The Giants organization dropped from ninth to 18th in Keith Law’s annual farm system rankings, reflecting a 2022 season full of stagnation, poor health luck and disappointment with their top prospects.
When Farhan Zaidi took over in 2018, one of his main objectives was to replenish San Francisco’s depleted farm system in an effort to try to rival the conveyor belt of talent the Dodgers have. Instead, Zaidi’s best moves have been diamond-in-the-rough transactions for players like Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr., Darin Ruf and Luis González.
The farm, meanwhile, has plateaued, at least according to external evaluations. Law’s rankings in The Athletic noted that San Francisco’s previous first-round picks — Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos, Will Bednar, Patrick Bailey and Hunter Bishop — each struggled last year. Bart lost his rookie status, so he no longer qualifies for consideration, but the remaining four players represent a hiccup in development under Zaidi’s leadership.
Ramos got a taste of MLB action early in the 2022 season but wasn’t ready to hit big-league pitching, then struggled once sent back down to Triple-A. He posted only a .654 OPS in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League after going 2-for-20 in nine MLB games.
Bart had an uneven season that included a reset in Sacramento to address his unsustainable strikeout rate. Bailey, a switch-hitting catcher, hit significantly better as a righty (.851 OPS) than a lefty (.460) and probably needs to ditch the strategy.
Bishop missed most of 2021 with a shoulder injury and hit .233 in 85 High-A games — hardly encouraging as a bounce-back for the former 10th overall pick. And Bednar, a right-handed starter, couldn’t graduate from low-A San Jose with a 4.19 ERA in 12 starts.
Luis Matos, another top prospect in the system, also got hurt.
“I feel better about the first two guys (Marco Luciano and Matos) getting healthy and bouncing back than Bart, Bailey or Bishop improving,” Law ominously wrote.
The Giants’ system still has promise, with left-handed Kyle Harrison regarded as the top southpaw prospect in the game. Law ranked him 12th in his Top-100, and MLB.com pegged him as 18th overall. Harrison is expected to contribute to the Giants this year, and drew a Chris Sale comparison from Law.
Harrison dominated High-A and Double-A competition last year, posting an overall 2.71 ERA and 186 strikeouts in 113 innings. He became San Francisco’s clear-cut top prospect and will arrive in San Francisco if he performs like that for the River Cats.
SF’s other top prospect, Marco Luciano, got displaced by Harrison because he dealt with back injuries. Luciano came in at No. 21 in Law’s Top-100 and No. 22 in MLB.com’s. Law noted that Luciano won’t stick at shortstop — a common prediction by evaluators — but could one day become one of the best players in baseball if he moves to third.
“The bat will still play there, or anywhere, although the positional question creates a wide range in his expected outcomes,” Law wrote. “At third, he might be a top 5-10 player in baseball. In the outfield, he might just be a star.
But Harrison and Luciano are the only two Giants prospects considered top-100 guys. The Dodgers, first in Law’s farm system rankings, have more top-100 prospects than any other team with eight.