MILWAUKEE — Already facing an uphill climb to the postseason, the Giants now will be without one-fifth of their rotation and a key member of their bullpen for almost half of their remaining schedule.
Robbie Ray was placed on the 15-day injured list Tuesday after an MRI revealed a strain in his left hamstring, and a few hours later Jordan Hicks joined him with inflammation in his right shoulder. In both cases, though, the Giants are optimistic neither pitcher will much more than the minimum 15 days.
“It’s already feeling better today, so I’m pretty encouraged,” said Ray, who felt his hamstring pull on his 62nd pitch of Sunday’s loss to the Mariners.
In Hicks’ case, manager Bob Melvin said, “He’s had some shoulder stuff going on and it just hasn’t responded since he’s been in the bullpen. Pitch a game and the next day it’s a little stiff and he’s not available. It just got to a point where we need to get it right. It’s going to take an IL stint to probably get it completely right. Hopefully after that he feels a lot better. He’s been dealing with this for a while now.”
Ray, whose placement on the injured list is retroactive to Aug. 26, is eligible to return September 10, the start of the Giants’ home series against the Brewers. The 32-year-old left-hander has never experienced a soft-tissue injury, but he believed it was realistic that he would miss only the minimum amount of time.
The ailment didn’t prevent him from trekking to the outfield bullpen to watch Hayden Birdsong throw his between-starts bullpen session Tuesday afternoon, and Ray said he doesn’t feel it at all when walking. He’s done some exercises already, and he expects to resume playing catch in the next few days.
“I don’t know what the plan is, but I can’t imagine that I won’t be able to throw in a few days, just to keep the arm moving,” Ray said. “I did enough throwing in my rehab coming back (from Tommy John and flexor tendon surgeries) that I think I’ll be all right.”
Melvin, who has seen countless players deal with the notoriously finicky issue, was still optimistic but more measured.
“It’s probably a couple of weeks, at a minimum,” Melvin said. “That’s about the IL stint, so hopefully it’s shortly thereafter. But these typically aren’t just a couple of days. I think he caught it at the right time. He didn’t try to push it. But hamstrings are hamstrings. We’re probably looking at a minimum of a couple weeks.”
Ray’s turn in the rotation comes up again Saturday, and the Giants are still evaluating their options for how to fill it.
After trading away Alex Cobb, they lack a proven sixth option but called up Landen Roupp to fill Ray’s roster spot, and Melvin named the 25-year-old right-hander as a possibility, as well as fellow righty Spencer Bivens, both of whom have pitched up to three innings out of the Giants’ bullpen.
Mason Black, who started three games earlier this season and has a 2.91 ERA over his past four starts at Triple-A, is another option, Melvin said.
“It just depends on who we use and how much,” Melvin said. “It has a lot to do with how we use the bullpen leading up to that.”
Roupp has a 4.70 ERA in 15 appearances and was just sent down Friday to make room for Camilo Doval but was eligible because of Ray’s injury.
Asked about Tristan Beck, who on Wednesday will make his fifth rehab start since suffering an aneurysm this spring, Melvin said, “We haven’t discussed it at length at this point in time, but I don’t know why he wouldn’t be (in consideration) because he’s been stretched out to three or four innings, too.”
In Hicks’ place in the bullpen, the Giants added 28-year-old right-hander Austin Warren, who can empathize with Ray. Warren underwent his own Tommy John surgery last May, spending, progressing through the 16-month rehab concurrently during the offseason and spring training.
With the call-up, Warren is back in a big-league bullpen for the first time since April 23, 2023, when he was with the Angels. They declined to re-sign him as he recovered, and the Giants scooped him up and agreed to put the final portion of his rehab on their dime.
In 32 games over three seasons for the Angels, Warren owns a 3.55 ERA, 31 strikeouts and 10 walks in 38 innings. He made 21 appearances since his rehab was transferred to Triple-A Sacramento, posting a 4.95 ERA with 23 strikeouts and six walks over 20 innings. He didn’t surrender a run over his final eight games.
“It feels good, very blessed to be back at the highest stage of the game,” Warren said. “I’ve been feeling good lately. Been recovering very well this year. Just very excited to be back.”
Warren has worked back-to-back games just once since surgery, but Melvin was more concerned about the games he hadn’t pitched in recently. His last appearance came Wednesday, meaning he is ready to help to a bullpen that had to pitch a combined 16 1/3 innings during their three-game series in Seattle. Ray was pulled one batter into the fourth inning Sunday, Blake Snell lasted only three innings Saturday, and Birdsong gave them four innings Friday.
“Anytime we can get a fresh arm in there right now, based on what happened, the inning we had to cover in Seattle, it’s a good thing,” Melvin said. “Once you get here, there’s a little more adrenaline. I’m not worried about him going back-to-back days. … He’s got some big-league experience, the ability to get left and right out. More of a one-inning guy, not a length guy — maybe he can give us two — but he’s got some pitches and he’s a big-league quality pitcher.”
Between the results of their MRIs and the results on the out-of-town scoreboard, the Giants path to the postseason didn’t get any easier since they last played.
They entered Tuesday’s series opener against the Brewers with a season-low 2.5% chance of making the postseason, according to FanGraphs, after the Braves won Monday, widening their advantage to 5½ games (six in the loss column).
