Giants To Promote Kyle Harrison

3:58 pm: Giants supervisor Gabe Kapler confirmed to reporters, together with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, that Harrison was poised to be promoted. He’ll begin the Giants’ sport towards the Phillies in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

10:14 am: The Giants are calling up high pitching prospect Kyle Harrison, FanSided’s Robert Murray stories (via X).  Earlier right this moment, the Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly wrote that San Francisco was “strongly contemplating” selling Harrison throughout an upcoming collection with the Phillies, and Murray says that Harrison is being aimed to start out Tuesday’s sport.  San Francisco might want to make one other transaction earlier than then to create a 40-man roster spot for the left-hander.

The promotion makes for a pleasant late birthday present for Harrison, who turned 22 on August 12.  It’s fairly potential that the southpaw would have already made his MLB debut if it wasn’t for a hamstring pressure that put him on the injured listing for nearly all of July, however after pitching in three Triple-A video games since his return from the minor league IL, Harrison has been deemed prepared for his first style of the Present.

It doesn’t appear as if Harrison will likely be taking over a full-fledged starter position, as Baggarly notes that Harrison may work in additional of a piggyback capability on Tuesday, maybe not throwing greater than 3-4 innings.  Harrison has had a restricted workload for a lot of the minor league season, as he has topped the 80-pitch threshold solely 3 times and has solely as soon as thrown as many as 5 innings in a single outing.

With this in thoughts, Harrison appears to be like to turn into the most recent member of a patchwork Giants rotation that has not too long ago featured solely two common starters.  Past Logan Webb and Alex Cobb, a gaggle led by Jakob Junis, Alex Wooden, Sean Manaea, and Ross Stripling have made restricted begins, piggyback outings, or have labored as bulk pitchers behind an opener.  This assortment took successful yesterday when Stripling was positioned on the 15-day IL as a result of a again pressure, and Sean Hjelle was recalled from Triple-A to work as an extended reliever or bulk pitcher.

It’s not a super state of affairs for a staff combating for a wild card berth, so there will likely be a little bit of an even bigger highlight than standard on Harrison as he turns into a giant leaguer.  Nevertheless, Harrison has handled loads of hype as his prospect inventory has risen over the previous couple of years, since being chosen by the Giants within the third spherical of the 2020 draft.  In latest midseason updates to their prospect rankings, MLB Pipeline listed Harrison because the Twentieth-best prospect within the sport, whereas Baseball America slotted him thirty fifth on their newest itemizing.

There’s no secret about Harrison’s largest weak level, as he has a hefty 16.3% stroll charge over 67 2/3 innings with Triple-A Sacramento this yr.  This shaky management (and pitching within the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League) has contributed to Harrison’s 4.52 ERA, although he additionally has an amazing 35.6% strikeout charge.

Each Pipeline and BA give Harrison a 70-grade for his fastball and a 60-grade for his slider, and he additionally has a great changeup that’s nonetheless bettering.  Two plus pitches and the opportunity of a 3rd has created loads of buzz about Harrison as a potential front-of-the-rotation starter, although the massive query is of course whether or not or not Harrison can enhance his management and command.  As Pipeline’s scouting report places it, Harrison is “nonetheless studying to harness his enhanced stuff, although his capability to overlook bats within the strike zone with all three of his choices signifies that he doesn’t must find them with precision.”

Nevertheless the Giants decide to handle Harrison’s workload among the many remainder of the pitchers, it appears seemingly that the membership will restrict him to lower than 50 innings within the common season, so he can retain his rookie eligibility for 2024.  As per the foundations of the Prospect Promotion Incentive, the Giants can obtain a bonus choose within the 2025 draft if Harrison earns a full yr of MLB service time in 2024, and he both wins the NL Rookie of the Yr award or has a top-three end in NL Cy Younger voting throughout any of his pre-arbitration seasons.  Harrison should be ranked as a top-100 prospect by at the least two of MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, or ESPN.com of their pre-2024 lists to totally qualify as a PPI-eligible participant, thought that looks as if a foregone conclusion.

Past the 50-inning threshold, pitchers additionally must have lower than 46 days on a Main League roster to retain rookie eligibility.  That date on the 2023 league calendar handed final week, so it isn’t shocking that Harrison and different notable prospects just like the Reds’ Noelvi Marte, the Cardinals’ Masyn Winn, and the Angels’ Nolan Schanuel have all been referred to as up inside the previous couple of days alone.

Photograph courtesy of USA As we speak Sports activities Photos