After going into the All-Star Break at 52-45, the San Francisco Giants struggled mightily early in the second half of the 2025 season, going 2-10 for the remainder of July. That made them sellers at the MLB trade deadline. In one of the deadline deals, the Giants acquired a young starting pitcher who is now tabbed as the team’s breakout candidate for 2026.
The Giants sent reliever Tyler Rogers to the New York Mets for José Buttó, Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell. While Buttó and Gilbert saw some time with the Giants in 2025, Tidwell did not.
According to MLB.com’s Maria Guardado, that should change in 2026.
“Given the Giants’ need for more rotation depth, Tidwell should have plenty of opportunities to emerge as a big league contributor next year, especially since he already has a preexisting relationship with new manager Tony Vitello, who coached him at the University of Tennessee,” Guardado wrote.
Blade Tidwell Was Close to Joining San Francisco Giants in 2025
While Tidwell didn’t log any Major League appearances for the Giants in 2025, it was reportedly close to happening before he got hurt.
In another article, Guardado noted that Tidwell was “on the verge of a big league callup in August, but he ended up going down with a right shoulder injury that ultimately prevented him from debuting with the Giants in 2025.”
Also, when looking for a team’s breakout candidate, a natural place to start is by identifying players who can fill the team’s most questionable spots on the roster. That applies to Tidwell with the Giants.
Looking ahead to 2026, Logan Webb is the unquestioned ace of the San Francisco rotation and barring a bigger move, it’s likely that Robbie Ray will slot in behind him as the No. 2 starter. After that, though, there are a lot of question marks. It’s more likely than not that Adrian Houser and Landen Roupp will be slotted into the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, leaving the race for the No. 5 spot open.
There are other candidates. That said, based on what we saw from him at the Triple-A level after the trade, it can be argued that Tidwell offers the highest upside.
Tidwell’s Change in Approach Led to Success
There’s admittedly one rather large cause for concern with Tidwell. While he’s never pitched for the Giants at the Major League level, he did appear in four games for the Mets in 2025. Those games did not go particularly well.
In those four outings, which included two starts, Tidwell allowed 15 earned runs with 23 hits (including four home runs) in just 15 innings, all while walking 10 batters. We can even look at his Triple-A numbers with the Mets in 2025 (4.10 ERA, 1.291 WHIP, 87 strikeouts in 79 innings) and be a little less than encouraged.
But while Tidwell’s 2025 numbers in the Mets’ organization were not great, his numbers in Triple-A Sacramento after getting traded to the Giants were fantastic. In four outings (three starts), he posted a 1.50 ERA and 0.778 WHIP while striking out 24 hitters in 18 innings. And while it’s easy to view that as a sample size, there’s more to it than that.
Jeff Young of Around The Foghorn detailed how Tidwell’s approach changed after getting traded.
“When the Giants traded for Tidwell, he led with a mid-90’s four-seam fastball, followed by a low-80’s sweeper and sinker. Since joining San Francisco, he has led with his sweeper and a power slider, while the four-seamer has taken a backseat,” Young explained.
“Tidwell still throws a mid-90’s fastball, but he is leaning more on his sinker now,” he added. “His four-seam fastball was vulnerable against left-handed hitters, but the sinker has plenty of armside movement that moves away from left-handed bats.”
Young also detailed how effective Tidwell was in an outing after making the change.
“The 24-year-old pitcher induced 13 swings, including six whiffs, against his sweeper and 15 swings, including seven whiffs, against his slider. That is a 46 percent whiff rate for his sweeper, and a 47 percent whiff rate for his slider. In total, Tidwell was second among Triple-A pitchers on Friday with 16 whiffs,” Young said.
It’s a small sample size to be certain. Still, most changes in approach generally require some patience, as early struggles are common. That Tidwell produced such drastically different results so quickly — all while pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League — is something the Giants should be encouraged about as the 2026 season approaches.
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