Tidwell's UCL Sprain Adds Another Name to a Very Long List

Blade Tidwell has a UCL sprain and his season is done. That's the news, and it lands about as softly as everything else has for San Francisco this year.

What makes it worth noting beyond the injury itself is the context leading up to it. Over his last five appearances, Tidwell had been pitching more than twice his usual workload — the kind of usage spike that tends to show up in the data right before something goes wrong. Whether that was necessity or strategy doesn't much matter now. The result is the same.

The Giants currently have 15 players on the injured list, a number that has been climbing since June. Keaton Winn, Carson Whisenhunt, Jose Butto, Adrian Houser — the bullpen and rotation depth has been hollowed out piece by piece all summer. Tidwell is just the latest. The franchise spent much of the deadline moving veterans out and prospects in, betting on the next wave of young arms. When those arms keep getting hurt, that bet gets harder to evaluate.

Thirty-seven games left, 49-76, and the injury list keeps growing. At this point the end of the season can't come soon enough for this organization — not out of defeat, but because the sooner it's over, the sooner they can figure out what they actually have.