SF Giants’ Birdsong shares update on his Tommy John recovery

PHOENIX — The first stages of Hayden Birdsong’s recovery from Tommy John surgery have been pretty simple.

“A lot of lifting. A lot of eating,” Birdsong laughed.

Birdsong, as the summer rolls along, will slowly add more to his rehab as he recovers from season-ending surgery. For now, he’s limited in the scope of his activities.

The 24-year-old isrehabbing in Scottsdale at the Papago Sports Complex, the Giants’ minor-league facility. A couple of miles west, the Giants dropped two of three earlier this week to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, escaping on Wednesday night with their first win of the season against their division rival.

Birdsong wishes he were capable of logging innings for a pitching staff in need of all the help it can get.

“I’m just sitting here, and I have no chance of helping,” Birdsong said in an interview at Papago. “That’s the annoying thing. I’m just sitting here watching things happen and I’m like, ‘(Expletive).’ I can’t do anything to help. I can’t do anything in the clubhouse. I can’t hang out with the guys. I can’t bring anything to the table. I’m just kind of out here.”

Birdsong entered spring training fighting for a spot on the Opening Day roster, but fell out of the competition early due to poor performance. On March 10, though, Birdsong looked electric. Along with pitching a scoreless inning with a strikeout, Birdsong averaged 97.8 mph with his four-seam fastball and touched 99.6 mph, his hardest-tracked pitch as a professional.

Little did he know that outing would be his last of the year.

“I was excited mid-outing,” Birdsong said. “I was like, ‘Oh, this feels right.’ And then, it just obviously didn’t go my way.”

Birdsong described feeling “a pop, like a rip” when he threw his penultimate pitch of the outing. An MRI revealed a Grade 2 forearm strain and UCL sprain. He sought the dreaded second opinion from Dr. Keith Meister and ultimately elected for surgery. Birdsong underwent the procedure on March 25, the same day that the Giants opened their season against the New York Yankees.

“I wasn’t happy, obviously,” Birdsong said. “I think I could be of help. I would like to think I could be good help up there. But, at the same time, hopefully I come back better and ready to go with a clear mind. I wasn’t throwing well in spring training, but at the same time, my last outing was probably my best outing until my elbow went on me.”

Despite losing all of 2026 and likely some of 2027, lockout permitting, Birdsong said he’s in a good mental space. He talked with Logan Webb and Robbie Ray about recovering from Tommy John surgery during spring training, and the veterans advised Birdsong to take things step by step.

“You’ve got to have a positive mindset about it,” Birdsong said. “You can’t sit there and be like, ‘Oh, hopefully I come back however I’m supposed to be,’ and all this stuff. It could take me a whole other year after this just to get back to where I need to be. You never know. That’s happened. I mean, Keaton (Winn). Keaton took another year to find his stuff back. He still had the velo, but now, when he comes out of the bullpen, it’s electric.”

Birdsong is rehabbing at Papago six days per week, arriving around 12:30 p.m. and leaving around 4 p.m., depending on the day. Birdsong isn’t scheduled to throw until September, but will start working with plyoballs in two to three weeks.

During the downtime, Birdsong has often gone camping up north in Payson, Arizona with other members of the organization, the list including former first-rounder Reggie Crawford.

“I’m excited to get to the offseason because that’s when I get to start throwing,” Birdsong said. “I know there’s a lot of season left, but I know I’m going to be here. It’s fun to watch and root them on. At the same time, I’d love to be there.”

One looming wrinkle in Birdsong’s recovery is Major League Baseball’s impending lockout, which is widely expected to begin when the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on Dec. 1. Since Birdsong is on the Giants’ 40-man roster, he wouldn’t be allowed to train at Papago. Birdsong has previously been opposed to working at training facilities but is now willing to explore that option.

“Ideally, I come back and my arm’s stronger than it ever has been, body’s stronger than it ever has been and I’m ready to go as soon as the season starts, whenever that may be,” Birdsong said.