SF Giants prospects recap: Luis Matos, Marco Luciano have explosive weekends
Welcome to the weekly SF Giants prospect recap, where we take a look at the organization's prospects and minor leaguers who stood out this past week.
Before reading, be sure to check out our preseason top 42 prospects ranking and the prospects who just missed the list to get acclimated to players throughout the system.
SF Giants Triple-A affiliate: Sacramento River Cats
Hitters
Luis Matos (Giants #4 prospect) has generated a lot of chatter in the Giants community with his level of performance at the Triple-A level ever since he got the call. Last week, my colleague Sean Keane covered Matos' 16-hit week against Tacoma, which brought up calls for his promotion to the big leagues. With nine more hits including four home runs this week, he now has a 1.335 OPS this month.
What Matos has done for Sacramento and this year, in general, has been incredible. However, it is important to look at some crucial data. His 158 wRC+ for Sacramento is only slightly better than what he had in Richmond (133 wRC+), primarily due to the explosive offensive environment of the PCL. His .391 BABIP is also unsustainable which will hurt him given his high-contact approach in the PCL. Matos' walk rate was almost cut by half from 12.6% for Richmond to 7% for Sacramento. According to the data gathered by Sam Wirth of Prospects Live, Matos has feasted on fastballs with a swinging strike rate of under 2% on the pitch. However, his 36.3% chase rate could be a bit worrisome especially when he gets called up to the big leagues where the strike zone is bigger and the pitchers are better.
I'm not trying to pour cold water into what Matos has done this year. I am also impressed with the quality of the at-bats, the consistency of his bat speed and barrel control, and the poise that is not fit for the youngest player in the PCL. It is only right to temper expectations just a bit even though what we are seeing from him is a better version of what we saw from him in 2021 when he was a clear top-100 prospect.
Will Wilson caught fire in the biggest possible way this week against Las Vegas with him hitting a home run in four consecutive at-bats with a couple of walks sprinkled in between. Wilson is widely believed to be the first player (there are no available data from 2000-2004) since 2005 to achieve the said feat. It brought his OPS up from .640 entering the week to .715 after Sunday's game. Wilson is still largely underwhelming outside of this week with a 63 wRC+ this season, but it might be the spark that he needs to enter himself into the conversation once again as one of the noteworthy prospects in the organization.
Tyler Fitzgerald (Giants #20 prospect) continues to put in a consistent performance ever since rocking the River Cats uniform with another seven-hit week including a home run and a stolen base though he got caught for the first time after 15 consecutive successful attempts. Fitzgerald's production dipped quite a bit from a 166 wRC+ in Richmond to 100 in Sacramento, but he's taken advantage of the tighter strike zone that hitters enjoy at the level with just a 20.1% strikeout rate compared to 28.2% in Richmond. He's continuing to push the envelope for the Giants brass to include him in the 40-man roster at the end of the season.
Michael Gigliotti has been absolutely on fire this week with three of his six hits this week having gone extra bases (two doubles and a home run) and an incredible seven walks to just three strikeouts. Over his past 16 games, Gigliotti has a .944 OPS with 13 walks to just 11 strikeouts. He's proving himself to be a serviceable option but with the Giants' outfield at full strength, it is hard to currently envision a role for him right now.
Pitchers
The workload for Kyle Harrison (Giants #1 prospect) keeps on piling up and he threw a season-high 81 pitches last Friday against Las Vegas. The lefty also pitched into the fifth inning for the first time this year, throwing 4.1 innings of one-run ball, the only run came via the home run, with one walk and six strikeouts. He induced double-digit swinging strikes for the first time this season as Aviators swung and missed 11 times against the Harrison pitch arsenal. Interestingly, Statcast has now labeled Harrison's slower slider in the 79-82 mph range as a slurve. We shall keep on seeing similar outings from Harrison in terms of pitch count throughout the rest of the season to preserve his arm in the long term as well as to make sure he's ready whenever the big league club comes calling.
Other pitchers of note: Keaton Winn (Giants #18 prospect) interestingly did not pitch this week with rumors of his big league call-up when the Giants were in their bullpen days and he was called upon on Monday. Nick Swiney (Giants #40 prospect) did well in his three outings against Las Vegas this week with 3.1 scoreless innings where he also struck out four while only walking two batters. The stuff is still largely the same, but he was effective this week. Erik Miller (Giants #31 prospect) struggled with the walks this week with three more though he also struck out three batters and held the Aviators hitless in his two outings this week. His three-pitch mix still highly intrigues me as he is fit for the power relief profile in the three-batter-minimum era.
SF Giants Double-A affiliate: Richmond Flying Squirrels
Hitters
The Giants farm system has enjoyed a lot of success stories with their hitters this year from Matos and Fitzgerald to Patrick Bailey (Giants #21 prospect) just to name a few. One prospect who has yet to join the party is Marco Luciano (Giants #2 prospect). There are a number of Giants fans who are worried about Luciano's performance this year, but his performance against Altoona this week might be the beginning of the turnaround.
With a seven-hit performance including hitting three homers this weekend, Luciano boosted his OPS from .640 to .761 after just one series. His two-homer performance last Saturday is the first time that he achieved the feat since 2021. A victim of atrocious BABIP luck (.203 this year), Luciano continues to put in solid after solid at-bats even though he is not getting the results. As a matter of fact, Luciano has better production when he's behind the count (.800 OPS) compared to when he's ahead in the count (.729 OPS). Understandably, the strikeouts will come since he's working himself to two-strike counts often, but he's been hammering the ball when he squares it up, a sign of good health. Let's see if the Altoona series finally wakes up the sleeping beast.
Wade Meckler (Giants #39 prospect) returned to action last Saturday after missing almost three weeks of action due to an injury. In typical Meckler fashion, he brought his ultra-advanced approach to the left-handed batter's box with two walks and a double last Saturday and another hit yesterday. It is now two separate occasions that Meckler missed time due to injury and has seemingly still not missed a beat, a clear indication that what we're seeing from him is legit. I would love to see him incorporate an all-fields approach and batted-ball profile like what we've seen from him for Eugene, but he's definitely inside my top 20 prospects right now.
Other hitters of note: Vaun Brown (Giants #6 prospect) cooled off against Altoona this week with only two hits that came last Wednesday. It pulled his OPS down from 1.141 to .883 after four games with a strikeout in about a third of his plate appearances. It is important to note that he is in a two-day on, one-day off kind of schedule. Jimmy Glowenke notched four hits against Altoona this week, ending the series with a three-game hitting streak. He's looked solid since he got to Richmond and has played all over the infield this week with him playing at second base, third base, and shortstop.
Pitchers
Carson Whisenhunt (Giants #9 prospect) made the long trip from Eugene to Richmond for his Double-A debut last Wednesday and he certainly did not disappoint with five shutout innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts and just two walks allowed. The velocity was mostly in the low-90s all afternoon which is understandable given the fatigue levels brought by the flight, but pounded the zone well and the changeup was certainly world-class. He has the green light to go five innings and has the strike-throwing acumen to achieve it in regularity. It will be interesting to see if Double-A hitters will be a problem for the Big Whiz or he'll just smother them like what he did in the lower levels moving forward.
Landen Roupp (Giants #10 prospect) finally has the green light to throw the regular four innings that the Giants pitching prospects have been doing all season long and he did not disappoint with 10 strikeouts and just three walks in his eight innings of one-run ball this week. His last start last Sunday was the best that we've seen from him all season with a season-high 14 called strikes and 12 swinging strikes. The Flying Squirrels rotation has not lived up to the hype that it had entering the season, but Roupp certainly has the ability to rein the bull by the horns and be the Richmond ace, at least until he gets the mid-season call-up that he will need.
Mason Black (Giants #8 prospect) had his best start of the season last Thursday with four shutout innings where he only allowed just two hits, allowed no walks, hit a batter, and struck out six batters. It came after a rough stretch for the 2021 third-rounder where he allowed 13 earned runs in his last four starts. The fastball and slider looked the best than it ever did all season long, threw 40 out of the 65 pitches for strikes, and induced a season-high 11 swinging strikes. Black is still a good pitching prospect but with the way that he's pitching and the growing likelihood of him becoming a two-pitch multi-inning reliever, he's trending down a bit in my estimations.
Other pitchers of note: Nick Zwack (Giants #30 prospect) pitched well in the piggyback role for Whisenhunt with four innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts. Zwack has had a rough go this season with a 7.50 ERA. Jose Cruz (Giants #27 prospect) bought the same Double-A ticket as Whisenhunt and had two appearances against Altoona this week, giving up two earned runs and only throwing 54% of his pitches for strikes, but he earned a save, struck out four, and did not walk a batter. Wil Jensen and Matt Frisbee had clean outings this week with the former striking out six in three innings of work while the latter striking out four in two innings. Kai-Wei Teng struck out eight batters in five innings of two-run ball but interestingly, the final four strikeouts were of the called variety.
SF Giants High-A affiliate: Eugene Emeralds
Hitters
Victor Bericoto (Giants #32 prospect) has been the best hitter in the Emeralds roster this year. With ten hits against Tri-City this week including three home runs this week, the right-handed slugger has a 1.141 OPS this month. He is the first hitter in the Giants' farm system to hit 10 home runs this season and currently paces the farm system with 11. Marc and I are big fans of his game and it's time to really pay attention to what he's doing this season as one of the better all-around hitters in the system with a .303 batting average, .224 ISO, 9.2% walk rate, and an 18.3% strikeout rate this season.
Brett Auerbach (Just missed the list) found a bit of a groove in his final two games against Altoona with four hits. Unfortunately, that did not deter the Giants brass from sending down the versatile Auerbach back to Eugene with the hopes of him finding his confidence back at the plate after only batting just .200 in 535 at-bats in two seasons for Richmond. In his four games for Eugene this week, he's had a three-walk game, a two-hit, and a three-hit game. Hopefully, this is the confidence boost that he needs to move back to the organizational depth chart.
Grant McCray (Giants #5 prospect) still has a massive strikeout issue at the batter's box that will likely never be resolved, but he's still doing a lot of things that make the toolsy outfielder so coveted in the organization. McCray struck out nine times this week but has logged a triple, four walks, and three stolen bases. McCray now has 24 stolen bases for the season along with seven doubles, four triples, eight big flies, and a 12.9% walk rate but has a .230 average along with a 30% strikeout rate.
Other hitters of note: Adrian Sugastey (Giants #34 prospect) cooled off massively in the month of June with five straight games of being held hitless in 20 plate appearances. Logan Wyatt had a good series against Tri-City with six hits including a double and a home run to the tune of 1.006 OPS.
Pitchers
It's beginning to be a season for concern for 2021 fourth-rounder Eric Silva (Giants #11 prospect). Silva had a laborious week in Tri-City with two starts where he could not even get out of the third inning, threw just 55% of his pitches for strikes, and only struck out three of the 20 total batters that he faced. The strikeout rate is still solid at 23.1%, however, the walk rate went worse compared to last year with a 13.2% rate. Poor fastball control has plagued Silva all season long and the slider is the only pitch that currently grades out as solid or better. Silva needs a big second half to recoup his lost prospect stock.
Other pitchers of note: There were not a lot of bright spots in the Emeralds' pitching staff last week though there are some intriguing pitching lines to talk about. I talked about Tanner Kiest in the ACL rosters preview as he was part of the Opening Day roster but was quickly moved to Eugene to help out the pitching staff. He pitched 2.2 clean innings with four strikeouts. Nick Morreale pitched well in his two outings this week with eight strikeouts in 4.1 innings of two-run ball while also earning a win. Seth Lonsway (Giants #42 prospect) pitched well in his appearance out of the bullpen this week with three one-run innings along with two strikeouts and two walks.
SF Giants Low-A affiliate: San Jose Giants
Hitters
Reggie Crawford (Giants #12 prospect) once again was inserted into the starting lineup as the DH last Friday and he did not disappoint, as he went 2-5 including his first home run of his professional career. (By the way, check out my colleague Marc Delucchi's excellent feature on the Giants 2022 first-round pick, which includes conversations he had with Crawford and his pitching/hitting coaches at San Jose).
As I watched his at-bats in great detail, Crawford showed great adjustment in his at-bat that resulted in the home run where he was being fed with a steady diet of breaking balls away from him for most of the game and he hammered the third straight breaking ball that he saw the other way. In his final at-bat that resulted in an opposite-field infield single, Crawford again showed adjustments as he swung through two straight fastballs away and out of the zone before connecting to the third one. He also hammered the second-straight breaking ball that he saw in his first at-bat the other way but resulting in a lineout. In the fourth at-bat at resulted in the strikeout, he displayed a good eye by laying off the second pitch fastball on the inside edge but could not lay off a high fastball and a breaking ball in the dirt.
The Giants have a strict schedule that they follow with their talented two-way prospect in order to ease him in the season. There are a lot of things that Crawford has to work on as a hitter like knowing his strike zone better and improving his plate discipline, but he has the raw strength and the knack of taking what's given to him to potentially succeed as a hitter.
Diego Velasquez (Just missed the list) only played three games this week as he missed a couple of games as a precautionary measure, but he played well last Saturday with three hits including his third home run of the season. The Venezuelan's .324 batting average currently ranks fifth among all qualified hitters in the California League and even though he only has three home runs this year, there are improvements in his physique that result in better quality at-bats compared to last year. He has a case inside the top 30 prospects in the organization at the mid-season mark.
Other hitters of note: Andrew Kachel had a good week with four hits and seven walks compared to just four strikeouts. He's been solid with a .300 average and a .857 OPS. Onil Perez (Just missed the list) continues to rake with eight more hits and interestingly, two stolen bases this week. He now has a .313 batting average this season and is clearly the best-catching prospect in the team. P.J. Hilson (Giants #35 prospect) continues to struggle at the plate with just two hits in 19 at-bats this week. Jose Ramos only had four hits this week but made the most out of his time on base with seven swipes. Newcomer Turner Hill had a good week against Visalia with six hits, three walks, and six stolen bases. Hill might not have the same pop as Carter Howell but the Marietta, Ohio native has a flat bat path and more than enough speed to play in center field.
Pitchers
After we have talked about Reggie Crawford's bat in great detail, let's talk about his stuff on the mound. He's made two starts against Visalia this week and was primarily a victim of the long ball as he allowed three total big flies to the tune of five earned runs. Two of the three home runs have come from two-strike counts and two out of three came from fastballs in the middle of the plate. Crawford does overthrow at times in two-strike counts resulting in either more pitches during an at-bat or base hits.
Now, for the positives. Crawford still has yet to allow a walk in his 7.1 innings of work this season. The command is the final thing that comes back after Tommy John surgery and for Crawford to fill the strike zone with ease in his early outings is certainly impressive. He also has the knuckle curveball working so far, generating whiffs against both lefties and righties. The changeup's also coming along nicely, throwing better and better changeups compared to his outings against Modesto and Fresno. The fastball has plenty of zip and he's shown the ability to spot it at the edge of the zone for called strikes.
Crawford's future as a pitcher is definitely brighter than what he is at the batter's box. He's slowly coming along and he's been dominant except for his struggles to finish off batters. If he can hone that in, the sky is the limit for the 2022 first-rounder.
Hayden Birdsong (Just missed the list) continues his dominant form with two outings this week serving as the piggyback to the starting pitcher Crawford. It was business as usual for the sixth-rounder from Eastern Illinois with eight shutout innings of six-hit ball with two walks and 11 strikeouts. He's been Mr. Consistent as the best-performing pitcher in the San Jose rotation with a 2.16 ERA with 70 strikeouts, the best in the California League and second-best in the entire Giants farm system behind only Kyle Harrison, and a decent 12% walk rate.
It's been a month since William Kempner (Giants #29 prospect) has been moved out of the starting rotation and into a late-inning role out of the bullpen and let's take a look at the numbers. In nine relief appearances, the third-rounder from Gonzaga has a 4.00 ERA and 10 strikeouts. The level of strike-throwing has not been much different (62% strike rate) compared to when he was in the rotation (61%) and has a 12.5% walk rate. Upon watching his relief appearances, it is still evident that the stuff definitely plays there but the control of the zone is highly inconsistent and clearly needs improvement even if he's been only trotted out for one-inning stints.
Other pitchers of note: Julio Rodriguez had a good week against Visalia throwing four hitless innings with eight strikeouts to just two walks. Hayden Wynja also had a strong start this week throwing four innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts to just one walk. Unfortunately, it looked like Liam Simon's (Giants #38 prospect) 2023 season is done after undergoing season-ending surgery.
SF Giants Rookie affiliate: ACL and DSL Giants Black and Orange
I have decided to combine the four Rookie affiliates to cover the most interesting prospects across both the ACL and DSL.
Hitters
Rayner Arias (Just missed the list) could not have asked for a better start to his pro career down in the DSL. After going hitless in his first game, the talented outfielder posted three straight multi-hit games including two homers, a double, and a stolen base. Arias also has twice the number of walks to strikeouts while having also stolen a base. Arias shows the ability to control the strike zone but also shows the ability to make adjustments in the middle of an at-bat. The quality of pitching in the DSL is definitely not the best but Arias has shown an approach that deserves to be in the ACL. He still also has yet to put in the muscle in his frame, making his potential even more promising.
Other DSL hitters of note: Fellow 2023 IFA top signee Yosneiker Rivas has not had the best start to his career with only two hits in 11 at-bats but one of those hits has left the yard and his five walks kept his OBP to a healthy .438. It will be interesting if Rivas continues to show the pop in his swing that was different from his amateur scouting report of being a contact-oriented hitter. Outfielder Moises de la Rosa has 10 hits in the first week of the DSL season including two doubles, a triple, and two stolen bases. De la Rosa only played in 19 games last year in the DSL though he posted a .846 OPS. Jose Astudillo also has 10 hits including a double and three stolen bases. This year is his third season playing in the DSL. Angel Guzman posted four doubles to the tune of 1.132 OPS.
Other ACL hitters of note: Cesar Quintas led the way this week with a 1.342 OPS powered by seven hits including a double and an insane 6:1 walk/strikeout ratio. Guillermo Williamson flashed his power potential with two homers and a double in his first week of action this year. Catchers Cesar Gonzalez and Juan Perez both hit a home run this week with the latter looking to continue the steady run of IFA catchers that the organization keeps on churning year after year. Jairo Pomares (Giants #24 prospect) also began his rehab trail in Papago with the hopes of returning back to Eugene for his full-season assignment.
Pitchers
Seth Corry (Just missed the list) made his 2023 debut in Papago this week and the 2017 third-rounder looked good with seven strikeouts and just three walks in 3.2 one-hit innings across two appearances. The sinker looked good and the curveball had its moments though he still struggles with control at times when his mechanics are not in sync. Corry has more than enough stuff to make noise but control will plague his career to limit his role in relief. He should be in Eugene before the end of the 2023 season.
Another pitcher who is on the rehab trail is Will Bednar (Just missed the list) who also made his 2023 debut this week, striking out five batters and walking two across two innings of one-run work. The fastball for Bednar is still in the low-90s which is around where we saw him pitch last year in San Jose while the slider is still his best pitch in the arsenal. Like Corry, control plagued much of Bednar's 2022 season, particularly fastball control, and he looks to recoup his lost prospect stock back once he gets back to a full-season setting before the end of the 2023 season.
Other pitchers of note: Alix Hernandez looked good in his professional debut in the ACL with three one-run innings with two walks, a hit batter, and six strikeouts. An older IFA signee by the Giants last year, Hernandez has good projectability in his frame, a fastball that can already reach 94 mph, a good feel for spin and a splitter-like pitch, and good tempo with his mechanics. Brayan Palencia also looked good with 3.2 scoreless innings of work with five strikeouts and just one walk. He has a short stride to the plate with a low-90s fastball and a slider. Down in the DSL, Brayan Narvaez had quite a pro debut against the Mariners with four scoreless innings of two-hit ball with no walks and six strikeouts. If he keeps this up, we could see him in Papago before the end of the season.
