San Francisco Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong is out of the 2026 season before it has even started after being told he needs to have dreaded Tommy John surgery.
The elbow procedure will rule the 24-year-old out until early into the 2027 season. Birdsong was desperate for better news and even visited a second expert in the hope he’d be told the injury wasn’t so severe.
Furthermore, the news hits the Giants with the team just six days out from the season-opener at Oracle Park against the New York Yankees, which is being shown live on Netflix.
‘It’s hard to [say] you’re happy for him, based on the circumstances, but it is nice that after a few days of muddy waters to have some clarity,’ Giants manager Tony Vitello said.
Birdsong apparently felt a ‘snap’ in his elbow on the penultimate pitch of what is now his last outing in spring training.
His surgery will be carried out by Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas next week and recovery time can be as long as 16 months.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Hayden Birdsong is out of the entire 2026 season
Vitello said: ‘He would just like to move on and make sure there aren’t any creeping thoughts in the back of his head, like, ‘am I healthy?’ or this or that. Just push forward with what he and others think the best thing is.’
Birdsong was fighting to make the team’s opening day roster. If he hadn’t, he’d have been a leading player at Triple-A level and either way, the news dents the Giants’ depth days before the start of the 162-game season.
‘He was really sharp his last time out, but you can’t undo the past,’ Vitello added. ‘I think the big thing for him is to take that baton and carry it. Because you can still watch the game, have conversations, learn.
‘You’d like to think the best-case scenario, like a lot of guys in the past, you can come back stronger.’
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