SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Beginning a few bullpen sessions ago, every time Tristan Beck would throw, his right hand would go cold. He would begin to lose feeling. Numbness would eventually set in.
The 27-year-old right-hander brought these symptoms to the Giants’ medical staff, who recommended he visit a specialist. After being scratched from his first scheduled start of the spring Monday, Beck flew back to San Francisco, where vascular specialists at Stanford diagnosed him with an aneurysm in his upper arm.
The outlook for Beck is unclear as he weighs treatment options, which manager Bob Melvin declined to discuss, though he ruled him out for Opening Day and said he would not pitch again for some time. Of more immediate concern was for his well-being than who might backfill his place in the starting rotation.
“We just want to make sure we get it taken care of and he moves on from there,” Melvin said. “It’s obviously not ideal.”
The condition, in which a blood vessel expands or bulges and can eventually rupture, is a fairly novel one within the game, where tendons and ligaments are usually of more concern. A 40-year veteran of the sport, Melvin said he could not remember the ailment presenting in any other player.
“I think we got on it pretty quickly,” Melvin said.
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Turning his focus to the field, the Giants’ new manager is now staring down a gaping hole in his rotation, which had already sprung a leak with Keaton Winn’s recurring elbow issues. Beck was slotted in to be their fifth starter, behind Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Winn.
Sean Hjelle, Mason Black, Daulton Jefferies and Spencer Howard — arguably the top four potential fill-ins — have yet to record a clean outing among them, with Howard tagged for two homers and Hjelle for three runs on four hits in Wednesday’s exhibition loss to the A’s.
That said, Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomgery remain available on the free-agent market.
You don’t have to remind Melvin.
“You think?” he responded when asked if either could help.
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