Giants Searching For Solutions To So Many Tommy John Surgeries

The San Francisco staff has suffered its share of injuries that have led to baseball's most famous medical procedure, eclipsing the already alarming rate in MLB.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Trevor McDonald | Credit: Justine Willard | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

It's been a season of insult, inconsistency, and especially injury for the San Francisco Giants' pitching staff in 2026. Entering the campaign needing some big years from a couple of veteran starters, the Golden Gate Nine got no such breaks.

Instead, all the headaches on the hill have been a big factor in the team's minuscule mark of 59-85, one that's left them a couple of area codes away from the top of the division. Once a powerhouse in the NL West, they are now only propped up by the last-place Colorado Rockies.

Logan Webb and the recently traded Robbie Ray were considered the cornerstones of the team's pitching rotation, but neither really established themselves as a prototypical ace. The bullpen has blown plenty of saves, but the biggest problem has been the number of guys who have been put on the shelf. Between shredded shoulders and exploding elbows, the team has seen multiple pitchers lose significant time or be shelved for the season.

In fact, five Giants pitchers have been lost for the 2026 season. Four have undergone Tommy John surgery to repair ligament damage, either right before or during the 2026 season.

A fifth prized pitching prospect, Carson Whisenhunt, has a torn ulnar collateral ligament; he's expected to undergo Tommy John surgery, which would make it five-of-five. That's pretty alarming, despite the sobering fact that the TJS has become a procedure that's now fairly commonplace across Major League Baseball.

Teams that have had the most Tommy John surgeries since 2016, per @MLBPlayerAnalys

Reds (21)
Brewers (19)
Giants (18)
Yankees (17)
Mets (17)

But even that doesn't tell us much, @jjcoop36 writes:https://t.co/c0rlYGY890

— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) April 2, 2019

29 MLB pitchers have gotten Tommy John surgery, on average, over the last five seasons. To give that an even clearer perspective, almost 39% of all current MLB pitchers have had the surgery at least once in their careers, per the National Library of Medicine.

Regardless of how normal it may seem, the franchise is still concerned with how many of their own keep going down, and often in the most normal of circumstances. President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey has stated that the Giants have looked at ways to remedy the problem, but they don't see any problems with their internal medical staff or the way they treat and diagnose arm ailments.

“I’m not going to pretend to share medical advice because I don’t know it," Posey said, per a Sept. 4 report in the San Francisco Chronicle. "I think some of this, I hope some of this, is just a little bit of ‘it all happens at once.’ We’ll have to look and see if there’s anything we need to adjust, but I have the utmost trust in our medical group.”

A Player's Perspective

Giants pitcher Carson Whisenhunt | Credit: Michael McLoone | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

From a first-person side of things, Whisenhunt himself says he feels there's not much that can be done. In today's era, the normal wear and tear on the average arm is going to require Tommy John surgery, more often than not.

“It’s along the lines of, ‘If you play long enough, something’s bound to happen,’” Whisenhunt said. “It’s a select few that get away with having nothing go wrong throughout their career. This could have happened to me any time on any pitch. It just happened to be now."

“If I was to break it down, and how many pitches I’ve actually thrown in my lifetime... I couldn’t tell you how many bullets have gone from my hand. Every time you do that, you’re straining something. Throwing motions are not normal; it’s not natural. That’s why (underhand) softball pitchers can throw every day.”