The San Francisco Giants won the 2014 World Series with dominant pitching, and they have maintained their starting rotation throughout the offseason to this point. In fact, they are so confident in their pitching that they have so far said no to top costless agent starters Max Scherzer and James Shields. The news of Tim Hudson's ankle surgery may -- at face value -- put a damper on that plan, but it is not as serious as it immediately sounds. The Giants will stick with what they already have barring anything unforeseen.
MLB.com's Chris Haft announced Tuesday night that Hudson underwent surgery Friday to remove bone spurs from his right ankle and will have to stop his workouts for the next eight weeks. This time frame puts his recovery in early to mid-March, meaning Hudson will miss nearly half of this year's Spring Training. Haft says that Giants manager Bruce Bochy, though, "insisted that Hudson will be fit to begin the season on time."
Bochy said the bone spurs were not serious but caused more of a "nagging" sensation that Hudson wanted to eliminate while he still had a chance without missing any of the regular season. The bone spurs were on the same ankle that Hudson broke in 2013 while still with the Atlanta Braves, causing him to miss his team's final 67 games of that season.
Hudson returned this year after signing with the Giants to make 31 regular-season starts. He won nine games and lost 13, but he actually pitched much better than his win-loss record shows. He had an ERA of 3.57, a WHIP of 1.23, and a WAR of 1.5. He pitched 189 1/3 innings, which averages out to 6.12 innings per start. Those are very solid numbers for a 39-year-old 16-year veteran coming back from serious injury. He fell off some in the postseason, but he is still a very servicable starter in the back end of a talented rotation.
It is not likely to happen at this point, but should Hudson have to miss the beginning of the regular season, Yusmeiro Petit could fill in for him in the rotation. Petit is a valuable swing man. He made 12 starts and 27 relief appearances for the Giants in 2014, going 5-5 with a 3.69 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. His best performance came in Innings 13-18 of Game 2 of the NLDS against the Washington Nationals: 6 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 7 K to pick up the win. However, Haft says that both Bochy and Giants general manager Bobby Evans fully expect to have Hudson in the rotation when the regular season begins on April 6.