ARLINGTON, Texas — Blade Tidwell has changed up his look more often than a bank robber this season.He reported to spring training with his long, sandy brown hair tied in a top knot “Game of Thrones” style. By the time the season began, he’d cut it short and styled it like a prep school student. When he returned to the San Francisco Giants on Monday, along with a wave of call-ups from Triple-A Sacramento who filled out a roster gutted by the trade deadline, he looked ready for basic training.The mood struck him last week to shave it all off. So Tidwell stood in the bathtub of his room at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Tacoma, Wash., handed the buzzing clippers to right-hander Carson Seymour, and let him go to work.“Easier to stay cool,” Tidwell said.Who won and lost the MLB trade deadline?Andy McCullough and Johnny SweetWhen Tidwell took the mound Tuesday night, it was apparent that the changes weren’t just aesthetic. He endured a jittery, two-run first inning but settled down after that, putting up four zeroes and retiring 14 of the last 17 Texas Rangers batters he faced at Globe Life Field. He used six pitches, if you count the show-me curveball that isn’t a serious offering yet. The biggest reveal: A changeup that he’d committed to throwing instead of his splitter. And he still had the sweeping slider that gets so many whiffs that it’s easy to envision Tidwell becoming a dominant closer in the mold of Robb Nen.Tidwell’s beefy, heaving presence on the mound screams future closer, too. Top knot or otherwise.But that’s not the career path the Giants are grooming him for. When they sent him back to Triple-A Sacramento after making eight relief appearances in April, Tidwell went directly into the River Cats’ rotation. Over the months that followed, when the Giants struggled to establish a late-inning hierarchy, they resisted the urge to reincorporate Tidwell into the bullpen mix.Part of their thinking: They didn’t have much rotation coverage in the upper minors. Another part: They recognized that Tidwell can hold his velocity. That’s a valuable attribute for a starting pitcher, and it’s more often innate than trained or learned.It helped that Tidwell’s college coach is now the Giants’ manager. Tony Vitello has had plenty of input in the process. And some unique insights into the person, too.“Blade is a little bit of a Skittle,” Vitello said. “He’s rough on the exterior but a little softer than people realize on the inside. He’s got a big heart, and I think he’s got strong relationships with everybody that’s been involved with his career, and I think it helps that we know him because there’s more there … and I really do feel pressure (as a coaching staff) to bring it out.”Tidwell arrived last year in a trade-deadline deal with the New York Mets, and it didn’t take long for Giants officials to look past his hulking physique and notice his intelligence on the mound. Sometimes, they observed, his biggest issue was overthinking the next pitch. Tidwell studies scouting reports like he’s cramming for the LSAT, and he actively seeks out every resource he can to help with weight training and recovery.Applying oneself is no guarantee of success. When you’ve got talent to start with, though, the two are often a winning combination.Tidwell was topping out at 99 mph with Sacramento, and although his overall velocity was down on Tuesday (he averaged 94.7 mph), he was still approaching 96 mph on his 100th pitch of the night.“I thought he settled in and he pitched really well,” Vitello said. “The true bulldog comes out of him when he’s got three outs to go get as opposed to a runway of maybe 100 pitches. To me, it was a good mix as the game went on. He looked like he was attacking and he had his intensity, but he was also pitching really well.”If Tidwell showed something positive in his start Tuesday, then Carson Whisenhunt went the other way in Wednesday’s 6-0 loss in the series finale.Whisenhunt started fast and struck out four in his first turn through the Rangers lineup, but he issued three walks and paid for some location mistakes over the plate while failing to make it out of the fourth inning. Whisenhunt has shown flashes, but consistency has been an issue since he took Trevor McDonald’s place in the rotation. He’s allowed 14 earned runs in 11 2/3 innings over his last three starts.“Just not doing what I need to do when I go out there right now,” Whisenhunt said. “I was throwing pretty well in (Sacramento), and it’s not translating right now. We’ll figure it out at some point, hopefully.”The good news for Whisenhunt is that the opportunities should keep coming. Landen Roupp and Logan Webb are the only mainstays left in the Giants’ rotation, and there will be a compelling reason to throttle their innings at some point down the stretch. (Roupp has already surpassed his previous season high.) The Giants are likely to get creative with the final rotation spot, starting with Friday’s homestand opener against the Detroit Tigers. They could use an opener in front of right-hander Adrian Houser.Seymour, who also toggled between starter and reliever over the past two years, is likely to stay in a long-relief role. He reached 98 mph on Wednesday, but he also got taken deep by Brandon Nimmo — the 11th home run he’s surrendered in 43 major-league innings.The Giants won Monday’s series opener in Texas behind Webb’s six shutout innings and Jung Hoo Lee’s two home runs, but by Wednesday the team had logged another series loss. Lee’s defense in right field cost them in a spirited 5-4 defeat Tuesday that included game-tying two-run rallies in the seventh and ninth innings. Whisenhunt’s struggles and 11 stranded runners doomed them on Wednesday.The difference between winning and losing a series seemed so narrow for most of the season, and maybe that was the case against the Rangers as well. But the Giants have turned the page now. They are making lineup and pitching decisions based on development, not to maximize matchups. (Not that they were ever particularly successful at the latter this season.)So, it didn’t matter so much that the Giants rolled out a lineup Wednesday that included three left-handed hitters in the top four slots against a left-handed pitcher, Cody Bradford, who was making his first start since 2024 and was operating on a 60-pitch limit. It mattered more to the Giants to try something new by installing Bryce Eldridge in the leadoff spot.So far, Eldridge’s on-base skills have been slump-proof. He has reached base in 56 of 61 games dating to May 23.Luis Arraez is in Philadelphia; the lineup drops off after the cleanup spot; and the Giants would like to avoid stacking lefties early in the order. Their best chance to score is for that cluster at the top of the lineup to string together walks and hits, so Eldridge will get an opportunity to be Kyle Schwarber in training.Eddys Leonard, who joined the Giants on a minor-league contract two weeks ago, celebrated his first big-league hit Wednesday. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)Eldridge went 1-for-5, and the only highlight in a dull game Wednesday was Eddys Leonard lining a double over the head of Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford and grinning ear to ear as he ran all the way to second base with his first major-league hit. He pointed to his wife, Bidalyn, and parents Eddys and Zunilda, who had flown in from the Dominican Republic but missed his debut Tuesday because a missed connection in Newark, N.J., forced them to spend the night there.Nobody wants to experience the headache of a missed connection. After eight minor-league seasons waiting for this moment, though, it was all worth it.“I’m gonna give (the ball) to my mom and my dad,” said Leonard, who joined the Giants on a minor-league contract two weeks ago after opting out of his Triple-A deal with the Milwaukee Brewers. “They deserve it. (All) of this couldn’t be possible without them, because all the things that they do when I was a little kid. And this moment, I can’t even describe how grateful I am for God and my mom and my dad.”There are bound to be more games like Wednesday’s clunker. That’s to be expected when the Giants will be operating at a significant talent deficit. These last two months won’t be a fair test of Vitello’s managerial acumen. It’ll be up to him to keep the group motivated and competing with high effort, though. How difficult will that be with so many untested minor leaguers?“They’re here, so they’re major leaguers,” Vitello said. “Completely understand your question, but they’re here. They’re in that locker room, and we’ve got the organization to represent. So, ‘find a way’ is the only answer to that. And certainly, all those guys are capable of doing (it). … If you can achieve, you can do it, then you can do it again. It might be a great challenge. That’s why we’re all here.”