SAN FRANCISCO - The Giants’ season may have been rough, but the draft lottery gave them something real to look forward to: a premium chance to reshape the organization.
San Francisco will pick fourth overall in the 2026 MLB draft, and the Patrick Bailey trade also left the club with the 29th pick. That extra selection comes with extra pool money, helping push the Giants’ total bonus pool to $17,350,600, the fourth-highest in the draft.
That kind of draft capital matters for a system that’s already trending up. Baseball America has the Giants’ farm system at No. 10 in the majors, a jump from No. 14 in the preseason, with teenage shortstops Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez leading the way. By the end of the weekend, that group could look even stronger.
“I think our strategy is to be in a position to take the best player available, and I think our group, our scouts, everybody in the room’s done a really good job of trying to get our board lined up into a good place,” said senior director of amateur scouting Michael Holmes. “Our process has been really strong so far up to this point. Just really excited to have two opportunities at four and 29, then even further down the draft to be able to bring some talent to the organization.
This will be the sixth time the Giants have held a top-five pick, and the franchise’s history there has been a mixed bag. The good side includes Buster Posey at No. 5 in 2008, Will Clark at No. 2 in 1985 and Matt Williams at No. 3 the next year. The misses are there too, with Joey Bart going No. 2 in 2018 and Jason Grilli at No. 4 in 1997.
At the top of this draft, the names to know are UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey and prep shortstop Grady Emerson. Cholowsky, who grew up rooting for former Giant Brandon Crawford, had long been viewed as the likely No. 1 pick, though the Chicago White Sox may choose Emerson instead.
If one of those three slips past the top three, San Francisco would be thrilled. Even so, the Giants are not expected to take any of that trio when they’re on the clock at No. 4.
The player most often tied to the Giants is UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora, widely seen as the best pitcher in the class. Flora posted a 1.06 ERA across 16 starts this past season, and he fits a clear organizational need given San Francisco’s thin high-end pitching depth behind lefty Jacob Bresnahan and right-handers Keyner Martinez and Argenis Cayama. He also brings a local angle: Flora grew up a Giants fan and attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, the same school Crawford attended.
Still, general manager Zack Minasian made it clear last week on KNBR 680 that the Giants won’t box themselves in by need.
“I remember hearing this line about need being the worst evaluator,” Minasian said. “The draft is very difficult, so if you’re going to limit your talent pool, you’re just going to make it harder on yourself. So, we want to go into it with a completely open mind and then go from there.”
That leaves the door open for other possibilities, including prep shortstop Jacob Lombard of Gulliver Prep HS and prep outfielder Eric Booth Jr. of Oak Grove HS. Both come from athletic families.
Lombard is the son of former major leaguer George Lombard and the brother of Yankees prospect George Lombard. Booth’s father, Eric Booth Sr., was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 34th round before choosing football at Southern Mississippi, where he played running back and became a record-setting kick returner.
The Giants already have plenty of up-the-middle talent in the system. Gonzalez, Hernandez, Jhonny Level and Gavin Kilen are in the infield mix, while Bo Davidson and Dakota Jordan are in center field.
That said, the organization doesn’t appear ready to let current depth stop it from adding more shortstops or center fielders if the board falls that way. And if the Giants build enough of that kind of depth, it could become useful in trades down the line.
“I think our goal is just to bring in the most talent we can across the entire organization - international, amateur, trades,” Holmes said. “I think we’ve done a real nice job of bringing in a lot of middle-of-the-diamond players and guys that could help all over the field. You try not to get caught up in the moment and see what you have and what you don’t have, because in this game, it can change on a dime.”
At No. 29, there are more local names to watch. Shortstop Archer Horn, from St.
Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco and committed to Stanford, could be in play. So could shortstop Tyler Spangler, who missed his senior year at De La Salle and is also committed to Stanford.
And for Giants fans looking even further down the board, Peyton Bonds is a name to know. He’s the grandson of Bobby Bonds and the nephew of Barry Bonds, and he also played with Trevor Cohen, the Giants’ third-round pick in last year’s draft.
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