San Francisco Giants Young Stars Have Eye on Final Rotation Spot

The San Francisco Giants are about to have a conundrum on their hands which many teams would envy.

With several locks in the starting rotation, the back end of the staff is an open competition as spring training rages on, and it may not be long before the Giants are forced into what will be a tough decision.

Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Justin Verlander form a defined top-three before Jordan Hicks almost certainly works his way into the No. 4 spot given the fact he is owed $12.5 million in each of the next three seasons after signing a four-year deal with San Francisco last winter.

Where things get interesting is the No. 5 slot. As of right this moment, it appears to be a battle between left-hander Kyle Harrison and right-hander Hayden Birdsong with an outside shot for someone like Landen Roupp.

Harrison has the slight edge over Birdsong because of experience. While both players are 23 years old, the lefty has nearly twice the MLB starts as his right-handed counterpart, having made his debut in 2023 versus Birdsong first coming up this past June and making 16 starts down the stretch of the season.

The fact that Harrison is a lefty in a righty-heavy rotation also works to his benefit.

Interestingly, both players pitched in Friday afternoon's 9-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers to get to 4-2 in the Cactus League. Even more interesting than the fact both 23-year-old's threw is a glance at the stat sheet, which was virtually identical for both of them.

Both pitchers threw two innings and each gave up two hits, each struck out three batters, and each did not give up a walk. It was Harrison's first outing of the spring and Birdsong's second, with the latter now boasting a 2.25 ERA across four innings pitched with six strikeouts and the former of course showing a clean 0.00 figure. Both have posted a 1.000 WHIP through their respective outings.

It will be interesting to see if the Giants are willing to entertain the possibility of a six-man rotation in order to get both arms involved. With both at an incredibly young age, the more games each can start the better at these early stages of their careers.

If the more likely scenario plays out however and Harrison wins the job and leaves Birdsong as the odd man out, he would obviously be the next one up once the first injury pops up to someone ahead of him.

The pair of young arms each have incredibly high potential down the line, but San Francisco has to weigh which gives them the best chance to win not just in the future, but right now as well.

If the Giants decide Harrison is the answer there, as much as it would sting to not give Birdsong a spot right away, his time will also come sooner rather than later.

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