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Changing landscape may help some Giants prospects get promoted quicker

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Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports


The loss of so much opportunity has led and can lead to more opportunity for select prospects.

Without a minor league season in 2020, the development of thousands has been stalled. Instructional Leagues are up, but the Arizona Fall League has been canceled. The 2021 landscape is as uncertain as the rest of life, but even the minor leagues beginning play again would not mean all the minor league teams make their return, Major League Baseball trying to restructure the minor league system in a way that may eliminate about 40 teams.

What will this mean for the 2021 pipeline? Just as Joey Bart got a chance this season that he might not have if there were a Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento to send him to, prospects who immediately stand out could see expedited promotions.

“I think what you may see — and you saw some of this year — is teams be a little bit more aggressive in moving some of their prospects through the system,” Farhan Zaidi said at his end-of-season Zoom news conference (Zews conference?) on Wednesday. “It’s going to be a delicate balance because you don’t want to do anything that really hampers their development or their chances of long-term success. But maybe a guy, a pitcher that you’re looking at, who was in high-A ball, and you figured would be ticketed for Double-A for most of the season, gets off to a good start and you’re more inclined to move them up.

“Because there’s sort of opportunity because of the lost year. You’re not having the same pipeline of players working their way through the system.”

There will be a logjam that needs sorting. Apart from the top prospects who saw time at the alternate site, the great majority will not have taken the steps that teams look for to graduate from one level to another. And yet the Giants (and every team) still have added players, through the shortened draft or free agency, which will lead to further gridlock, especially as clubs get axed. The Giants’ short-season affiliate in Salem-Keizer was on the original list of teams that would no longer exist.

“It’s going to be a big question for the industry what the minor leagues look like next year,” Zaidi said. “Making sure that whatever we do allows players to continue to advance.”

The best place to develop in 2020 was the major leagues, which Bart did to uneven results. Sacramento was a better home for prospects than prospects’ homes, but it still was not the Double- and Triple-A experience that teams have grown reliant upon for finishing their minor leaguers.

Hitters saw the same pitchers every day. Pitchers tried to exploit the same holes in hitters every day. There were good arms in Giants camp, but only so many of them. As much as increases in technology have enabled a more concrete tracking of development — the Giants still got box scores from sim games and radar readings and exit velocities and such — there still is something about in-game competition that was lacking.

“Every team, us included, tried to make the alternate camps as competitive as possible,” Zaidi said. “Frankly, the feedback that we got from a lot of our players and heard from around the game is, it’s just not the same when you’re not seeing a different uniform on the other side of the field.”

As the Instructional Leagues start up, there will be a lot more to glean. And as imperfect as satellite camps had to be, Zaidi found places of encouragement:

— Reliever Camilo Doval “really impressed us,” Zaidi said. The fireballing, 23-year-old righty, whose 2019 strikeout numbers in High-A San Jose were excellent but his control was not, was a late-season taxi-squad member.

“Getting to spend some time around the big-league staff and clubhouse was huge,” Zaidi said, adding that experience helped…

Tyler Cyr, too. The 27-year-old from Fremont “did a really nice job and worked his way into that picture at the end of the season,” Zaidi said.

— Zaidi also complimented the work of Patrick Bailey, the 13th pick in this year’s draft. The switch-hitter got his first taste of the professional life and “did a really nice job.”

— The Giants continue to believe Marco Luciano can stick at shortstop, which is a source of pride for the 19-year-old phenom from the Dominican Republic.

“He’s been pretty public about the pride that he takes in his defensive work and having a goal of staying at shortstop, which obviously makes him an even more valuable and exciting player prospect than he is already, and that was really great to see,” Zaidi said.

Heliot Ramos has been “trying to refine the parts of the game that are going to turn him from prospect into productive big leaguer,” Zaidi said of the 21-year-old top outfield prospect. “The reports on him were really positive as well.”

Hunter Bishop missed time because of a positive COVID test but recovered and got some reps in.

“It was still really nice to have him in camp for the last few weeks,” Zaidi said of the outfielder, a 2019 first-round pick.