SAN FRANCISCO -- Kyle Harrison has made 107 appearances in the minors and majors since the Giants took him in the third round of the 2020 draft, and up until Tuesday night, every single one had come as a starter. For a few minutes, it looked like Harrison would be asked to get a save in his first professional relief appearance, but as he warmed up at Wrigley Field, the Giants had a historic nine-run rally.
Just about all of the pressure was off as Harrison finally took the mound in the bottom of the 11th, but that didn't matter to the young left-hander. He has been given an opportunity to show that he's back to where he was before an ankle injury last year -- and that he's ready for another shot at the rotation -- and the first look couldn't have gone any better.
Harrison struck out a pair in a quick 1-2-3 inning Tuesday and stranded the automatic runner. Of his 11 pitches, nine were fastballs, and he averaged 96.2 mph.
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Harrison's velocity started ticking up late last month in Triple-A, and in his last start for the River Cats, he hit 97.8 mph and regularly sat 95-97. That's the kind of velocity that made him the game's best left-handed prospect a year ago, but he hasn't been in that range often in the big leagues. Before Tuesday, he had hit 97 mph only twice, both coming in his debut in August of 2023.
Harrison's velocity was down this spring as he worked his way back from shoulder irritation that was caused by compensating for last year's ankle injury. He's now fully healthy and his mechanics are back to where they were two years ago, and the Giants decided last week that it was time to reward him. Buster Posey has talked often about going with the best 26, and it's clear Harrison is one of their best 13 pitching options at the big league level right now.
The Giants are still hopeful that Harrison and Hayden Birdsong can join Logan Webb as anchors for future rotations, but at the moment, the two young pitchers are in the bullpen. They walked out to the pen at Wrigley Field together on Monday, and Birdsong got into that game as a reliever.
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The Giants haven't at any point this season seemed close to making a change to their rotation, and Birdsong is likely first in line anyway, but every relief outing for Harrison is a chance to show that he's back. This is a new role, but the mindset doesn't change.
"I think it just goes back to competing, that's what I love to do," the 23-year-old said. "No matter the circumstance, if I have the ball on that mound, it's baseball. That's the way I looked at it and that's the way I'm going to go about it."
Heating Up?
LaMonte Wade Jr. had a single and RBI double Wednesday and has hits in each of his last three games. Ordinarily, that wouldn't mean much, but it's a step in the right direction for a veteran who was hitting .094 two weeks ago.
Wade has taken much better at-bats in recent days, and the alarming strikeout rate from early April seems to have been a blip. He has five strikeouts in his last 47 plate appearances.
This would be a good time for Wade to finally find some momentum, because for the first time all year, the Giants might soon have another option at first base. Jerar Encarnacion (left hand fracture) has been cleared to take batting practice, and the Giants announced he could start a rehab assignment as soon as this weekend.
Encarnacion is on the 60-day IL and isn't eligible to return until May 23, but he had a good spring and could bring some needed power and depth to a lineup that has been awfully dependent on the guys at the top. Given how good Mike Yastrzemski has been in right and Wilmer Flores' success at DH, Encarnacion's easiest path to playing time could be at first base, a position he played just twice last year.
The Right Call?
The Giants were embarrassed on the national stage when they backed out of a 13-year, $350 million deal with Carlos Correa in 2022 because the shortstop failed his physical. At the time, they were very concerned about his ankle holding up over the back half of that deal, but three years in, the ankle isn't the concern in Minnesota, where the Giants will begin a three-game series on Friday.
Correa has a .262 on-base percentage this season and just two homers. He has been playing through left wrist discomfort, and that has been a theme since he returned to Minnesota. Plantar fasciitis bothered him each of the previous two seasons and he played just 86 games last year.
When healthy in 2024, Correa was hitting at an All-Star level, but he has a .763 OPS in three seasons since the Giants and New York Mets backed away from long-term deals. Correa's OPS this season is at .593, which is 79 points behind Willy Adames, who is off to a slow start but would not be in San Francisco at all had the deal been completed with Correa three years ago.