The Giants announced this morning that right-hander underwent succe sful surgery to repair an aneurysm in his right shoulder. He wont throw for at least eight weeks. San Francisco also announced that right-hander has an elbow sprain and will be reevaluated in two weeks time. That represents a further blow to the teams pitching depth, though Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic that Hjelles ulnar collateral ligament is intact. A timetable for his return wont be known until that reevaluation, however. Its already been known that Beck would be facing a long absence after testing late last month found the aneurysm. The Giants placed him on the 60-day injured list this week when opening a roster spot for newly signed . An eight-week shutdown period would stretch from now until April 30. Beck would then need to slowly ramp up, starting with light throwing on flat ground, to pitching off a mound, to facing live hitters and eventually pitching in minor league rehab games. That proce s would require more than a month, in all likelihood, putting a potential return date somewhere in June, at the earliest. Of course, thats all contingent on avoiding any setbacks and on Becks body recovering as hoped. The Giants will surely have updates along the way. The news on Hjelle likely subtracts another depth option who couldve stepped up to help fill Yogi Berra Jersey Becks spot early in the season. Hjelle, a towering 611 26-year-old, posted strong numbers in Double-A back in 2021 but has since struggled both as a starter and reliever in Triple-A and in the big leagues. The former second-round pick worked primarily as a starter in Triple-A Sacramento last year, struggling to a 6.00 ERA in 19 starts (plus three relief appearances) in that ultra-hitter-friendly setting. He made another 15 relief appearances with the big league club, posting 29 innings with a similarly disheartening 6.52 earned run average. Hjelle sports an unsightly 6.17 ERA in 54 MLB innings but his 23.2% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and huge 56% ground-ball rate all portend better results over a larger sample. Hes been plagued by a sky-high .399 average on balls in play despite yielding just an 89 mph average exit velocity. Metrics like FIP (3.89) and SIERA (3.35) feel Hjelle has been far, far better in his limited big league time than his ERA would indicate. Giants skipper Bob Melvin had already called out Hjelle as someone who could perhaps move into a rotation role to help compensate for the injury to Beck and provide some insurance in the event that right-hander s elbow i sue flares back up. (Winn was briefly shut down earlier in camp due to a nerve i sue but has since resumed throwing without i sue.) Instead, it appears quite likely that Hjelle will also open the season on the injured list. A two-week period without throwing will conclude with just over a week to go until Opening Day. Even if Hjelle were able to immediate pitch in games which seems unlikely its hard to imagine him ramping up to the point where he could be a viable rotation option. At the moment, the Giants rotation consists of , top prospect , reliever-turned-starter and the aforementioned Winn. A competition for the fifth spot could include trade acquisition , prospect (already on the 40-man roster) and perhaps in-house nonroster pitchers like and . It was a perilously thin group even when all of Winn, Beck and Hjelle looked healthy. The Giants have been banking on this mix to carry them into the middle portion of the season. will open on the injured list while rehabbing from October hip surgery but could be back within the first couple months of the season. Trade acquisition is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and will be out until the final third of the season or so. Injuries to Beck and to Hjelle have only further called into question whether such an unproven group can steady the course until the Giants more veteran reinforcements arrive. The Giants have been active in free agency late in the offseason, with signings of Chapman and both completed after the beginning of spring training. Even with that pair of additions plus their earlier pickups of Hicks and center fielder reigning Cy Young winner is . Fellow southpaw is also still on the market, as are lower-tier arms like , , and others. San Francisco currently projects for a payroll just under $182MM, . Their projected luxury tax ledger currently sits at $231MM just $6MM or so shy of the first threshold. Signing Snell or Montgomery will a suredly put the team over that line, and Snell would require further forfeitures in the amateur draft and international free agency. The Giants already punted their second-highest pick and $500K of next years international bonus pool space to sign Chapman; Snell would require surrendering their third-round pick and an additional $500K of international spending capacity. Both players would also result in the Giants paying a 20% tax for the first $20MM by which the luxury barrier is exceeded, plus a 32% tax on the next $20MM. Its po sible that even Lorenzen or Clevinger could push the Giants into tax territory, although there are other moves that could be made to counteract that. The signing of Chapman, for instance, could make and his $6.9MM salary more expendable. If the Giants were able to move Davis and some/all of that salary, they could create as much as $13MM in breathing room between themselves and the $237MM tax line. Cody Morris Jersey