Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the San Francisco Giants. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Contact-Oriented Sleepers
Carlos Gutierrez, LF
Charlie Szykowny, 3B
Lisbel Diaz, RF
Gutierrez is a 19-year-old outfielder signed out of Mexico who struck out in merely 6.7% of his 2023 DSL at-bats. He’s a little bit undersized and has to get stronger, but he’s lanky and sinewy and just might. Szykowny was San Francisco’s 2023 ninth rounder out of UIC. He’s a physical, lefty-hitting SS/3B who is still on the complex for extended spring training even though he hit well last summer at Papago. Diaz could have lived in either of the Honorable Mention hitter groups we have here, as both his measurable power and contact from last year’s DSL looks pretty special on a spreadsheet. In Scottsdale, he’s shown a kind of mature frame and an odd swing. It’s still early for these complex-level hitters, and it’s unsurprising that they’re slow out of the gate given how few games the Giants are playing in extended. More on that in the System Overview.
Power-Driven Profiles
Vaun Brown, LF
Jairo Pomares, RF
Dario Reynoso, SS/3B
Quinn McDaniel, 2B/OF
Guillermo Williamson, 1B
Brown had a breakout a couple of years ago and posted some of the most explosive number in all the minors in 2022. Last year, admittedly amid injury, he posted a sub-60% contact rate at a more age-appropriate level. If he were more comfortable in center field, there might be more room for this little contact. Pomares, a once-prominent Cuban signee, has similar issues and has also dealt with persistent injury. Reynoso had a huge 2023 DSL and is part of the 2024 extended spring group, but he’s had more of a defense-first look so far in Arizona and isn’t tracking pitches especially well. McDaniel was a 2023 Draft Combine standout who plays a mix of positions and swings hard, but he’s struck out quite a bit at the lowest levels. Williamson arguably had the most power of any Giants complex-level hitter last year, but he’s swinging and missing at an untenable rate for a first baseman.
Guys With Good Breaking Balls or Dev Sleepers
Carson Seymour, RHP
Eric Silva, RHP
Carson Ragsdale, RHP
Julio Rodriguez, RHP
Christian Avendano, RHP
Seymour, who came from the Mets in the Darin Ruf 러프 trade, is a hulking 6-foot-6, 260 pounds righty currently at Sacramento. Stuff-assessing metrics love Seymour’s slider, but it’s never performed like a monster pitch and is instead part of an average four-pitch depth starter mix. Silva was an undersized, athletic SoCal high school draftee who looked for a minute like a Sonny Gray starter kit. He struggled to throw strikes last year and has moved to the bullpen. Ragsdale has been 92-97 mph and peaked harder at times, but he’s struggled to sustain that and has also transitioned to the bullpen amid some injuries. Rodriguez has a plus-plus curveball. Avendano was originally an outfielder in the Cardinals system but is attempting a Reverse David Peralta as a pitcher. The 20-year-old touched 97 last season.
More Injured Pitching
Ethan Small, LHP
R.J. Dabovich, RHP
Gerelmi Maldonado, RHP
Small was once a 45 FV prospect when he looked like a starter with a stable riding fastball and plus changeup. Injuries and command regression have caused him to change orgs and shift to relief. He is currently out with an oblique strain. Dabovich is still throwing hard when healthy (regularly up to 97) and has a big breaking ball, but he hasn’t thrown strikes at a reasonable rate for a couple of years now and is currently out with an elbow strain. Maldonado was one of the hard-throwing young complex guys of two summers ago; he’s currently out rehabbing from Tommy John.
Scrappy Bottom of the Roster Guys
Jonah Cox, CF
Brett Auerbach, 3B/C
Ismael Munguia, OF
Any of these guys could feasibly be a scrappy bench player. Cox, who came over from Oakland for Ross Stripling, was a good college player at Oral Roberts who went on a tear toward the end of last season. Auerbach has stopped hitting for the power he showed early in his pro career and barely catches anymore. For a minute, it looked like he could play a Robert Fick type of role. Munguia is a spark plug little outfielder who plays his ass off and makes a lot of contact.
System Overview
This system has 20,000 leagues of depth but is light up top. Some of the top prospects from recent list cycles have graduated (Patrick Bailey), including some who have struggled to find their footing in the big leagues (Luis Matos). Most of the depth here comes via middle-of-the-roster pitching. They’re pitchers you need to have around to survive a whole big league season, the sorts of arms you hate to have to go outside the org to acquire when you’ve suffered a rash of injuries. While few of these guys look like impact arms right now, the sheer number of interesting arrow-up hurlers here gives the Giants many opportunities to develop the next Keaton Winn, who really popped coming out of his TJ rehab.
A lot of the pitchers here are of the lower release height variety, many of whom represent an extreme example of this. Some low release height guys get there by virtue of their lower body and big stride down the mound; others just have a low arm slot. Most of the Giants prospects fall into the latter camp. Not all of them have panned out (the Wills Bednar and Kempner, the latter sitting 90 in extended spring training, are not on here), and the sheer number of injuries to pitchers in this org is staggering. So many are hurt at the moment that the Giant have had to cancel many of their extended spring games due to a lack of healthy pitching, partly because pitchers have needed to domino up the minors to replace all the injured guys you see on this list. The Complex League season is around the corner, and without the ability to roll innings, this issue is only likely to get worse.
How is Jung Hoo Lee doing? We stopped including foreign pros who are exempt from bonus pools on our prospect lists this year, so he isn’t here even though he’s technically a rookie. Lee has stabilized center field on defense and has been one of the tougher players to make swing and miss across baseball so far. How is he handling velocity? So far, he’s hitting .156 against the 94-plus mph fastballs he’s seen this year. Still, if you watch the Giants, you’ll see him moving the bat all over the zone and spoiling tough pitches. It’s only been about a month and, like a lot of players adjusting to big league stuff, over time he should start squaring those pitches up rather than just spoiling them. He looks like a build-around player and carries himself like a good-natured big leaguer.
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We’d also like to take the opportunity to introduce Travis Ice, who will be joining FanGraphs as a prospect contributor. Travis was a junior college and Division II second baseman. After college, he served as an assistant coach at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (a junior college in Miami, OK), then worked as an MLB video scout at Baseball Info Solutions before being hired as an Angels minor league video coordinator. He was a member of the Angels pro scouting department from 2014-2020 and has spent the last few years doing freelance scouting work for area scouts in the midwest, while also maintaining his own blog focused on player evaluation. Travis is a big believer in blending modern data and technology with “traditional” scouting. His time as a FanGraphs community member predates his scouting career, and he’s extremely excited to have the opportunity to contribute to all things prospect related at the site moving forward.
