Giants Will Call Up Highly Touted Prospect in Response to Jerar Encarnacion's Injury

Jerar Encarnacion has suffered an injury to his hamstring, and as a corresponding move, the San Francisco Giants will call up one of their top 15 prospects.

Binghamton's Drew Gilbert connects for a three-run home run, tying the game 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Erie SeaWolves won, 9-6, in the first game of the Eastern League championship series on Sept. 25, 2023 in Binghamton. | Jeff Miller / Special to the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin / USA TODAY NETWORK

The San Francisco Giants have dealt with a relatively large number of injuries throughout their 2025 campaign, both to major key players and critical role players who fill out the lineup. This has set the team back quite a bit after a flaming-hot start and pushed them back to around the .500 mark on the season.

Unfortunately, that is just part of the game, and must be dealt with as they come by replacing those injured with suitable players to try and maintain success. An additional injury came to light recently for the Giants, which will hold one of their outfielders out for a decent period of time as he looks to recover from a hamstring setback.

Rotational outfielder Jerar Encarnacion was recently diagnosed with a right hamstring strain after leaving a game with the injury. This strain has pushed him to the 10-day injured list for the time being, retroactive to August 7, as was announced in a formal team transaction post. In addition, the team will be designating outfielder Daniel Johnson for assignment, making room on the 40-man roster for one of their most highly regarded prospects, who is set to make an MLB debut sooner rather than later.

Who Will the Giants Call Up to Replace Jerar Encarnacion for the Time Being?

The respective move to go along with this designation is No. 13 prospect in San Francisco's system (according to MLB Pipeline), Drew Gilbert getting his call-up to the MLB. This would be the first game of Gilbert's career at the Major League level, after being drafted No. 28 overall by the Houston Astros in the 2022 MLB Draft. According to MLB.com, Gilbert will make his MLB debut the same day as well, batting ninth in the lineup and playing right field.

Two trades have led Gilbert to the Giants, the most recent being the one sending Tyler Rogers to the New York Mets in return for Gilbert, Blade Tidwell and José Buttó. Now, he has the opportunity to play alongside some exceptional talents and prove his worth in a stint with a team that could desperately use a spark on the offensive side of the plate.

His time in Triple-A Sacramento was short-lived, but he was absolutely killing the baseball in the few games he played. With five appearances there, he slashed .500/.650/.857 with three runs, two RBI, two stolen bases, six walks and three strikeouts across 20 plate appearances. While this is a tad inflated compared to his Triple-A stats with the Mets, it is a great sign that he is ready to take on MLB pitching and try to see what he can provide to a roster of this caliber.