strong candidates to be traded<\/a> before the Aug. 3 deadline.<\/p>\nTrevor McDonald\u2019s Uncertain Future with Giants<\/p>\n
McDonald debuted with one appearance late in 2023, impressed with two strong starts last September and seemed to cement a spot in the big-league rotation this season.<\/p>\n
At his best, Vitello said, \u201cit literally feels at the end of the day like he won the game for us.\u201d But his 14 starts before suffering the arm injury were too up-and-down for the Giants to know for sure that he\u2019ll be able to hold down a rotation spot for 162 games going forward.<\/p>\n
That was one area they hoped to see improvement from McDonald in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I think he\u2019s searching for is a little bit more consistency,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cRegardless of what he\u2019s got in front of him, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll find a way to continue to develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonald showed what he was capable of as soon as he stepped into the rotation on May 4, striking out eight and walking none over seven two-hit innings against the Padres. He made four more starts where he yielded one run or fewer. But he also failed to complete four innings four other times, including twice when he was lit up for seven or more runs.<\/p>\n
The totality produced a 3-7 record with a 5.12 ERA, a 4.27 FIP, 57 strikeouts and 35 combined walks and hit-by-pitches in 70 \u2153 innings when he landed on the IL.<\/p>\n
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/san-francisco-giants-starting-pitcher-135041816_954d68.jpg\")
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Trevor McDonald (72) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve talked to other hitters in the league. It\u2019s a tough look,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cHe\u2019s a ground ball guy. Normally there\u2019s damage that\u2019s limited when it comes against him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Vitello didn\u2019t feel that he\u2019d seen enough to commit to a rotation spot next year. After all, it remains to be seen whether that will be an option at all. While the Giants are waiting for the results of McDonald\u2019s MRI, the combination of elbow and strain is an ominous string of words for any pitcher to hear.<\/p>\n
Although 16 of McDonald\u2019s 18 career appearances have come as a starter, he could be an option as a bullpen piece, something the Giants experimented with during this past spring training.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the very least, a part of the staff,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI think he\u2019s versatile for what it\u2019s worth. We\u2019re talking a long way off and a lot of other people are involved in those things. But I think the bottom line is he pitches the way we want. \u2026 There\u2019s a lot of things he can provide for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the injury should give the Giants a chance to get an extended look at another one of their young arms. Carson Whisenhunt\u2019s time in the big leagues so far has been limited to spot starts but the 25-year-old left-hander was already expected to get a longer-term opportunity in the second half if and when the Giants trade Robbie Ray or Tyler Mahle.<\/p>\n
Vitello said over the weekend that he expected Whisenhunt\u2019s next opportunity would \u201ccome at some point soon.\u201d With McDonald going on the IL, that timeline could be accelerated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY \u2014 With little else at stake, the Giants\u2019 primary focus in the second half will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2067],"tags":[7,519,6060,125748,1917,56,2321,2469,6,16517,9],"class_list":["post-952062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-giants","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-trade-deadline","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-giants","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkgiants","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116961435221874544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"San](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/crop-40053010.jpg\")
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Trevor McDonald (72) delivers a pitch against the Kansas City Royals during the first inning at Kauffman Stadium Denny Medley-Imagn Images<\/p>\n