San Francisco Giants' Early-Round MLB Draft Woes Have ‘Killed the System’

The San Francisco Giants farm system is in rough shape from several early-round misses in the MLB Draft.

Sep 8, 2023; San Francisco, California, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Joey Bart (21) looks at his helmet after allowing a run by the Colorado Rockies during the second inning at Oracle Park. | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

This offseason marked the dawn of a new era for the San Francisco Giants with former legendary catcher Buster Posey taking over the front office as president of baseball operations.

He made a huge splash early in his tenure, agreeing to a massive seven-year, $182 million deal with free agent shortstop Willy Adames. That is the largest contract signed in franchise history, as he fills a major gap in the lineup.

Things are certainly coming together in the infield, as Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman make up one of the better left sides in baseball. Tyler Fitzgerald will move to second base and the team is excited for what Bryce Eldridge will bring to the table as the first baseman of the future.

Alas, that is where one of the biggest obstacles for Posey to overcome lies; the future.

He is taking over an organization that is lacking high-end young talent in its minor league system. 

Outside of Eldridge, there aren’t many young players who offer major upside. Part of the reason for that is they have graduated an incredible number of prospects to the Major League level over the last year or two.

Another reason is that the previous regime did not do well in identifying the right kind of talent early in drafts. More prospects are going to miss than hit, but the Giants track record in recent years has been abysmal when it comes to developing players selected early in the draft.

“The Giants have had a lot of first-round draft misses — Joey Bart, Hunter Bishop, Will Bednar, and probably Reggie Crawford — and it’s killed the system, to be completely candid,” wrote Keith Law of The Athletic in his farm system power rankings.

Players such as Fitzgerald, catcher Patrick Bailey and Birdsong give some hope that these recent drafts were a total flop. But it is hard building up a farm system when you are striking out as much as San Francisco has been.

Not having a pipeline of MLB-ready players not only hurts the Giants’ product at the Major League level but also creates difficulties when trying to build trade packages to acquire established talent.

If your young players are consistently not developing, other teams are going to take notice and diminish their value in trade talks.

As a result of those misses, Law has ranked the Giants’ farm system at No. 26, barely holding on to a spot in Tier 6.

If some of their international signings show signs of breaking out, the system could be on the move up. But the impending graduation of Eldridge could sink them even further as he is single-handedly buoying their value currently.