Luciano, Bishop will have chance to impress
SF’s Luciano, Bishop and Ramos will have chance to impress
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> With a month of Cactus League games to prepare for the regular season, San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler doesn’t want to ask too much of his veteran players too soon.
The Giants will be cautious while easing players such as Evan Longoria, Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey into action, so many of the youngest prospects in camp should have early opportunities to hit the field and make an impression on the major league coaching staff.
“I’m excited for them to be able to play amongst the big boys and show people where they belong,” Giants farm director Kyle Haines said. “They’re going to come in and I don’t think they’re fazed by anything anymore.”
Giants fans have heard the names of top prospects such as shortstop Marco Luciano, outfielder Heliot Ramos and starting pitcher Sean Hjelle for the last several years, but with the cancelation of the 2020 minor league season due to the coronavirus pandemic, there haven’t been many chances to see them in action.
That should change this spring as the Giants plan to have a large group of the organization’s top prospects who received invitations to major league camp appear in Cactus League games. The Giants haven’t outlined their plans for how frequently players such as middle infield prospect Will Wilson or 2020 first-round draft choice Patrick Bailey will take at-bats, but the coaching staff is motivated to see how they fare against tough competition.
“A lot of these guys were at the summer camp or alternate site and I think the new of being around the major league staff for some of the position players especially is over and now they just get to focus on competing or getting better at Scottsdale Stadium,” Haines said.
Early in the spring, it’s unlikely veteran players such as Alex Dickerson or Mike Yastrzemski will play on back-to-back days. The Giants have plenty of other outfielders on the depth chart including LaMonte Wade
Jr. and Steven Duggar who they need to evaluate, but in the later innings of spring training games, fans should have a chance to watch Ramos or Bishop patrol the outfield and step into the batter’s box.
Ramos, the franchise’s firstround draft choice in 2017, is considered a leader of the next wave of Giants’ prospects and after he missed out on a full Double-A season, the organization is especially eager to watch him alongside big leaguers during camp.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said it’s possible the Puerto Rico native would be in contention for a major league job this spring if he had played a full 2020 minor league season, but Haines said he believes Ramos still took a step forward in taking reps at the team’s alternate site and during instructional league play in the fall.
“People forget how young he is and the expectations go through the roof,” Haines said of the 21-year-old Ramos. “It’s like, ‘Why is he not in the major leagues’ and you have to tell people, ‘He’s got like 90 at-bats
out of A-ball’ and that was even tough for Buster Posey.’”
Aside from the starting pitching prospects in camp — Hjelle, Tristan Beck, Kai-Wei Teng and Matt Frisbee — the Giants also have a group of intriguing young relievers who will have a chance to make strong impressions out of the bullpen. Camilo Doval, a right-hander who spent last summer at the alternate site, and fellow righties Kervin Castro and Gregory Santos all have mid-to-high-90s fastballs with intriguing secondary offerings and all could be high-leverage options for the Giants by the end of the season.
“Kervin Castro and Gregory Santos, during the shutdown, they just took their work ethic and their growth to another level on their own,” Haines said. “When they showed up to instructional league, it was incredible to see how much they grew. It was one of those exciting moments.”
Haines said despite all the challenges Giants’ minor league coaches faced last summer due to COVID-19, he was pleased with how his player development staff was able to stay in
contact with prospects and keep tabs on their development. The Giants’ farm director praised education coordinator Laura Núñez for keeping the Giants’ Latin American prospects engaged and medical coordinators Ryo Watanabe and Dustin Luepker for going to great lengths to ensure players were healthy throughout the year.
With a more normal minor league season expected to take place this year and the majority of Giants prospects set to arrive in Scottsdale in April after major league camp breaks, the player development staff will soon have all-hands-on-deck working to help prospects reacclimate to organized baseball.
For now, the Giants will watch a smaller group of their top prospects take the field during spring training games, which is a thrill for a group that didn’t get to play last summer.
“It feels like it’s got to be one of the youngest groups we’ve ever brought in (to major league camp) and they’re excited to showcase what they can do amongst the best in the world,” Haines said.