 has some room to operate when it comes to whether he\u2019ll stick in the Majors. He recorded his first career save on Thursday in a three-inning outing. <\/p>\n

Life Without Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3\"San<\/p>\n

San Francisco Giants pitcher Blade Tidwell. | Robert Edwards-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Butt\u00f3, like Tidwell, joined the Giants in a trade with the New York Mets last July that sent reliever Tyler Rogers to Queens. <\/p>\n

When the right-hander joined the Giants, he was primarily a one-inning reliever who went 2-1 with a 4.50 ERA in 21 games. He struck out 17 and walked 10 in 20 innings. He had four holds but went 0-for-3 in save opportunities. He was expected to be one of two or three right-handed set-up men Ryan Walker, though the roles have quickly fluctuated at the back of the bullpen. <\/p>\n

Giants manager Tony Vitello said on Friday that he sees Walker, Erik Miller and Keaton Winn as his primary high-leverage relievers, but he isn\u2019t married to using them strictly late in the game. For instance, Walker was used to record two outs in Thursday\u2019s game with a lead before Tidwell took over. <\/p>\n

Tidwell, who has been a starter for his professional career, can slide into a multi-inning role for San Francisco as he\u2019s stretched out to a starter\u2019s workload. <\/p>\n

Along with Tidwell, the remaining right-handers in the bullpen include Walker, Miller, Winn, JT Brubaker and Caleb Kilian. That\u2019s more than enough to handle the volume of work \u2014 assuming San Francisco\u2019s starters can work six innings per game. <\/p>\n

Butt\u00f3 is the third reliever on the 15-day IL. The others are left-hander Sam Hentges and right-hander Joel Peguero. Both are getting in work at the team\u2019s facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., but are not built up enough yet to join the Giants. In fact, the timetable for a return for either isn\u2019t clear. <\/p>\n

When one is set to return, then San Francisco faces a decision. Tidwell is the most likely player to be optioned. However, if Tidwell pitches well the next month or so then he gives the Giants a good problem to deal with. <\/p>\n

Multiple good options on the right side would be exactly what San Francisco needs with Butt\u00f3 on the IL for the next couple of months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3\u2019s blood clot came as a bit of a surprise to the San Francisco Giants. But his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-663924","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-mlb","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-giants","13":"tag-sanfrancisco","14":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","15":"tag-sf","16":"tag-sf-giants","17":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116349949826019301","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663924","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=663924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}