The San Francisco Giants are staring at a season that looks headed for the scrap heap by August, and the deadline chatter has already started to sound familiar: sell, retool, look ahead. That likely means moving key pieces and holding onto the big contracts for at least another year, with president of baseball operations Buster Posey left to manage the fallout.
But while the major-league product has gone sideways, one part of the organization is drawing a different kind of attention. The Giants have managed to stock the top of their system, and that may be the clearest sign yet that this lost season hasn’t been a total waste.
Bryce Eldridge has already moved beyond prospect status after spending two years as San Francisco’s top minor league talent following his first-round selection out of high school in 2023. Even with Eldridge gone from the prospect rankings, the cupboard is far from empty. In Baseball America’s July update, the Giants still had five players in the Top 100, and if the club doesn’t buy at the deadline, it’s likely to keep all five.
That group starts with shortstop Josuar Gonzalez at No. 17, followed by shortstop Luis Hernandez at No. 46, shortstop Jhonny Level at No. 60, pitcher Jackson Flora at No. 62 and outfielder Bo Davidson at No. 83.
Not all of them are close to helping the big club right away. Davidson is the exception, and he was just promoted to Triple-A Sacramento this week.
The others are still further down the road. Even so, the collection at the top of the system says a lot about how the Giants have gone about building talent.
Gonzalez, Hernandez and Level all came via the international market. Level was added during the final months of Farhan Zaidi’s time running baseball operations, while Posey’s group landed Hernandez and Gonzalez and paid up to do it. Over the past two years, San Francisco spent a combined $8 million for the consensus top position players on the market.
Flora represents another major investment. The Giants took him with the No. 4 overall pick in the MLB draft, and he is expected to receive a slot bonus worth $8.99 million. The former UC Santa Barbara pitcher and California native was viewed as the top pitcher in the draft and could move quickly.
Davidson’s path has been different, but just as important to the organization’s depth. He went undrafted, then signed as a free agent in 2023 out of Caldwell Tech CC in North Carolina under Zaidi’s staff. Since then, he has become one of the Giants’ best development stories and could be in position to help San Francisco next season.
So while the Giants are slogging through a rough year, the long view looks better than the short one. Posey’s focus on the farm system, along with keeping the right players from Zaidi’s era, has given the organization something real to point to even in the middle of a season going nowhere.
In Other News...
Giants Just Pushed Another Wave Of Prospects Closer To The Big Leagues
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The jump is especially notable for Bo Davidson and Parks Harber, who now get a longer look at Triple-A Sacramento, where performance can start to put a player on the doorstep of the majors. For San Francisco, these are the kinds of moves that matter beyond the box score, because the organization is trying to find out which prospects can keep climbing when the competition gets sharper and the margin for error gets thinner. [Read more 🡒]
White Sox Suddenly Have 3 Deadline Arms Fans Need To Watch
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For the Giants, Webb is the kind of arm that naturally draws attention because of his durability and the way he has anchored their rotation year after year. He is under control through 2028 on a five-year, $90 million deal, and his workload profile gives any contender a reason to think he could stabilize a staff immediately, which is exactly why his name keeps surfacing as the deadline picture starts to sharpen. [Read more 🡒]
Former Giant Mark Canha May Have A Wild New Calling
Mark Canhas time with the Giants last season was brief, but he made enough of an impression in 32 games to stay on the radar around the organization. Now the former Giant is drawing attention for something far removed from the batters box, having popped up on a Food Network competition show and shown theres at least some crossover between his baseball life and a possible future in food.
Canha did not get far in that TV appearance, but the bigger point is that he is not treating baseball and the next chapter as an either-or proposition. He is still open to continuing his playing career, even as he explores opportunities in the food influencer space, which gives his post-baseball path a much different feel than the usual coaching or broadcasting route. [Read more 🡒]