SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants had three rookies in the starting lineup Friday, two on the bench, and two in the bullpen. But the franchise's best prospect will have to wait longer than he hoped to join the mix.
Kyle Harrison suffered a hamstring strain while training earlier this week and will pull out of the Futures Game, an exhibition for the game's best prospects. The Giants still are working on a timetable and called the strain "moderate."
"A lot of it will come down to how quickly he's asymptomatic, but this kind of strain, you're usually talking about a matter of weeks," Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said. "Hopefully it'll be on the shorter end but we don't know."
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With the trade deadline coming up in about three weeks, the Giants had hoped to have a better idea of how Harrison could impact their rotation in the second half, and Zaidi hinted that a healthy Harrison might have gotten a shot later this month "just to have a better sense of what we have." But that will have to wait.
"We still expect him to pitch for us at some point this season, but we'll just be dealing with a little more uncertainty without the chance to get to see him in the next two or three weeks at this level," Zaidi said.
Harrison has made 17 starts in Triple-A this season with mixed results. The 21-year-old has 92 strikeouts in 56 1/3 innings and at times has overwhelmed hitters, but he also has struggled with command and efficiency. Harrison has 44 walks in those 56 1/3 innings, and between the long innings and a team-imposed pitch count, he has completed five innings just once.
Harrison's last start was Tuesday in Salt Lake City. He allowed two runs in three innings and struck out three, and then got hurt the next day. The Giants said Harrison will be reassessed during the upcoming All-Star break.
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Harrison has been a constant topic of conversation, particularly with the team's rotation struggling in recent weeks. Zaidi said he's thrilled overall with how the young prospect is coming along.
"It's probably created a little bit too much of a microscope dynamic. I get asked about him a lot," he said. "I was thinking the other day that at times it probably sounds like I'm being critical talking about the strike-throwing and some of these things, but he's a high school (pick) in 2020, he's in Triple-A (already) and is one of the best starting pitchers in Triple-A.
"Big picture, he's really progressed in a terrific way and is arguably the top left-handed starting pitching prospect in baseball or on a pretty short list."