Tidwell is the fourth young Giants starter sent for elbow surgery since March
A team orthopedist recommended surgery on Tuesday for a high-grade sprain of the ligament in Tidwell's pitching elbow, and the club's injury page now lists his return as 2028. Hayden Birdsong, Trevor McDonald and Carson Whisenhunt have already had Tommy John surgery this year. All four are 25.
Blade Tidwell threw 57 pitches against Minnesota on Monday night and left in the fourth inning with discomfort in his right elbow. On Tuesday the Giants put him on the 15-day injured list and recalled Braxton Roxby from Sacramento.
The 15 days is paperwork. The club's own injury page lists his expected return as 2028.
The page describes a "moderate to high-grade sprain" of the ulnar collateral ligament and says surgery has been recommended. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reported Tuesday that the recommendation came from team orthopedist Dr. Kenneth Akizuki after he read the MRI. The Chronicle and the Press Democrat both reported the diagnosis as "high grade." Nobody has named the procedure yet, and Tidwell has not had it.
If he were the first, that would be the whole story.
He is the fourth.
The four#
Every one of them is a starting pitcher. Every one of them is 25. The oldest and the youngest were born 314 days apart.
Pavlovic counted the same four on Tuesday. Here they are, oldest first.
| Pitcher | Born | Elbow | Surgery | Expected return, per the club |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carson Whisenhunt | Oct 20, 2000 | Left elbow sprain | Tommy John, Sept 16 | 2028 |
| Trevor McDonald | Feb 26, 2001 | Right UCL sprain | Tommy John, Aug 5 | Late 2027 or '28 |
| Blade Tidwell | June 8, 2001 | Right UCL sprain | Recommended, Sept 22 | 2028 |
| Hayden Birdsong | Aug 30, 2001 | Right forearm and UCL sprain | Tommy John, March 25 | 2027 |
The surgery dates and the return column come off MLB.com's Giants injury page. Birthdates are from the league's player records. One small correction to the round number: Birdsong was 24 when he had his surgery in March and turned 25 on August 30. The other three were already 25 when their elbows gave out.
Birdsong has not pitched in a major league game in 2026. The other three made 31 starts between them, McDonald 14, Tidwell 9 and Whisenhunt 8, out of 158 the club has played.
Read the right-hand column again, because it is the club talking and not a projection. Two of the four are listed for 2028. A third is listed for "late 2027 or '28," which is the injury page's way of saying it does not know which calendar he will be on. The only one the page expects back at any point in 2027 is the one who had surgery six months ago.
Where Tidwell had gotten to#
He came over from the Mets on July 30, 2025, with José Buttó and Drew Gilbert, in the Tyler Rogers trade. He opened this season in Sacramento, came up in April, went back down at the end of it, and was recalled for the rest of the year on August 3.
After that, the starts started looking like starts. He went 5 2/3 scoreless innings at Boston on August 22 with seven strikeouts, then a career-long 6 2/3 at St. Louis on September 15. Tony Vitello described him Tuesday as "a guy you could count on for 90 to 100 pitches and to keep you in the game," as quoted by Pavlovic.
Vitello also said the injury was "a little bit of a surprise."
Tidwell was blunt about it, again to Pavlovic: "It's pretty concerning. It's not something that I want, but it happens to most pitchers in today's game, so I know I can get through it."
Then he said something about the others in the rehab group: "We're all pretty close. At least we'll have fun if we have to do it together."
The one who made it#
On the same Tuesday, the Giants shut down Landen Roupp for the year. He is healthy. He has thrown 155 innings across 29 starts, and his previous career high was 106 2/3, as Justice Delos Santos of the Press Democrat noted in reporting both moves.
Roupp is 28, so he is not one of the four. He is the starter who got through the year, and the club decided 155 innings was enough with four games left and nothing riding on them.
Nobody has to explain that decision this week.
Cesar Perdomo starts against Minnesota this afternoon, 12:45 at Oracle Park. The Dodgers come in for the last three, and the league's schedule does not yet list a probable starter for any of them.
The calls#
Hayden Birdsong makes at least one major league start for San Francisco before July 15, 2027. The case for: his surgery was March 25, 2026, so mid-July 2027 is nearly sixteen months out, and the club's own page says 2027. The case against: "2027" covers a whole calendar year, the first weeks of any return are rehab outings in the minors that do not count, and a work stoppage this winter could move every date on the major league schedule. A trade also sinks it, because the call is about starts for this club.
Trevor McDonald does not pitch in a major league regular-season game in 2027. The case for: his surgery was August 5, 2026, which puts the end of the 2027 regular season at about fourteen months, and the club lists "late 2027 or '28." The case against: the club put "late 2027" first, and a September callup for one inning in relief would sink this.
