For a minute there it seemed like Kyle Harrison’s call-up might be imminent. Now a call-up this season doesn’t feel like a certainty.
Harrison was recently named as the top left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball by MLB, but he’s yet to show consistency at Triple-A Sacramento. As his pitch limit has been raised to around 80, he’s only made it past the fifth inning one time in 17 starts.
Harrison’s stuff is incredible. He’s striking out 14.7-per nine innings. But his command is questionable. His walk rate is seven-per nine innings, his WHIP is 1.56 and his ERA is a below-average 4.79.
While San Francisco is currently in a stretch where they’ve been calling up minor league talent, Harrison’s debut doesn’t seem imminent. Former Giants pitcher and current analyst Shawn Estes was asked on KNBR Wednesday if he still believes that Harrison will get called-up in 2023.
“I would say yes, but not at that pace,” Estes said regarding how deep into games Harrison is currently going. “Yeah he’s striking guys out, but you just talked about innings, you don’t want Kyle Harrison coming up here only able to give you three or five innings.”
The Giants are currently employing the opener system with long relievers pitching three or four innings in the middle of games. It would seem that Harrison could slot into one of those spots now, but that’s not what SF wants to do.
“Kyle Harrison is a guy where if they call him up to the big leagues, he’s starting. He’s going to be a starter and they want him to give them at least, pitch-count wise, five innings. They want his pitch count 90-100 pitches. He’s not even there yet.
“I think more for him it’s efficiency. If he’s going out there throwing 20-25 pitches an inning, they’re not going to let him throw 100 pitches. If he can go out there and have an efficient game, or he can average 12-13 pitches an inning, than yeah, maybe you see him pitch into the sixth-seventh inning and maybe he’s able to throw 90-95 pitches. But if none of that happens at the minor leagues, you’re definitely not going to see him at the big leagues.”
The blueprint is clear for Harrison. The Giants have a need for a lefty starting pitcher, and Harrison has the stuff to be just that in the big leagues. He just has to do it more consistently and he’ll get called up.
“He’s going to have to be more efficient, he’s going to have to throw more strikes,” Estes concluded. “Quite frankly, he’s going to have to prove to them that he can do it on a consistent basis. Not just throw five [innings], strike out 12 and then okay he’s in the big leagues. No, they need to see him do it two, three maybe even four times in a row until they have trust in him to do that.”
Listen to the full interview below. You can listen to every KNBR interview on our podcast page at knbr.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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