PHOENIX — The Giants are already missing their starting third baseman. For roughly the next week, they’ll be without their backup.

The team announced on Monday afternoon that they placed infielder Casey Schmitt on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 27) with left hand inflammation. In a corresponding move, the Giants recalled infielder Tyler Fitzgerald from Triple-A Sacramento a week after optioning him.

“It’s unfortunate, but you go through these type of things,” said manager Bob Melvin. “We lost our other third baseman earlier, too. It’s just part of the process over the course of a long season. You give somebody else an opportunity, and a guy like Christian Koss has been doing a good job over there.”

Melvin said it’s possible that Schmitt spends the minimum amount of time on the injured list before returning.

Schmitt, 26, sustained the injury when he was plunked in the left hand/wrist area by a 95.2 mph sinker from the Miami Marlins’ Calvin Faucher. The third baseman was placed in the starting lineups on Saturday and Sunday against the Chicago White Sox but was scratched both days. His MRI on Monday came back clean but there was still bruising in the area.

“He wanted to be in there. We felt like he was making enough progress to be in there,” Melvin said of Schmitt being scratched. “That’s probably my fault for putting him in there a little prematurely. The last couple of days, it’s basically been the same for him.”

The timing of Schmitt’s injury is especially unfortunate for the infielder given how well he was playing.

In 14 games as Chapman’s replacement, Schmitt had a slash line of .375/.444/.646 with four home runs and 12 RBIs while playing above-average defense at third base. Given his performance, Schmitt positioned himself to take over as San Francisco’s starting second baseman once Chapman returned from injury.

Koss will continue starting at third base for the time being with Chapman and Schmitt both out. In four games as San Francisco’s temporary starting third baseman, Koss is 8-for-15 with three runs scored.

With Schmitt hitting the injured list, Fitzgerald returns to San Francisco from Sacramento earlier than expected.

The Giants optioned Fitzgerald, their Opening Day second baseman, to Triple-A last Monday, the goal being for him to mentally reset. Upon returning from the injured list in mid-May, Fitzgerald hit .186/.245/.227 with no home runs and three RBIs over 32 games.

“I wasn’t surprised,” Fitzgerald said of being optioned. “I felt that maybe it might come eventually. I wasn’t playing how I should be playing. I can’t blame anyone for it. But it was a good little reset for the few games I did get in and we’ll try to go from there.”

Fitzgerald only ended up playing four games with the River Cats, going 4 for 15 before he was also hit in the left hand by an errant pitch on Friday. The plunking kept Fitzgerald out of Sacramento’s lineup on Saturday and Sunday but he started at second base and batted seventh for San Francisco on Monday night against Arizona.

“Watching Schmitty get hit in the hand, I kind of prepared myself to get the call at any day,” Fitzgerald said. “Only getting (four) games down there is a little unfortunate, but I think mentally, I’m a little bit more refreshed and ready to go.”

Injury updates

Chapman took another important step toward returning from his right hand injury by taking batting practice at Chase Field prior to Monday’s game.

Melvin said the Giants are hopeful that Chapman will be able to return during the team’s six-game home stand prior to the All-Star Break against the Philadelphia Phillies (July 7-9) and Los Angeles Dodgers (July 11-13).

“We’ll see how it goes,” Melvin said. “Took BP in the cage, has to take BP on the field. We got to give him some kind of live at-bats and so forth, but it’s headed in the direction that we think it’s going to.”

Chapman, 32, has not played since June 8 after injuring his right hand when sliding back to first base. Over 65 games, Chapman is hitting .243 with 12 home runs, 30 RBIs and an .812 OPS.

Along with Chapman, infielder/outfielder Jerar Encarnacion started his throwing program today and will initiate his hitting progression today.

Encarnacion missed the first two months of the season after suffering a left hand fracture towards the end of spring training, then sustained a left oblique strain in mid-June. In his little time with the team this year, Encarnacion has gone 3-for-22 with six strikeouts over eight games.

Whisenhunt selected to Futures Game

Carson Whisenhunt, the Giants’ top pitching prospect, will likely make his major-league debut sometime later this year. Before that call arrives, he’ll represent the organization alongside the game’s best young talent.

Whisenhunt will head to Atlanta in July as San Francisco’s lone representative for the 2025 Futures Game, the annual exhibition game during the All-Star Break that features some of baseball’s best prospects.

First baseman Bryce Eldridge, the organization’s top prospect, would have been another appropriate selection, but the 20-year-old is currently rehabbing a moderate right hamstring strain. Prior to the injury, Eldridge was hitting .263/.329/.484 with 10 homers and 33 RBIs over 50 games between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento.

Overall, the 24-year-old Whisenhunt has a 4.55 ERA with 79 strikeouts over 16 starts in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. For Whisenhunt, it’s been something of a tale of two seasons up to this point.

Whisenhunt posted a 3.00 ERA over his first nine starts with 52 strikeouts over 51 innings, winning PCL Pitcher of the Week on two occasions. The 2022 second-rounder began the month of May by pitching seven innings in four consecutive starts, allowing four runs over 28 innings (1.29 ERA).

Over his last seven starts, by contrast, Whisenhunt has allowed 28 runs over 38 innings (6.63 ERA) and only pitched at least six innings on one occasion. During this recent stretch, Whisenhunt has seen his strikeout rate drop and walk rate jump.

The Giants’ rotation depth is significantly weaker after Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks were sent to the Boston Red Sox as part of the Rafael Devers trade, and it wouldn’t be shocking if San Francisco called upon Whisenhunt to provide major-league innings this season.

Last week, right-hander Carson Seymour became the first member of the organization’s “Carson trio” (Seymour, Whisenhunt, Carson Ragsdale) to make it to the majors. Seymour worked around a pair of hits to pitch a scoreless inning in his debut on Sunday as the Giants dropped a series to the Chicago White Sox.