The San Francisco Giants, as teams that are functionally eliminated from postseason contention should be doing, have turned to a youth movement in recent weeks. And that youth movement is taking another step forward. According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the Giants are calling up 23-year old left-handed pitcher Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. The Giants have an off-day today, but will resume action on Tuesday in Ohio, facing the Cleveland Guardians … the team they acquired Wilkinson from in May’s Patrick Bailey trade.
It’s a bizarre move, to say the least, and one likely driven in part by the Giants feeling like they would have to roster Wilkinson in November as a Rule 5 Draft protection. While Wilkinson dominated AA this year, both with the Guardians’ affiliate and then the Giants’, he’s struggled quite a bit since getting to AAA. In 10 starts with the Sacramento River Cats, Wilkinson has just a 5.15 ERA and a 5.38 FIP, with just 43 strikeouts in 43.2 innings (to go with 17 walks). That said, home runs have been the biggest issue Wilkinson has faced, and that’s at least partially due to the Coors Field-esque environment of the Pacific Coast League.
Still, it’s a bit odd to see a player who is struggling in AAA, and in his first season above A-ball, get the call to the Majors, even though it’s abundantly clear that the Giants are huge believers in Wilkinson’s southpaw funk. He’ll certainly need that funk to play well, because Wilkinson is an absolute unicorn in the modern era of baseball: he relies on a low-velocity fastball. Tugboat’s fastball has averaged just 89.9 mph this year, which would be 2nd percentile in the Majors. More bizarre is that he uses that pitch 61.9% of the time, which stands in stark contrast to all the other low-velo pitchers in the Majors. It is, to be frank, a profile that no successful Major League pitcher in recent years has had.
But there are always exceptions, and the Giants are clearly optimistic that Wilkinson — who was a 10th-round pick in 2023 — is one such exception.
It’s unclear whether the Giants intend to use Wilkinson as a starter or in relief for his MLB debut. He’s worked exclusively as a starter in his Minor League career, but unless Logan Webb is going on the IL after getting hit by a comebacker on Saturday, the Giants rotation doesn’t appear to have any openings. Webb and Landen Roupp are established pieces, while the Giants are enjoying getting a longer look at prospects Carson Whisenhunt and Blade Tidwell. Adrian Houser would be the obvious option to be replaced, but he’s been pitching well lately and coming off his best start of the year; given that he’s a veteran option with another year left on his deal, the Giants likely want to keep giving him opportunities to prove that he can be part of the solution in 2027.
With the Giants set to activate Marcelo Mayer later this week, it seems that they’re bringing up both Wilkinson and Mayer to have revenge appearances against their former teams. Perhaps that’s pure coincidence, or perhaps it’s the front office playing with vengeance … which would certainly be an odd strategy for a team 22 games below .500.
Either way, one of the best nicknames in baseball is up, and that’s exciting, even if I remain perplexed by the way the Giants deal with prospects. Wilkinson will become the 11th Giants player to make his MLB debut this year, and the 12th to collect their first active-roster check (Zach Morgan was called up for one game, but didn’t play).
San Francisco will have to make corresponding moves on both the active and 40-man rosters for Wilkinson. The latter will be easy, as Casey Schmitt and Harrison Bader can both be transferred to the 60-Day IL.