Your 2026 Giants: Mock Draft Intel

With the 2026 Draft coming on July 11th, I thought it would be interesting to see what the major baseball content outlets are saying about the Giants draft.  Especially because they have both the 4th pick overall (which was lucky, they were supposed to have the 15th pick, a huge leap) and the 29th pick overall, plus the rest of the normal picks.  Their total bonus slots for the draft is $17.351M, fourth highest behind Pirates, Rays and White Sox. They have the 4th pick, 29th, 55th, 90th, and 118th in the first day, which covers rounds 1 to 4.  

Here are some of the sources I found that I used for this post:

• ESPN
• Baseball America:  early preview (via compilation by SBNation); Top 10
• Perfect Game
• MLB Pipeline
• Fangraphs
• The Athletic (Keith Law)
• MLB (Maria Guardado)
• MLB Pipeline Top Draft Prospects

 ogc thoughts

The Giants appeared to be lucky getting the fourth pick overall, but, unfortunately, most analysts see only three players as being the cream of this draft crop:  SS Roch Cholowsky, SS Grady Emerson, and C Vahn Lackey (in whatever order).  Most outlets noted that the Giants were most interested in Cholowsky and Emerson, but that if Lackey fell to them, they would select him too.

Moreover, the best pitcher, Jackson Flora, isn’t viewed as a clear ace, his floor is seen as a middle rotation SP, with the potential to be a top of rotation starter if he can be developed.  Keith Law specifically noted in one of his comments that the Giants are looking solely at position players for their first pick.  But apparently the draft is deep with High School pitching prospects who could fall out of the first round, and so, theoretically, they should have the pick of the crop of HS pitchers who fall out of the early first round and be available at the Giants 29th pick, and possibly even their 55th pick.  And the Giants picked up Harrison with a third round pick and Webb with a fourth round pick, as they paid over slot for these two. 

Giants Draft Intel

The intel on who the Giants selects varies with the analyst:

• ESPN:  Views it unlikely that any of the Top 3 will fall to the Giants, but all it takes is one team to go off the board for that to happen (maybe the Twins).  They believe that the Giants will choose between RHP Jackson Flora (the consensus top pitcher) or Eric Booth Jr, as they feel that Jacob Lombard has fallen behind.
• Baseball America:  Per their analyst, the Giants are focused on hitters, and if the Top 3 are gone, they believe that SS Jacob Lombard and OF Eric Booth Jr. are the choices.
• Baseball America early Top 10:  
  
• Perfect Game:  Has the same top 5 as BA above, but then AJ Gracia, Ace Reece, Eric Booth Jr., Justin LeBron, and Drew Buress.  Looking up HS pitchers, they ranked LHP Carson Bolemon (whom I’ve seen some mocking the Giants picking him with the 29th), LHP Logan Schmidt, LHP Sean Duncan, LHP Brody Bumila. RHP Jensen Hirschkorn and RHP Joseph Contreras (ranging from 20th to 39th).  
• SBNation compilation of mocks: “Lombard, a standout shortstop at Gulliver Prep High School in Miami, is largely regarded as the fourth-best prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft class. ESPN‘s Kiley McDaniel wrote in May that Lombard ranked as the eighth-best prospect in the class, on the 45+ Future Value Tier. MLB Pipeline rates Lombard as the fourth-best prospect in the class, while Baseball America has him fifth behind Flora. Position isn’t expected to have significant sway in the club’s decision-making. All three of the Giants’ top prospects—Josuar Gonzalez, Luis Hernandez, and Jhonny Level—are listed at shortstop, with Gavin Kilen (the fourth-best prospect) capable of playing both middle infield spots. Booth, a 6-foot outfielder out of Oak Grove High School in Mississippi, offers his own enticing tools. MLB Pipeline graded him with 55s on the 20-80 scale for his hit tool and fielding, with 50s for his power and arm, and a 70-grade for his speed.” 
• MLB Pipeline (Jon Mayo):  Has the Giants picking Lombard, but that Flora, Burress, and Booth Jr. are all in the mix, as well.  Sees the same top six as BA, then 7th is Burress, then Rojas, LeBron, Bell as 10th.  HS SP starting with 21st, LHP Carson Bolemon (24th) and 29th, LHP Brody Bumila is mocked to the Giants (23rd), and 34th LHP Logan Schmidt (45th), and 35th RHP Cameron Borthwick (43rd).  Plus, there are college arms available in RHP Cameron Flukey, 23rd pick (15th ranked), RHP Tegan Kuhns (25th), Mason Edwards (36th), LHP Cole Carlon (26th), RHP Logan Reddemann (31st).
• The Athletic (Keith Law):  He mocks a similar draft as the others, seeing Emerson, Lackey, Cholowsky, and then Lombard for the Giants (Flora 5th).  His Big Board is significantly different, though, with Cholowsky 1st, then Lackey, SS Tyler Bell, Emerson, Flora, OF Drew Burress, OF Derek Curiel, RHP Liam Peterson, OF Eric Booth Jr., and RHP Logan Reddemann.  So if the draft follows his board, the Giants would select Emerson, and should the top 3 be gone, per Law, the best talent still on the board is SS Tyler Bell.  And Lombard, in his opinion, is only 20th overall.  He notes in his profile:  “He has some of the best pure tools in the draft class, college or high school. He’s a 70 runner with plus power, working with a quick, direct swing that is geared to pull the ball in the air.  His path to the ball is direct and he’s very rotational, getting his lower half involved to help drive the ball, although he can get a little uphill on pitches down. He also whiffed 39 percent of the time at tracked events in 2025, getting destroyed by sliders, but even struggling with better velocity when he saw it. He’s a long-term shortstop, really just lacking the pure arm strength of the typical player there in the majors. He has the swing, strength, speed and athleticism to be a superstar, but can he hit enough to even be a regular?”  Meanwhile, Bell per Law is “a very disciplined hitter…”, so maybe he’s a dark horse for the Giants to pick, as disciplined hitters are what the Giants have been looking for under Posey.
• Fangraphs:  They see the top players significantly different also.  While they have Cholowsky first, OF AJ Gracia was ranked second overall, much higher than other rankings (MLB Pipeline ranked him 19th, Keith Law 21st, Perfect Game 6th though).  Then similar names followed:  Flora third, Emerson, Lackey, Reese, Lebron, Flukey, Rojas, and SS Eric Becker.  Carson Bolemon was ranked 12th here, and would be likely gone by the 29th pick.  HS pitchers ranked 20th to 40th include Logan Schmidt (20th), Kaeden Waechter (21st), Savion Sims (35th), Denton Lord (36th), Joseph Contreras (37th), Braydon Wisener (38th).   

Draft Thoughts

The golden rule for drafts, especially for the first round picks is BPA:  Best Player Available.  But that’s the rub, everyone seems to have a different opinion on who is the best player available when a team throws a curveball and goes against the consensus opinion.  And who is to say that consensus is right either?  The Giants have generally walked their own path with their first round picks, especially under Sabean, apparently overslotting (drafting higher than ranked) many of their draft picks, over the years, and yet not underpaying them either.  

In general, the mock drafts seem to coalesce on the Giants looking mostly at position players with the 4th pick.  I’m not entirely sure why Flora isn’t considered a pretty good prospect - Fangraphs lists him as having a good 55 rising fastball and good 55 slider, sits at 95-98 and tops out at 100 MPH, but his command is a really bad 30 (with 50 or average potential).  But his MLB Pipeline scouting report grades him at 70 Fastball, 55 Slider, 55 Changeup, 55 Control, and 60 Overall, which is pretty good.  

For whatever reasons (probably his command), Law’s scuttlebutt is that the Giants are not selecting Flora with their pick.  And per Fangraphs, none of the pitchers are all that good with command right now, 20-30 on the scouting 20-80 scales where 50 is average.  That would explain why the early first round pitching isn’t considered a great source of talent for this draft.

There is an interesting prospect, ranked 40th by Fangraphs, Carson Wiggins.  His fastball is rated a 70 and his slider a 60.  His major problem is command, a worst 20, and potential of only 30.  Yikes!  The guys with the highest potential are Brayton Wisener (25 now, but 60 potential) and Carson Bolemon (25/55).  

Looking at MLB Pipeline, LHP Gio Rojas, ranked 8th overall (PG as 11th, FG as 9th, KLaw as 25th), could be an interesting pick.  He is graded at 60 Fastball, 60 Slider, 50 Changeup, 55 Control, 60 Overall, which is comparable to Flora, but Rojas is a HS pitcher.  He also pitched 11 shutout innings for Team USA, helping them to a gold meal in the World Cup for baseball.  He can reach 98 MPH (with outstanding riding life, commanding to both sides of the plate).  He also has  a sweeping slider that “is a true out pitch.”  He “has all the makings of a frontline starter…”. Makes me wonder if the Giants could possibly get him to agree to a bonus lower than 4th and closer to 7-10, giving the Giants additional slot money to offer to their later picks so that they can pick up prospects who fall to them in the later rounds (2-3-4).

Hard to say anything about the 29th pick because teams by now will have gone off the boards for the above such that some of the highly ranked prospects end up falling to 29th.  Names that have caught my attention include RHP Cameron Flukey (ranked by PG as 14th, MLB PL 15th, FG 8th, KLaw as 14th), LHP Carson Bolemon (ranked by PG as 20th, MLB PL as 24th, FG as 12th, KLaw as 28th), Liam Peterson (ranked by PG as 37th, MLB PL as 20th, FG as 13th, Klaw as 8th), RHP Logan Reddemann (ranked by PG as 25th, MLB PL as 31st, KLaw as 10th), LHP Hunter Dietz (ranked by PG as 65th, MLB PL as 17th, KLaw as 12th),  Mason Edwards (ranked by PG as 18th, MLB PL as 36th, KLaw as 30th) and Brody Bumila (ranked by PG as 31st, MLB PL as 23rd, KLaw as 54th).

Flukey might also be someone the Giants consider for the 4th pick, given how highly Fangraphs ranked him, perhaps he would accept a lower slot in the 10-15 range, which would clear a lot of money for other draft picks.  The rest of the pitchers have very diverse (high and low, some so low that they aren’t ranked) rankings, which means it is likely that many of them will fall down to the Giants 29th pick, and perhaps even 55th pick.  And falling to the 90th pick isn’t out of the question either, as I recall Josh Osich getting some first round love, but due to injury circumstances, fell to the Giants in the 6th round.  

There will be final mocks and rumors by this Friday, and I’ll try to put out anything interesting and post them as comments here.  Hopefully the Giants will find the good to great pitchers they need in this draft.