Your 2025 Giants: Big 6 Prospects

This season this will be an abbreviated version of my Big Six prospects.  I’ll be mostly doing it from memory plus a bit of player research.

ogc thoughts

This will be a mixed blend of rookie eligible prospects and non-rookie prospects who I think are still possible contributors to the team.  I referred to MLB Pipeline’s 2025 reports to jog my memory on some, and to get info on others. If I don’t write up any prospect, you are likely to find a report on him there.

Big Six Prospects

Here are the six I’m bringing up and discuss some:

1. Bryce Eldridge: He is clearly the biggest (and tallest at 6’ 7”) prospect in the Giants farm system. Not only that, he’s the biggest since Buster Posey, and the biggest teenaged prospect since Matt Williams. He did a Brandon Belt and rose up the farm system in one season, hitting at every level.  His biggest challenge is his high strikeout rate, but if he can make good contact when he does connect, he can overcome that. The good news this spring was his home run in his second at bat. With two strikes, he shortened up in order to focus on making contact, and promptly smashed one deep over the fence for a homer.  And there were reports about how, despite his height, he crafted a short swing in high school, and that’s a great swing to make contact in the majors, Barry Bonds had a very short swing.
2. Carson Whisenhunt:  Has been rated the pitching prospect with the best changeup for two seasons in a row, and been ranked in the 90’s of Top 100, so there is some predigre. In addition, he reached AA by age 22, which is a threshold that Baseball Forecasters says is a sign of a good prospect.  In addition, he pitched well enough that he was projected by ZiPS to have a 4.25 ERA.  He had a bad season in 2024 in AAA, but he had a great season at home, with a 2.34 ERA, which plays more as a neutral park, and many road parks are hitter biased. I ran through the road games and he had bad starts in 10 of 16 starts. He will need to do better this season.
3. Landen Roupp:  He wasn’t on any Top 100 list and burst on the scene for Giants fans last spring training, but ZiPS projected his ERA at 4.11, which was the best among all the young pitching prospects for 2024, and then he beat that pitching as a reliever/starter for the Giants in 2024.  He has come into spring training looking even better, and boasts of a new pitch that could give him four pitches to better compete against batters.  I just don’t see him beating out Kyle Harrison for the 5th starter spot, because Kyle has been an above average SP since he reached the majors (which he was until he pitched those last two starts and got blown up adding innings when he was likely tired). Still, Baggarly is reporting that Roupp is the favorite now.
4. Josuar Gonzalez:  Giants biggest bonus baby IFA signing in this cycle for this year.  Reported to be a legit long term shortstop, because of his strong athleticism, the switch hitter looks like he can hit for average as well as power, and exhibits great speed too, so he could be a base stealer too. 
5. James Tibbs Jr:  He was considered a steal when drafted, even getting ranked on a Top 100 list, but had a bad start to his pro career.  Keith Law wrote in his The Athletic that in spite of his bad start, he is mostly writing it off for now, considering how good he was in college.  Hopefully he’s right about that.  
6. Rayner Arias:  An IFA OF signing, who was another bonus baby signing, I have loved loved loved seeing his hitting videos on Twitter.  He grew up around the game, so he’s more advanced than others, and scouting loves his ability to hit, hit for power, and exhibits good bat control.  He lost valuable playing time because of injury last season, but is still very young.

Other Prospects

These are other prospects who I’ll name (in no particular order than my memory):

• Mason Black:  He has not made any Top 100 prospect lists either but also was projected to have a low 4.23 ERA for the 2024 season (the average NL Starting Pitcher in 2023 had a 4.56 ERA), showing how well he has pitched in the minors before. He had his downs and ups pitching for the Giants in 2024, and is probably behind Birdsong, Roupp, Winn, Beck, and maybe even Bivens on the depth chart for starting pitching for the Giants in 2025. But I expect him to, barring injury, be part of the rotation in the near future, with the rotation being Webb, Harrison, Birdsong, Whisenhunt, Roupp, and Black as the top 6 guys (injuries and declines will likely take somebody out)
• Trevor McDonald:  He’s been held back by missed time due to injuries over the years, but finally reached the majors last season. 
• Jack Choate: Pitcher I’ve been following who has done well enough for me to follow and point out.
• Joe Whitman: Pitcher I’ve been following who has done well enough for me to follow and point out.
• Sabin Ceballos:  He was a failed prospect we got in the Soler trade with Atlanta. The power he showed in college just didn’t show up.  He comes to the Giants and almost immediately started hitting for power and continued to show it.  I’m keeping an eye on him.
• Aeverson Arteaga:  SS IFA who had good prospect reports but has stalled out in upper minors but still some potential.
• Christian Koss:  He’s having a great spring training after hitting a nice .873 across three levels. He is out of options so if he continues to play well, could win the middle infielder utility position contest.
• Jhonny Level:  SS IFA who is doing well so far to be ranked highly as Giants prospect, I’ll  follow him more closely this season.
• Dakota Jordan:  I’ve read a report that talks up his physical similarities to Bo Jackson, and of how he was a steal in the draft.  I’ll  follow him more closely this season.
• Bo Davidson:  Undrafted player signed and then had a good first pro season.  

Additional Non-Rookie Prospects

These players are no longer rookies but aren’t fully established either, so here are my thoughts on them:

• Kyle Harrison:  He is the 5th starter incumbent, but Birdsong and Roupp are pushing hard. I just don’t see him losing the 5th spot barring injury or a bad spring, because he had a 4.1/s ERA between 2023-24 until his last two starts blew up his ERA. At a low 4’s ERA, he has been better than the average NL Starting Pitcher, which had an average of 4.24 ERA. Which is great to have in the 5th spot. And prior performance has usually counted for a lot. He had a rough second game back from his injury, which delayed the start of his spring training, but he likely was left in longer to let him stretch out and build up his pitch count. I’ll be more worried if he pitched like this for the rest of spring.  And he might lose the 5th SP spot to Roupp as Baggarly noted in a column.  Still, I think he is headed for greater things, he has one of the best pitches in baseball, and been able to pitch in an above average way until he tired in his last two starts. His future should be bright still, he’s only 23 YO.
• Tyler Fitzgerald:  If you look at his rolling average in StatCast, he started the season as a below average hitter, then was white hot like the new Barry Bonds for about 5-6 weeks or so, then returned to his below average hitter. If he can simply be an average hitting 2B (.704 OPS NL 2024 2B) who can play above average defense, he will likely hold the starting position, but if he’s below average hitting again, look out for Casey Schmitt.
• Luis Matos: He once again had an above average contract rate, which usually leads to good hitting in the MLB. His winning the Player of the Week award shows what he can do when he’s focused on hitting his pitch, and his rest of the season hitting mediocre shows what happens when he’s not focused. He was only 22 YO last season, and still learning. I think he’ll be like Helios Ramos and figure it out sooner than later, in his 23 or 24 YO seasons (2025 or 2026). He just hit so well in the minors and with good contact rates, he should figure it out.  But you never know.
• Marco Luciano:  I don’t expect him to reach the majors this season. He needs to spend the season in AAA working on getting competent at being a corner OF, and improving his batting.  He still has the potential power, so it’s worth keeping him and seeing whether he can develop it now with the Giants.  But he will need to make the roster in 2026, as he will be out of options, so I expect him to be the utility OF, assuming he can handle the OF.  He still hit for high Exit Velocity when he makes contact, so I would not bet against him, but he still has more to prove. Hopefully the lesser responsibilities of OF will allow his hitting to develop further.
• Casey Schmitt:  He hit well enough last season to suggest that he could be a major leaguer starter at some point in the future. Given that his most common positions - SS and 3B - will be manned by Adamaes and Chapman for the foreseeable future, he could be our future starting 2B, depending on how Fitzgerald does. At worse, he should be a good to great utility middle infielder who can step into these three positions, in case of injury or poor performance (in Fitzgerald case) and at least be average overall.  He is having a great spring training, 3 homers already, so he looks like he could make the team in a bench position, but I would put him in AAA as the starting 2B to prep him in case Fitzgerald falters.
• Brett Wisely:  Batting with Koss and Schmitt for the middle infielder utility position. Him being a LHH gives him an advantage, but he needs to hit like he did when he came up last season, and not like how he hit the rest of the season.  I believe he and Schmitt still have options, and so Koss might get the position on Opening Day, since I believe he has no options left.
• Helios Ramos:  I wasn’t planning on covering him, but he still have to prove he can continuing being an All Star player. He has severe problems hitting RHP, and I would not bet against him having a down season, but I’m still a strong believer of his potential to be a long term starting OF for the Giants. I think he will have some struggles in 2025 (he hit .746 OPS in August but only .666 OPS in September), but I think at some point of the next two seasons, it will click in enough that he’ll hold the job until he reaches free agency, at least.