The Giants’ system is finally on its way back, buoyed by a big, successful international prospect class from 2018 and a couple of first-round picks in the last few years that all appear to be working out. They’ve supplemented a bit through trades, but deciding not to deal Madison Bumgarner at the 2019 deadline still feels like a lost opportunity.
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The Top 10
1. Joey Bart, C (Top 100 rank: No. 44)
From the Top 100: Bart’s full-season debut was marred by two broken bones, the first a fractured metacarpal in his non-throwing hand when he was hit by a pitch in April, the second a broken thumb on his throwing hand when he was hit by a pitch in October. That’s at least his third broken bone somewhere on one of his hands in the last three years, as his sophomore year at Georgia Tech ended prematurely due to another broken finger. Maybe he should back off the plate a little bit, because he’s a pretty good prospect when he gets on the field. Bart is a very good defensive catcher with power, a plus arm and a great reputation for working with pitchers. His swing works pretty well, although he can load a little deep, and he has enough history of striking out that his ability to hit for average is questionable. He’s got a very high floor because of his power and his catch-and-throw skills, while his chance to be more than just a solid regular depends largely on how much contact he makes as the pitching he faces gets better.
2. Heliot Ramos, OF (Top 100 rank: No. 52)
From the Top 100: Ramos was a top-100 prospect for me after his big 2017 debut summer, but he was overmatched in full-season ball the next year at age 18, and it seemed like he might be farther away from the majors than I originally thought. He bounced back to trounce Cal League pitching in 2019 after getting much stronger over the winter, making harder contact while also boosting his walk rate to over 9 percent. Ramos swings hard with big hip rotation, the kind of movement that will create some swing-and-miss while also leading to huge power. He’s a solid athlete, but the way his body is filling out eliminates any chance that he’s going to play center in the majors; he should be capable in right, though, and has the plus arm to play there. If he keeps refining his approach, he’ll unlock more power as he gets older, and he might be a classic No. 4 hitter with 30-plus homer power, some patience, and too many strikeouts to bat second.
3. Marco Luciano, OF (Top 100 rank: No. 58)
From the Top 100: Luciano received $2.6 million from the Giants in July of 2018, then debuted last summer in the Arizona Rookie League at age 17, where he finished third in the league in OBP at .438 and fifth in slugging at .616. He’s 6-foot-2 and lanky, with loose hands and a lot of room to fill out, but shows plus bat speed and already has the ability to drive the ball. He has good enough hands to stay at short and a plus arm, though his frame points to him potentially outgrowing the position. That isn’t a huge issue, since his bat looks like it will play anywhere on the diamond. Luciano’s season was exceptional for a 17-year-old, but he’s still raw as a hitter with some swing-and-miss in the zone. He’s a fringy runner, so if he moves off short it might be to a corner. His combination of patience and early power is unusual for someone his age, and he has such an exciting frame, and a swing that should continue to produce hard contact. He may not move quickly like Wander Franco or Vlad Guerrero, Jr., but Luciano should be the Giants’ first homegrown Latin American star since Pablo Sandoval.
4. Hunter Bishop, OF (Top 100 rank: No. 87)
From the Top 100: Bishop, whose older brother Braden debuted for the Mariners last year, was the 10th overall pick in the 2019 draft after a breakout spring for Arizona State that came after two disappointing seasons in Tempe. Bishop hit .342/.479/.748 for the Sun Devils in 2019, with 22 homers, posting very high exit velocities and drawing more walks in one spring than he had in the previous two combined. He continued to demonstrate patience and power in pro ball, while also showing his propensity to swing and miss a lot more with the wood bat. A center fielder everywhere he’s played so far, Bishop won’t stay there, profiling as a solid-average left fielder with a below-average arm. His swing is sound and produces enough hard contact to suggest he’s a 30-homer guy in the majors, but he’ll have to tighten up his pitch recognition to keep his strikeout rates manageable to reach that ceiling.
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5. Alexander Canario, OF
Canario got much stronger in the 2018-19 offseason, especially strengthening his lower half, unlocking a lot more power. He slugged .623 across two short-season levels, mostly the advanced Northwest League, which he led with nine homers despite playing just 49 games there. He has elite bat speed with a good swing, while in the field he has a plus arm and is in center now but probably moves to right.
6. Seth Corry, LHP
Corry finished 2019 with 172 strikeouts, ranking fourth in all of minor league baseball; he was the youngest pitcher in the top 25 in that category. His delivery had been tough to repeat when he first signed but the Giants have worked on making it smoother. It seemed to show up in the second half of 2019; Corry made 27 starts on the year, and in his last 13 he walked just 18 guys in 68 2/3 innings and posted a 1.18 ERA. His changeup has improved, although he’s still mostly working with his plus fastball and plus curveball; the progress here points to a fairly high ceiling as long as the command and control he showed in the second half holds up.
7. Sean Hjelle, RHP
Hjelle is 6-foot-11, and would at least tie Jon Rauch as the tallest players in major league history. (Both went to college in Kentucky.) Hjelle has seen his velocity creep up since the Giants took him in the second round in 2018, touching 97 last year and sitting 92-93, with good sink from a high release point and natural extension out front just as a result of his height. He doesn’t have a clear swing-and-miss pitch but throws all four offerings for strikes. He did struggle badly after an August promotion to Double A, throwing fewer strikes and giving up a lot of hard, line-drive contact, the one down note after a solid full-season debut. I think he’s a fourth starter in the end but his height is such an unusual advantage that he could turn into something more.
8. Luis Toribio, 3B
Toribio isn’t very toolsy, but he has an advanced feel to hit already at age 18, leading all complex league players with 45 walks. His timing is good, he isn’t afraid to go deep in the count, and he hits using the whole field, so while he doesn’t have huge power or electric bat speed, he already has the softer hitting skills that typically come with experience. He’s at third now, but may not stay there; he has a mature body without much projection, which also may help keep him from getting too big for the hot corner. With a short, clean swing and a great eye at the plate, he has a chance to turn into a solid regular in a corner spot.
9. Luis Matos, OF
Matos got a ton of attention this summer for hitting .362/.430/.570 in the DSL, ranking third in the league in batting average and fifth in slugging, and then going 7-for-16 in five games in the AZL right at the end of August. Matos looks right, with an athletic, projectable body, loose hands, and above-average speed. He’s in center now with enough arm strength for right. Signed out of Venezuela in 2018 for $725,000, Matos only turned 18 this January, so you can see why his performance has folks excited; we need to see him against better pitching now.
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10. Will Wilson, SS/2B
Acquired along with the dregs of Zack Cozart’s contract, Wilson was the Angels’ first-round pick last June, a power-hitting middle infielder from North Carolina State who has plus bat speed but a slightly grooved swing that may lead to more swing and miss. His pro debut was underwhelming, and he definitely needs to go to High A and show a better contact rate this year. He’s a shortstop now but better than 50/50 to end up at second base, where his power would still be enough for him to profile as a regular.
The next 10
11. Mauricio Dubón, 2B/SS
Dubón became the first native Honduran player to reach the majors when he debuted in 2019, and was traded to San Francisco shortly thereafter, but sources tell me those two things are not connected. He’s a quality utility infielder right now with an outside shot to end up a regular at second base because he makes so much contact and plays solid defense there; at shortstop he’s more of an emergency glove.
12. Logan Webb, RHP
I’m not sure if it was the Happy Fun Ball, but Webb posted groundball rates over 60 percent at every stop in the minors (including Triple A), but was down to 48 percent in the majors and paid for it with hard contact. He’s normally a sinker/slider guy with a fringy changeup, although in the majors it was right-handed hitters who clobbered him. He seems like a solid fifth starter if he starts sinking the ball again, but not more unless his changeup improves.
13. Jake Wong, RHP
Wong is a three-pitch righty from Grand Canyon University who throws strikes but doesn’t miss bats even with a fastball that can regularly see the mid-90s. He might be a back-end starter, but between his modest strikeout rates and flyball tendencies he has an equal chance of ending up a reliever.
14. Tristan Beck, RHP
Beck came over from Atlanta in the Mark Melancon trade, and thanks to a delivery tweak he’d started to implement before the trade he was much more effective afterwards. He works in the low-90s with an above-average curveball; his changeup, once his best secondary pitch, is now clearly third for him, and he’s said he lost his feel for it during the season. Beck has had a lot of injury trouble, including a stress fracture in his back that wiped out his junior year at Stanford and an oblique injury that took him out for two months in 2019, but none of the injuries have been to his arm so far. If he can handle the workload, he has fourth starter upside.
15. Jairo Pomares, OF
Pomares signed for $975,000 in 2018 after he defected from Cuba, and he’s a bet on the hit tool as his other tools are just fair. He has a good swing and doubles power, but doesn’t really project to big home run power even as he fills out. He can play center in a pinch because his routes are good, but he’s going to end up in a corner long term. He raked in the AZL last summer then was overmatched in a brief stint in the Northwest League, where I assume he’ll head this year. He’ll go as high as the hit tool takes him.
16. Kai-Wei Teng, RHP
Acquired along with Jaylin Davis in the trade that sent Sam Dyson to the Twins, Teng is a big-bodied right-hander with an average fastball/changeup combo, feel to spin a curveball, and above-average control, probably a fifth starter because of the lack of velocity or arm speed.
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17. Logan Wyatt, 1B
Wyatt has a good eye at the plate and plays above-average defense at first yet, despite a big frame, doesn’t hit for power because his swing plane is too flat. He’s the perfect candidate for the kind of launch angle optimization many teams try to do with players now, since he has the patience and strength needed for such a transformation to work.
18. Ricardo Genoves, C
Genoves is a great catch-and-throw guy who can put the ball in play but doesn’t project to any impact with the bat; there’s solid backup catcher potential if he can keep his contact rate up.
19. Grant McCray, OF
McCray, their third-round pick last year, had an interesting debut, hitting .270/.379/.335 in the AZL with 17 steals in 30 attempts (57 percent, not great, Grant). He’s a very good athlete who’s raw at the baseball stuff, with plus range in center and plus speed, and a swing that needs work but did improve a little as the season went on. He might not project to power but in a best-case scenario he could end up a regular in center with plus defense, solid OBPs, and some value on the bases.
20. Blake Rivera, RHP
The Giants’ fourth-round pick in 2018 out of junior college, Rivera is a fastball/curveball guy with an adequate changeup and below-average control, still working as a starter but destined for relief.
Others of note
Right-hander Gregory Santos would have made the list had he been healthy — maybe in the top 10 — but he was on the shelf twice last season for a total of three and a half months due to a shoulder strain, ending the season on the injured list. Acquired in the Eduardo Núñez trade, Santos has a mid-90s fastball and power slider when healthy. … Signed to an over-slot bonus in the 11th round, right-hander Trevor McDonald was up to 95 regularly as an amateur with an average breaking ball, with some violence in his delivery that may push him to the bullpen. … Right-hander Melvin Adon still throws very hard, with limited success finding the plate; he’s still a prospect of sorts, because the velocity is there, but there isn’t enough of anything else to project him to a major-league role yet.
2020 impact
Dubón and Webb should be on the major-league roster, albeit perhaps not in impact roles. Bart will probably debut later this year.
The fallen
Their third-round pick in 2016, outfielder Heath Quinn finally got his shot at Double A last year after two years in High A, and was so bad that after an injury and rehab the Giants just demoted him to High A for the remainder of 2018.
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Sleeper
Matos is the obvious choice here; I don’t like to read much into DSL stats, given the wildly inconsistent level of competition there — more so now that the VSL is gone and the DSL has almost doubled in size — but the tools and swing all seem to line up as well, pointing to him as someone who might become a top 100 prospect next winter.
(Photo of Heliot Ramos: Ron Vesely / Getty Images)
