It’s decision time.
When Bob Melvin walked to the mound in the first inning during the San Francisco Giants 9-4 loss on Monday, you couldn’t help but get the feeling that it was the last time we’ll see Hayden Birdsong for a while.
Birdsong departed with three runs in and the bases loaded, ignominiously becoming the first Giants starter (openers notwithstanding) to fail to record an out in 33 years. Blowups happen, but this wasn’t a one-off for the talented young right-hander. In his four starts (which began with the game in which he was asked to retaliate, and then fell apart), Birdsong has made it through just 13 innings, ceding 11 hits, four home runs, 17 walks, and 16 earned runs, while throwing less than half of his pitches for strikes. If you want to go back further, things don’t get much prettier: in his three starts before that stretch, he pitched 14.2 innings and gave up 15 hits, two home runs, eight walks, and nine earned runs.
Sunday will mark the next time Birdsong’s spot in the rotation comes up, and the Giants will be hosting the New York Mets, a dangerous team. Melvin and Buster Posey have quite a choice to make, and I see three options: Birdsong, Landen Roupp, or someone else. Very detailed option, I know.
They could put their faith in the kid, call this a disaster worth washing off, and give him a chance to right the ship. It would be understandable, if questionable. They could use Thursday’s off day to bump the rotation up a day, which would put Roupp in line to smart, but that’s a temporary solution to a decidedly un-temporary problem.
Or they could turn to a new pitcher. On the surface, that seems like the right move. But … what pitcher?
The heir apparent is Carson Whisenhunt, but he’s been one of the worst pitchers in the Pacific Coast League for about two months now, with some serious strike-throwing issues of his own. The other 40-man options in AAA — Mason Black, Carson Seymour, Carson Ragsdale, and Trevor McDonald — have all been struggling mightily. The best pitcher this year for Sacramento has been Kai-Wei Teng, but he’s neither fully stretched out nor on the 40-man roster. Keaton Winn only just returned from injury and isn’t close to being stretched out.
The Giants could certainly just put their faith in one of those arms and assume it can’t get worse. They could say that they love what they’ve seen from Tristan Beck and try to stretch him out again on the fly — he pitched 4.1 innings on Friday, and beautifully — but that seems short-sighted. They could swing a trade — ‘tis the season and all.
There are no easy answers. But it sure feels like “Not Hayden Birdsong” has to be the choice.