7-28-2025 – By Michael Castrignano – @412DoublePlay on X
The Pirates wrapped up a winning home stand but, given their shortfalls on the road, optimism may be low until they return to PNC next week. Still, they head out to the west coast to face the San Francisco Giants and southpaw starter Carson Whisenhunt, who will make his MLB debut today.
A 2nd round pick in the 2022 draft, Whisenhunt is the #3 prospect for the Giants who soared effortlessly through the minors but hit a wall when he arrived at AAA last season and, even with the call up, didn’t really overcome the issues plaguing him there.
His recall to the major league is more a result of injuries (Landon Roupp) and ineffectiveness (Hayden Birdsong) than rewarding results as Whisenhunt has posted an underwhelming 4.42 ERA over 97.2 innings with the Giants top affiliate, the Sacramento River Cats, where he has a .273 opponent batting average and some bizarre day/night splits.
While he has had two decent starts in July combining 8.2 innings with just 3 runs allowed, that came with 14 hits and 3 walks to just 7 strikeouts. Additionally, he is coming off the worst month of his career as in June, he posted a 6.91 ERA and 1.68 WHIP over 27.1 innings of work.
Whisenhunt has been working more in the zone this season (6.8% walk rate compared to 11.3% in 2024 through 109.2 innings) but just isn’t putting hitters away like he was able to in the lower levels (21% K rate compared to 28.4% in 2024 and 35.3% over 58.2 innings in 2023).
Whisenhunt offers a mid-90s sinker, low-80s slider and infrequent high-70s curve but his main offering is his changeup, which has been his main pitch and is ranked among the best for prospects in MLB.
For a kid making his debut, there may be pressure on him to eat innings – especially after the Giants had to use a bullpen game in last night’s 5-3 loss to the Mets. Nonetheless, the Pirates have seen a number of pitching debuts this season and, more often than not, have struggled in these situations. They have to stay on the heat and breaking balls while laying off that changeup.
Attack the sinker/slider and spit on the changeup dropping down and under the zone. If he is getting too aggressive in the zone early, make him pay. If he is trying to nibble, let him nibble and wait for the mistake pitch that newbies are bound to drop in from time-to-time
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