A battle of two non-playoff teams (though, for entirely different reasons).
It’s always a great day when the #1 pitching prospect for the San Francisco Giants makes his debut. Carson Whisenhunt might not be in the same tier as Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum, or Madison Bumgarner, but since those guys have come through Oracle Park, they’re now the standard to be held to, and that’s a very good thing. Before, it was Kurt Ainsworth or Jesse Foppert pitching to a nebulous Great.
Whisenhunt will be facing a Pittsburgh Pirates squad that’s worse against left-handed pitching than even the Giants. Their 68 wRC+ on the season is 29th in MLB, behind only the Rockies (67 wRC+). Their .217 batting average against, however, is tied with the Giants (yikes). They also have a 26.9% strikeout rate against lefties, which could be a good confidence boost for Whisenhunt, whose strikeout totals have vanished in 2025.
For the McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect Rankings list, Brady wrote of Whisenhunt (ranked #3 overall):
Whisenhunt didn’t have a spectacular 2024, but he stayed mostly healthy which was great to see. […]
The most impressive part of his performance, though, was the strikeouts. The lefty, who just turned 24 and was the team’s second-round pick in 2022, struck out 11.61 batters per nine innings pitched. That figure was ninth-highest among the 92 Pacific Coast League pitchers with at least 50 innings last year.
In 18 starts for the River Cats this season (97.2 IP), he’s struck out just 86 (7.9 per 9). He’s lowered the walks (2.6 per 9), but has allowed 102 hits, including 12 home runs; and, he’s uncorked 10 wild pitches. So… we’ll see if having major league defense behind him and pitching in Oracle Park and against a team that’s awful against lefties sets him up for a solid debut. MLB Pipeline still thinks he may have the best changeup “in baseball,” and the Pirates aren’t all that great against the changeup (Tommy Pham and Andrew McCutchen excepted).
The Giants could really use 5 innings from the rookie. 6 would be a treat. It would also be fun to see Carson Seymour relieve him. We grow ever closer to the day when Carson Whisenhunt, Carson Seymour, and Carson Ragsdale appear in the same game.
And, of course, they really need to sweep this bad Pirates team if they’re to maintain their postseason aspirations. While they’re “just” 3 games back of the Wild Card, the 3-month trend is pretty dire: 30-38 since their 24-14 start. They’ve lost 11 of 13 and are 9-12 since Buster Posey picked up Bob Melvin’s option and given his vote of confidence. Willy Adames getting back on track alongside a healed Matt Chapman while adding Rafael Devers to the mix and nursing him back to help hasn’t helped the lineup one bit. Pitching injuries and extended reliever use is only creating more problems. Carson Whisenhunt is one plug for about half a dozen holes. Let’s just try to enjoy the moment.
The reality is that this is a battle of two non-playoff teams who are playing more as a showcase for better teams looking to add before this Thursday’s trade deadline.
Series overview
Who: Pittsburgh Pirates vs. San Francisco Giants
Where: Oracle Park | San Francisco, California
When: Monday & Tuesday at 6:45pm PT, Wednesday at 12:45pm PT
National broadcasts: MLB Network simulcast (Tuesday)
Projected starters
Monday: Mitch Keller (RHP 4-10, 3.53 ERA) vs. Carson Whisenhunt (LHP MLB debut)
Tuesday: Bailey Falter (LHP 7-5, 3.82 ERA) vs. Justin Verlander (RHP 1-8, 4.70 ERA)
Wednesday: Mike Burrows (RHP 1-3, 4.15 ERA) vs. Logan Webb (RHP 9-8, 3.38 ERA)
Where they stand
Pirates, 59-44 (1st in NL East), 451 RS / 406 RA | Last 10: 6-4 | #3 seed
Giants, 54-52 (3rd in NL West), 431 RS / 412 RA | Last 10: 3-7 | 1.0 GB WC3
Pirates to watch
Players likely to be traded:
Tommy Pham — He once slapped the playoffs out of the Giants’ mouths. Does he have the strength to do it again? He is 1-for-19 in his last two trips to Oracle Park (6 games, 20 PA).
Isiah Kiner-Filefa — Will the Giants trade for him? Gosh, I hope not. He won’t fix the lineup. His current .635 OPS would basically be the lowest of his career. This would not be like picking up Freddy Sanchez, in case there are fans out there who feel a trade would be “2010-coded.”
Mitch Keller — He’s been great against the Giants in Pittsburgh, but his two Oracle starts were rough. Still, they were in 2019 and 2023. Will he be lights out for this throwcase?
Some other guys:
Joey Bart — The former top Giants prospect looked to be on the verge of blossoming into an All-Star but has since settled into the solid enough backstop Giants brass had lowered their expectations to near the end of his tenure. He has 4 hits in 6 games against the team that drafted him.
Bryan Reynolds — The former top Giants prospect did blossom briefly into that All-Star player every fan and exec fears the guy he trades away will become, and that brief glimpse of an elite ceiling tricked the Pirates into signing him to a long-term deal. He had an .858 OPS in his first 3 seasons (1,400 PA) with the Pirates, generating 10.3 fWAR. Since then, and his 8-year, $106.75 million extension (4 seasons, 2,370 PA), he has a .771 OPS and 6.6 fWAR. In 2025, he’s put up a -0.5 wins above replacement. But in 30 games against the Giants, he has a .796 OPS.
David Bednar — He clinched his 100th career save the other night and could be on the move, but the former Padres farmhand and steadfast Pirates closer has given up 5 home runs in 14 career innings, including 3 in just 6.1 IP at Oracle Park.
Giants to watch
Wilmer Flores: I doubt the Giants would trade him away, but I think there are a couple of teams out there who might want him. After all, somebody traded for Austin Slater last season. Somebody traded for Darin Ruf once upon a time. On the other hand, he is not a lefty-masher a la Slater/Ruf. He’s not a masher in any way. That 2023 run was the last bit of potent baseball juice in his body. The past two seasons have been juice where the ice has melted. This will be his final season in MLB in all likelihood.
Camilo Doval: Andrew Baggarly thinks it’s smart to consider trading him and I’m inclined to agree. But he’s appeared in just 8 games the past 30 days and he has 7 walks in 9 IP. The 12 strikeouts are fine, but he’s hardly a slam dunk trade chip. And if you go back to June 1st, he looks even worse: a 5.85 ERA (4.49 FIP) in 20 IP. He’ll need two lights out appearances against the Pirates to make either the Giants or their trade partner(s) feel good about keeping or trading for him, respectively.
Mike Yastrzemski: He’s another player a team might want to add to the back of their roster for a postseason run, but in 95 career PA against the Pirates, he’s slashing an unseemly .146/.253/.354. His power has completely disappeared this season, too. He costs a lot of money, relatively speaking. It might just be nice to see him have a couple of good games before his time as a Giant comes to an end (which is only a couple of months from now!)
Ryan Walker: It’s great to see him regain that velocity. It might be even better to see him traded away for an outfielder with a decent on base percentage.
Willy Adames: He hasn’t been lights out against the Pirates for his career, but having played them so many times in the NL Central, he does have 9 career homers against them. He hasn’t carried the lineup, but he’s been a bright spot.
Prediction time