Your 2026 Giants: signed 19 of 21 picks

Per the Giants announcement, they have signed 19 of their 21 draft picks from the 2026 Draft.

ogc thoughts 

Here are the key signings of this draft:

• Most of all, signing Jackson Flora.  Gives the Giants their top pitching prospect, who some have already placed in their Top 100 ranking, as well as slot space (essentially $1M) to sign HS draft picks later in the draft.
• Exciting news that Carson Bolemon and Kaden Waechter were signed, they were one of the last ones, but just as key because they are highly regarded pitching prospects.  Bolemon was considered the best pitching prospect before in the season, and Waechter was in consideration for the #29 pick had Bolemon been selected by another team.  Bolemon got $112,300 above slot and Waechter got $1,484,500 above slot, basically the same bonus as Bolemon. Flora enabled the Giants to sign Waechter. 
• Another key last minute over-slot signing is Dalton Wentz, IF, for Wake Forest.  He was the biggest get after the first 10 rounds. He was signed for $584,955, which is $434,955 over the $150,000 allowed without accounting. With all the above slot signings accounted for, the Giants only had $5 leftover from their 5% overage.
• As noted in my comments on Flora’s signing, Jossiah Kemp and Colin Fisher were also over slot signings.  Basically the 5% overage enabled the Giants to sign the rounds 11-18 overslot picks.  
• And they signed their 11th round pick, Charles Bussey. The 11th round pick is usually a prospect who is considered highly but fell past the 10th round.
• I also think the signings of 4th round pick, Peyton Bonds, 5th round pick, Carlos Martinez, and 6th round pick, Luke Nixon, should be noted, as they got the remaining big bonuses in this draft.
• Lastly, I want to acknowledge all the college picks who agreed to below, or in some cases, much below, slot bonus to enable the over slot HS signings in rounds 2-3.  

The Giants signed everyone except for their 19th and 20th round picks, which is a pretty good haul.  Moreover, they had five over slot signings out of their 19 signings.  This should stock the farm system with a good number of interesting arms who could make an impact at the major league level for the next 2-6 seasons.  

Which aligns with the multitude of interesting position players who could be making a similar impact in a similar timeframe.  The Giants should hopefully be on the rise between 2028 and 2032.

I get that there are fans upset about this timeline. It is frustrating to wait even more years after going through the past decade or so.  Especially after this season. But this is why Evans and Zaidi were fired by the Giants, while each had some successes, they have been few and far between, though Ramos, Schmitt and Eldridge have turned out nicely, plus Bailey and Harrison, out of traded players.

Getting better isn’t always linear.  The Giants certainly took a step back this season, and should trade off players who don’t fit the above timeline.  

• Devers should still be productive in a few years, but Chapman isn’t. 
• Adames was always viewed as moving off SS sooner or later, and has been battling a bad back, which hopefully is causing this down season.  
• Ramos is a nice player, but not core to the future and has a contract situation that teams can stomach.  
• Lee, however, has had the Giants invest a lot of money and PR playing up their Korea connection, and already has a large contract, so he is likely to stay.
• In any case, only Eldridge should be considered a core player for that period. Schmitt has had a nice breakout season, and he is aging out, much like Ramos, and we have OF players, like Davidson, Jordan, and Cohen, playing well in the upper minors.
• Both Ray and Mahle should be gone soon in trade.  Houser, as well, if we can unload the money, he’s been pretty good in his long relief role so far.  He also didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t all that good as a SP for us, no need to keep a malcontent on this team. 
• The only healthy reliever in the bullpen who looks like a keeper and fitting that timeline is Dylan Smith and perhaps Foley.  Rodriguez and Butto are likely to be healthy next season.  So the back end of the bullpen should be okay enough next season. Everyone else should be made available, and if the haul is good enough, they should take it, and give opportunities to other pitchers in the system.  

Advanced analytics (base runs, per Grant Brisbee of The Athletic) apparently has the Giants as a roughly .500 team, much like previous years, but it just has been a bad luck season. For sure, many players didn’t play up to the back of their baseball cards this season.  And with Eldridge continuing to hit well, as the league adjusts to him, 2027 should be a season where the team is on the upswing. As well, Vitello probably will get another season, given the positive comments Posey made, despite the team having such a bad season, and will have less learning pains.  

Altogether, the Giants should be better if not much better in 2027, however long the season ends up being, because a lockout appears to be a likely possibility.  I would compare 2027 to 2008, where the team still struggles, but a player takes a big step forward towards superstardom (Lincecum then, Eldridge hopefully in 2027), and they have interesting players in the pipeline (Sandoval, Bumgarner, Posey, Crawford, then, Level, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Kilen, Flora, Bolemon now).