Minor League roundup, May 15: The 2022 draft picks shine in Sacramento (2024)

The Arizona Complex League squad was not in action on Wednesday night, but the San Francisco Giants quartet of Minor League Baseball A-Ball affiliates all were. Let’s jump straight into the action.

Link to the 2024 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions are the positions played in that game.

News

A few small pieces of news. AA Richmond outfielder Vaun Brown (No. 17 CPL) was activated from the 7-Day IL. Brown has really struggled with both injuries and performance this year and last, so let’s hope he can get back on track on both fronts.

The Giants signed infielder Brady Whalen (80-grade name) to a Minor League contract and assigned him to AAA Sacramento. The Giants signed Whalen to a Minor League contract before the 2023 season, and he posted a .737 OPS and 99 wRC+ with AA Richmond. Now he’s back, providing much-needed depth to a AAA squad that has sent half its position players to San Francisco.

AAA Sacramento (24-17)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Oklahoma City Baseball Club (Dodgers) 4-1
Box score

At both the Major League level and in AAA on Wednesday, the Giants beat the Dodgers 4-1. Hell yeah. Beat LA!

This wasn’t the most exciting game, but there were certainly a few notable performances. Let’s start with the pitching, where the River Cats turned to arguably their 2 most exciting pitching prospects. Getting the start was LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 4 CPL), who had one of his better starts in his debut AAA season.

Whisenhunt’s day started poorly, as he gave up a home run to the very first batter he faced. And then he hit the reset button and was absolutely dominant the rest of the way, finishing with 5 innings pitched and just 4 hits, 1 walk, and the 1 run allowed, while striking out 6 batters.

That’s impressive enough as is, but it’s made all the more meaningful because it came against an OKC team that has a fair number of MLB players on it, including Jason Heyward and Miguel Rojas.

Strikeouts have never been a concern for Whisenhunt, but throwing strikes has been lately. On Wednesday that changed, with the 2022 2nd-round pick throwing 53 of his 74 pitches for strikes. I suspect that’s exactly the type of progress and improvement the Giants are hoping to see out of Whiz, who did an excellent job bouncing back from one of the worst starts of his career.

Following Whisenhunt was the player the Giants drafted 1 round ahead of him, LHP Reggie Crawford (No. 8 CPL), who was making his AAA debut. Crawford’s recent promotion was perhaps a little bit surprising, but it was in line with how aggressive the Giants have been with him.

The powerful southpaw, who I think quite easily has the best fastball in the system now that Kyle Harrison has graduated, has advanced through the system at a comical rate, if we’re talking about actual playing time rather than calendar months. He skipped the Complex League (as a pitcher), threw just 11 innings in Low-A, a mere 8 in High-A, and all of 9.2 in AA before heading to Sacramento. As a result, he’s knocking on the doorstep of the Majors despite having thrown fewer innings in his Minor League, Summer League, and NCAA careers, combined, than Harrison, Logan Webb, and Jordan Hicks have each thrown this year.

His debut went well. He still had the struggles that have been apparent in his very young career, as he walked a batter and hit a batter as well — he now has 6 walks and 5 hit batters in just 10.2 innings this year. But he once again looked unhittable, allowing neither a hit nor a run in his inning of work — he’s given up just 5 hits in those 10.2 innings.

It was the first time in his professional career that Crawford didn’t register a strikeout, but that was more due to a lack of opportunity than anything. After walking Vargas, Crawford’s quick action and a delightful throw by catcher Drew Cavanaugh nabbed the runner at second. And then, after issuing a walk to Andre Lipcius, Crawford got former Giant Kevin Padlo to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Crawford’s development is one of the more fascinating stories on the farm. The Giants began the year by dropping the offense from his two-way status, and then they quickly moved him into a pure relief role. He’s never made traditional starts, as the Giants have been very careful with his surgically-repaired arm (and many other minor injuries), but he initially was working as an opener on a starter’s schedule, pitching every 5-6 days. Now he’s switched to something closer to a true relief role, coming into the middle of games and pitching every 4 days.

The Giants are fairly coy as to what the long-term plan is. To me it feels like they’re taking the Garrett Crochet approach, valuing his arm so much that they want to fast-track it to the Majors to get value from it as quickly as possible, and then can work backwards and build him back up as a starter if they choose.

I still believe Crawford will end up as a starter, though I understand why others disagree. And I’ll continue to dream about a lefty with a high-90s fastball/slider combo mowing down batters for 6-7 innings. But until that hypothetical day comes, it sure looks like Crawford is morphing into an utterly dynamic reliever.

The Giants bullpen has been bad this year. Can you imagine the potential to end the season with a closing trio of Crawford, Ryan Walker, and Camilo Doval?

As for the rest of the pitching, LHP Juan Sánchez (No. 36 CPL) continues to cool off after his brilliant start to the year. He didn’t add to his ERA, thanks to his teammates, but he simply couldn’t find the strike zone. Sánchez faced 4 batters and struck out 1 of them ... but walked the other 3, throwing just 6 strikes out of 19 pitches.

Sánchez did a brilliant job limiting free passes at the start of the season: through his first 9 games and 13.2 innings, Sánchez allowed just 4 hits and 0 hit batters to go along with just 1 earned run. But in just 5 games and 4.2 innings since, he’s walked 12 batters and hit 2 more, while ceding 7 earned runs. I remain quite high on Sánchez who, it should be noted, is still just 23. But we’ve probably reached the point where Crawford has passed Sánchez on the LHP relief depth chart.

Bailing Sánchez out and closing the game was RHP Spencer Bivens, who inherited a bases-loaded, 1-out situation in the 8th inning, and immediately got an inning-ending double play, then set down the side in order in the 9th inning, striking out 2. Is there a term for when you record more outs than batters you faced? Because there should be!

Bivens, who has a 3.41 ERA and a 4.80 FIP, has been completely lights out lately: in his last 4 appearances, Bivens has pitched 7.1 innings and allowed just 1 baserunner ... on an intentional walk! He’s also struck out 8 during that time. Gotta think he’s next on the list of call-ups if the Giants need a Daulton Jefferies-esque non-prospect promotion.

The hitting was mild, but there were a pair of highlights. Most important was that designated hitter Jorge Soler began a rehab assignment. Soler hit 0-4 with a strikeout, but we all know better than to read much into mediocre games by established MLB players in rehab assignments. Just good to see him out there ... Soler is expected to play again tonight (the Giants have an off day), and then return to the team on Friday.

The other highlight came from left fielder Hunter Bishop, playing in his 2nd AAA game after being an emergency promotion of sorts. Bishop hit 2-4 and knocked in 3 of the team’s runs ... including 2 on his 1st AAA home run.

Bishop’s dinger didn’t really have the stats you would expect: it left the bat at just 77 mph, and traveled a mere 254 feet. You can do the math here and figure out what that means ... an inside-the-park home run!!

Inside-the-parkers might seem like “cheap” ways to pad a home run stat, but if you’ve watched the Giants over the last decade or so, you’re probably just as interested, if not more interested, in putting players on the team that fly around the bases than those who can put the ball over the fence.

Other emergency call-ups keep making the most of their opportunity, too. Second baseman Brett Auerbach was 2-3 (though he also was caught stealing), and is 4-11 with just 2 strikeouts since getting moved to Sacramento. Cavanaugh supplemented his fine defensive play by hitting 1-3, and is now 7-16 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts in his first stint above Low-A. Gotta love it!

AA Richmond (13-21)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Reading Fightin Phils (Phillies) 6-4
Box score

Richmond’s offense has been nonexistent lately, and they finally found some on Wednesday ... courtesy of the back of the lineup, which admittedly had their former leadoff hitter moved into it.

The first 4 batters — left fielder Carter Howell, right fielder Victor Bericoto (No. 19 CPL), designated hitter Jairo Pomares (No. 29 CPL), and shortstop Will Wilson combined to hit just 1-16 with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts (Wilson provided the hit, a single, and Howell the walk). But the back 5 hitters went 8-19 with 1 walk and just 1 strikeout.

The most promising outing belonged to center fielder Grant McCray (No. 12 CPL), moved down in the order after struggling in his first AA assignment. McCray hit 2-4 in the game, with both of his hits being doubles. Perhaps just as importantly, the lefty — who has a 35.0% strikeout rate — didn’t strike out. It was just his 4th time in 28 games this year that he avoided a strikeout.

It was expected that McCray would struggle with strikeouts, as that’s long been an issue. But the season has been bizarre nonetheless for him ... his batting average, which was .255 last year with High-A Eugene, is just .148 this season, in large part because of complete lack of singles. McCray has 16 hits this year, and a whopping 11 of them have gone for extra bases. There should be some consolation though in the fact that McCray got off to a similarly cold and bizarre start last year. Sometimes it just takes a little while to figure it out.

A trio of other batters reached base twice: second baseman Jimmy Glowenke (No. 39 CPL) hit 2-4 to raise his OPS to .671 and his wRC+ to 99; third baseman Luis Toribio hit 1-3 with a double and a walk (though he committed 2 errors), bringing his OPS to .571 and his wRC+ to 62; and catcher Adrián Sugastey (No. 25 CPL) hit 2-4 with a double and a strikeout, bumping his OPS up to .535 and his wRC+ to 49.

Needless to say, Richmond’s hitters are not having a great start to the season. But on the bright side, outfielder Vaun Brown (No. 17 CPL) returned after 2 injured weeks. Brown only briefly appeared as a pinch-runner, but still great to see him out there.

Not the most exciting pitching game. RHP Ryan Murphy limited damage, but wasn’t at his sharpest. He pitched 4 innings and gave up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 2 runs, but needed 75 pitches to get there ... and just 47 of those pitches were strikes. He did strike out 4 batters though, and now has a 2.81 ERA and a 3.74 FIP as he tries to earn a spot in Sacramento.

RHP Evan Gates continued his strong year, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings while allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk, with 1 strikeout. As he did last year in Richmond, Gates doesn’t have great strikeout-to-walk numbers: he has 21 Ks to 14 BBs in 19 innings. But unlike last year, Gates has been very hard to hit. A year after allowing 64 hits in 55.1 innings, Gates has ceded just 10 hits in those 19 innings.

High-A Eugene (19-15)

Eugene Emeralds lost to the Everett AquaSox (Mariners) 5-4
Box score

A quite uninteresting day in which the Emeralds struck out a staggering 20 times. 20 times!!!

A trio of hitters had a strikeout hat trick or worse, as third baseman Thomas Gavello hit 1-4 with 3 strikeouts and a stolen base, right fielder Rodolfo Nolasco hit 0-3 with 3 strikeouts, a walk, and a stolen base, and second baseman Quinn McDaniel, who hit 0-4 with 4 strikeouts, and somehow compounded it by reaching base on a hit by pitch, only to promptly get thrown out trying to steal 2nd. Ouch.

But the struggles were ignored by first baseman Andrew Kachel, who had a fantastic game. He did contribute to the strikeout woes with 2 of his own, and he did get caught stealing, but he also hit 3-5 with a home run.

The lefty, who was drafted in the 16th round of the 2022 draft, is off to a terrific start to the year, after getting a brief taste of Eugene to end last season. He’s rocking an .845 OPS and a 155 wRC+, with good contact (.275 average), playable power (.150 ISO), and fantastic patience (17.0% walk rate). A few more home runs would be nice though, so very good to see him bop one over the fence.

Also a good day for center fielder Alexander Suarez, who has had quite a slow start to the year. But he hit 2-4 with a double in this game, albeit with 2 strikeouts, and is now sitting on a .544 OPS and a 57 wRC+. Suarez has a lot of skills, but also hasn’t hit anywhere near league average since sporting a 130 wRC+ in the Complex League back in 2021. He got promoted despite hitting poorly in his repeat year in Low-A, so there’s a fair amount of pressure for him to finally start producing.

The pitching was also uninteresting, with LHP Seth Lonsway and RHP Cameron Cotter having rough outings, as they’re starting to trend downwards following good starts to the year. The one good performance came from RHP Nick Morreale, who pitched 2.1 no-hit innings, allowing just a hit batter and 2 walks while striking out 4. Morreale has a 3.00 ERA and 3.03 FIP on the year, which is great, but given that it’s 4th season in High-A, it’s hard to get too excited about that.

But there was one thing worth celebrating: a triple play!!!

Low-A San Jose (17-17)

San Jose Giants beat the Modesto Nuts (Mariners) 16-5
Box score

Well, that was one hell of an offensive performance. The Baby Giants had 11 hits, 9 walks, were hit 6 times, and benefitted from 3 Modesto errors. That’s a nice formula for scoring 16 runs! And all 9 of their position players safely reached base at least twice.

We could highlight pretty much everyone, but let’s try and keep it short. Let’s begin with the biggest name in San Jose, first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 3 CPL). Eldridge wasn’t the on-base machine that some of his teammates were, but he did have the biggest hit of the day, smashing a 3-run home run in the 1st inning to get the party started. Eldridge, who ended the day 1-5 with a walk and a strikeout, is now up to a .717 OPS and a 91 wRC+ in his debut full season.

It’s probably fair to say that many fans were hoping for slightly more electric results from Eldridge, but there really is nothing worrying about his performance thus far. He’s still finding his rhythm against professional pitchers, has fewer than 100 plate appearances due to the injury he dealt with, and is absolutely crushing the ball when he makes contact. More gaudy numbers are sure to follow.

The other 2 stars were designated hitter Cole Foster (No. 30 CPL) and left fielder Bo Davidson, who were both on-base machines. Foster, the team’s 3rd-round pick a year ago, was only retired once in 6 plate appearances, knocking a double and a single, drawing a walk, and being hit by 2 pitches. The switch-hitter is up to a .783 OPS and a 119 wRC+, though what I’m guessing catches the organization’s eye is his 17.8% strikeout rate, which is an excitingly-low number for a player in their first full season, especially since that mark was 31.5% in San Jose last year, and 32.3% in the ACL.

Davidson, who was an undrafted free agent last year, has put up some sneaky good numbers. The left-handed hitter was also only retired once, hitting 2 doubles and a single, while being hit by 2 pitches. The overall numbers for Davidson — .670 OPS, 85 wRC+ — aren’t very noteworthy, but after shaking off early season rust he’s been fantastic. Just check out his splits:

First 8 games: 2-31, 0 extra-base hits, 3 walks, 13 strikeouts
Next 15 games: 16-52, 2 home runs, 1 triple, 4 doubles, 6 walks, 15 strikeouts

Those are some nice numbers!

Center fielder Jonah Cox continued his awesome season, hitting 3-7 to raise his OPS to .859 and his wRC+ to 145, and stealing his 21st base of the year, in just 22 attempts.

The pitching wasn’t the main story, but there were some good strikeout performances to start the game. RHP Ubert Mejias wasn’t his sharpest, giving up 3 hits, 3 walks, 3 runs, and 1 earned run in 4 innings of work, but he did strike out 6. His strikeout stuff has been fairly absent so far this year, so that was nice to see.

And then RHP Shane Rademacher struck out 6 as well, in just 3 innings, allowing 4 hits, 0 walks, and 2 unearned runs. Rademacher, who was an undrafted free agent last year, has a tremendous strikeout-to-walk ratio to begin his career: he has 32 strikeouts to 7 walks in 27 innings across 2 levels.

Home run tracker

AAA Hunter Bishop (1 in AAA, 3 total)
High-A Andrew Kachel (2)
Low-A Bryce Eldridge (3)

Thursday schedule

Sacramento: vs. the Oklahoma City Baseball Club, 6:45 p.m. PT
Richmond: Doubleheader vs. the Reading Fightin Phils, 2:05 p.m. PT
Eugene: @ the Everett AquaSox, 7:05 p.m. PT
San Jose: @ the Modesto Nuts, 7:05 p.m. PT

Reminder that Minor League games can be watched on MLB TV.