2025 There R Giants' Top 50: #2 Carson Whisenhunt

Beyond the ugly number, good things were cooking in '24

Photo Credit: Madalyn Harrell | SF Giants

So far, in this year’s Top 50, we’ve seen:

• Just Missed List

• 46-50 (Camacho, Foster, Flores, Hernandez, Reckley)

• 41-45 (Christian, Pomares, Ahuna, Perez, Sugastey)

• 36-40 (Howell, Murphy, Miles, Simon, Choate)

• 31-35 (Sanchez, Waites, Bresnahan, Rengel, Maldonado)

• 26-30 (Hipwell, Bello, Tejada, Diaz, Bericoto)

• 21-25 (Ortíz, Furman, Cayama, Harris, Ceballos

• 16-20 (Cox, Martin, Meckler, Bostick, Velasquez)

• 11-15 (Arteaga, Crawford, Davidson, Seymour, Ragsdale)

• 10: Trevor McDonald

• 9: Mason Black

• 8: Joe Whitman

• 7: Rayner Arias

• 6: Jhonny Level

• 5. Dakota Jordan

• 4. James Tibbs III

• 3. Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez

Weird year.

Carson Whisenhunt’s 2024 season was just plain weird in some ways. In some ways — or to some observers — it was a disappointing season. Even in the PCL, a 5.42 ERA is hard to brush away with some league-adjusted contextualization. His season ERA ended up third highest among “Carsons” on his own team, for example, and was more than a run higher than teammate Mason Black, who, as we detailed a few posts back, was suffering a fairly serious decline in stuff during the season.

So, yes, the season had its disappointing elements, but more than that, it was simply strange. Pitching half of one’s PCL season in the relatively neutral confines of Sacramento is going to lead to home road splits. Some. But Whisenhunt seemed to go through a full-on Freaky Friday body exchange whenever he left the confines of Sutter Health Park last year. The difference in his home (2.34) and road (8.31) ERAs last year was six full runs! Consider that Black, Carson Seymour, and Carson Ragsdale all had home-road splits of less than two runs with Sacramento last year. Trevor McDonald had less than one run’s difference between his home and road ERA. Something more than just the standard PCL hobgoblins was at work transforming Whisenhunt into some version of a jai alai player who had stumbled onto a pitching mound by mistake whenever he packed a suitcase.

But, while recognizing the fundamental truth that what happened did happen, and acknowledging that learning to pitch in challenging environments is part of the job, it’s important to say, upfront, that a lot of things really went well for Whisenhunt last year from a development perspective. And, if you can cut down on the glare from the unsightly ERA and see beyond it to some other elements of his pitching for a while, the season presents itself in a much more positive hue.