After Wednesday’s loss to the San Diego Padres, it seemed all but certain that the San Francisco Giants would place right-handed reliever José Buttó on the Injured List at some point today. And indeed, on Thursday afternoon, a few hours before starting a series against the New York Mets, the Giants announced that Buttó was headed to the 15-Day IL with right arm fatigue. Replacing him on the roster is fellow right-handed pitcher Blade Tidwell, who has been called up from AAA Sacramento.
The news felt inevitable for Buttó, and now we just cross our fingers and hope it’s nothing serious. He entered in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s matinee, in what was at the time a 3-1 deficit, with the team trying to stay close ahead of the ninth inning. But something was off from the get-go, as Buttó retired just one of the eight batters he faced, while issuing four walks, and allowing a single, a double, and a home run. Just eight of his 28 pitches found the strike zone and, in a large warning sign, his velocity was significantly down.
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As his appearance came to an end, he appeared in discomfort, and had a long talk on the mound with head athletic trainer Anthony Reyes, before leaving the game. It’s very rare that you see a pitcher leave a game with a trainer and not end up on the Injured List, and unfortunately Buttó is no exception.
So up comes Tidwell, with a chance to make his Giants debut against the team that drafted him. The 24-year old, who was a second-round pick by the Mets in 2022, came over to the Giants along with Buttó and Drew Gilbert in last summer’s Tyler Rogers trade. He was sensational in four games with Sacramento, and was primed to make his Giants debut late in the season (his MLB debut came earlier in the year for the Mets), but a mild injury kept him from making it to San Francisco.
While still being developed in the Minors as a starter, Tidwell showed off some serious heat while primarily working out of the bullpen in Spring Training, and struck out 13 batters in just 6.2 innings (though he also walked six and allowed seven earned runs). He made one AAA appearance this year before the call-up, pitching 2.2 no-hit innings, in which he walked one and struck out three. Giants manager Tony Vitello has a lot of familiarity with Tidwell, as he coached him in college at Tennessee.
I had assumed that the Giants would replace Buttó with Spencer Bivens, a somewhat similar pitcher. Perhaps they’re just higher on Tidwell right now, or perhaps they wanted someone who could eat larger chunks of innings, especially since they’re still in the first half of a stretch of 10 games in 10 days.
