San Francisco Giants Rising Right-Hander in Play for Final Rotation Spot

The San Francisco Giants have somewhat of a predicament when it comes to their starting rotation entering the 2025 MLB season.

Four of the starters are essentially locked into the rotation to begin with — Logan Webb, Justin Verlander, Robbie Ray, and Jordan Hicks.

With that in mind, the fifth spot has become somewhat intriguing, with three likely candidates to fill the role: Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong, and Landen Roupp. All three are interesting options for the rotation, and it will ultimately likely come down to what the Giants want out of their fifth man.

San Francisco manager Bob Melvin provided his opinion on how Roupp has looked so far recently vs. last season, as was transcribed by Justice delos Santos of The Mercury News.

"It was a lot of breaking balls for strikes, struggled with the command of his fastball," Melvin said. "Had some walks, behind in counts. Now, he’s throwing all his pitches for strikes. It starts with the command of his fastball, which has good movement on it and good velocity."

Additionally, the implementation of a cutter to his arsenal has made things interesting, as it shows development from his debut 2024 season. Roupp stated that he has "confidence in it already," which is a positive sign as he works to expand his arsenal and further prove his value to the franchise.

Of the three pitchers previously mentioned, Roupp has had likely the strongest spring so far, starting two games and throwing five innings, allowing only one hit, no earned runs, one walk, and had eight strikeouts.

Birdsong did look solid in his lone appearance, pitching two innings, allowing one run, two hits, no walks, and had three strikeouts. Both Birdsong and Harrison will get some run time on Friday's spring training matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Roupp had a solid debut season in 2024 as well, pitching in 23 games (four of which were starts), accruing 50.1 innings pitched, a 3.75 ERA, 1.371 WHIP, 47 strikeouts to 26 walks (1.81 SO/BB), and only gave up two home runs.

Comparatively, Birdsong had a larger sample size of 16 starts (72.0 IP), with a 4.75 ERA, 1.389 WHIP, 88 strikeouts to 43 walks (2.05 SO/BB), and gave up 11 home runs.

Kyle Harrison has had even more experience with 24 starts in 2024, putting together a 4.56 ERA, 1.343 WHIP, 118 strikeouts to 42 walks (2.81 SO/BB), and gave up 18 home runs in 124.1 innings of work.

This leaves the Giants with a tough decision to make and ultimately may result in the other two options finding time in the bullpen if things shake out that way. Regardless, Roupp has kept his name in the mix and has done a good job so far making his name known in spring training.

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