SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Much has been made of how the San Francisco Giants spruced up their roster in free agency. It wasn’t too splashy, with second baseman Luis Arráez, outfielder Harrison Bader and starters Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle filling big roster gaps.
What might break the Giants free off the constant pull to a .500 record is a more fruitful tree of homegrown players.
That’s not to say that the Giants haven’t developed their fair share of guys: Logan Webb, Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey are among the current group collectively with three All-Star appearances and three Gold Gloves.
What’s kept San Francisco out of the conversation for best farm system is its recent inability to produce a star, stark in contrast to the previous decade when the farm produced superstars Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, among others, and won titles as a result. Bryce Eldridge is the current, bright hope to be that guy, with a shot to make the big league team as a first baseman/designated hitter and elevate this roster with his potent swing.
The Giants, though, have a growing list of top prospects on the rise – so much so that Baseball America has the organization’s farm ranked 14th in baseball, a huge jump from 24th last year. Baseball America has three Giants hitters on its Top 100 list, including Eldridge as the Giants’ top prospect (18th overall), 18-year-old infielder Josuar Gonzalez (30th) and outfielder Bo Davidson (87th).
Here’s where those players, and other rising prospects, will be in 2026 and what’s stood out about their performance, with notes from senior director of player development Kyle Haines.
“He’s in the DSL and the same age as high school seniors, so to ask him to go right to Low A – which is a level that even players in the SEC and ACC struggle with – would probably be a little bit of a disservice until he can adjust with his peers,” Haines said. “I think if he does that, then we’ll see where it goes from there.”
The Giants signed Gonzalez for $2,997,500 in 2025 as the top international prospect.
“I knew he had a lot of physical tools, but I think he’s grown a lot in the last 12 to 16 months with us,” Haines said. “He looks taller and is more physical and those tools are even better than advertised as far as the range of shortstop. His passion for the game is something that really stood out to me this past year and one that was contagious. He has a lot of skills and raw talent, he’s got a lot of love for the game.”
“It’s a testament to scouts finding tools. It’s a testament to him buying into a lot of our organizational philosophies of a well-rounded player,” Haines said. “He’s adapted to center field well, and he has power, but he’s also a good hitter. He doesn’t just go up there and swing and miss and strike out. So now the next step is going to be translating those tools and skills he’s learned to the lower levels and transitioning to the upper levels of the minors. And I think big league camp’s a big start to that.”
Davidson was promoted to Double-A Richmond last year, where he hit .234 with eight home runs in 42 games. He can keep climbing the ladder if he shows he can adapt to pitchers game-planning against him as well as MLB-level pitching.
“The gap between Triple-A and the major leagues is massive, you don’t constantly see the command and stuff combo in Triple-A and Double-A,” Haines said. “What they’re going to evaluate is if he can evaluate the commanded game plans, is he hitting stuff, or is he hitting both. If it’s both, that’s a good sign.”
There were concerns about Jordan’s strikeout rates coming out of Mississippi State, but an adjustment limited his swing-and-miss last season. His batting stance used to be more squatted, Jeff Bagwell-esque. Now he’s a bit more upright in the box, which frees him up to better identify pitches and chase less on a biting slider out of the zone.
He hit .311 with 14 home runs and 95 strikeouts in 88 games for San Jose last year. Haines wasn’t happy to see that – given the reduction in strikeouts – Jordan wasn’t used as a replacement for Eldridge when he was scratched in last year’s Futures Game. He called MLB, going to bat for Jordan.
“I’m going, ‘Is there a higher ceiling guy in the minor leagues other than Dakota? And they said it was fair and agreed,” Haines said. “But I was a big proponent that he should have played in the Futures Game.”
It all culminated with a dominant August with the Richmond Flying Squirrels in which he had an 0.75 ERA over 12 innings out of the bullpen. He’s earned a big league camp invite this spring.
“The stuff isn’t the question, the question is going to be from outing to outing can he be in the zone? He might be one of the better relievers in all the minor league right now when he’s in control of the zone,” Haines said. “Consistency needs to improve with that, but the ceiling is there. It’s been great. He’s had those back injuries and a lot of things going on and held back his development a little bit, but now I think we’re starting to see him take off.”
The two-way player converted to a full-time pitcher in 2024 and has a 2.95 ERA in 14 games between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento. He had his first surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left throwing arm that September.
Crawford is currently rehabbing at the Giants’ minor league camp at Papago in Arizona and a mid-season return to the mound is the best-case scenario, Haines said
“I think timelines are always tough on rehab. Some of the rehabs are a little easier to predict, it’s how the body responds,” Haines said. “He’s feeling good, he’s trending well and he’s on time with his progression right now. As long as that continues, he’s going to be in a good spot by the end of the year. What day or month that is, I have no idea. If we can get him out on the field pitching, that’s a huge win for us.”
The team expects he’ll feel more comfortable at the plate now that a lingering bone bruise in his hip is healed. Kilen told trainers he’d hurt it hitting a home run during Tennessee’s championship run the season prior and the pain never subsided. It took him a while to speak up.
“He came in with a bone bruise lingering that was bothering him a bit when he was playing at San Jose, so feel like last year we didn’t get a chance to see who he really was, but excited to see him out there,” Haines said.
“He doesn’t get nearly as much talk in prospect circles as he should. He’s a late developer and bloomer. When he starts to get going, people are going to ask, who is this guy?”
The other is outfielder Trevor Cohen, who batted .327 with an .840 OPS with San Jose last season.
“He’s an underlying good player that we value at Oracle Park more than that one loud tool,” Haines said. “He fits the Giants mold, kind of reminiscent of the old Giants. A nice player that sits at Oracle Park for a long time. He reminds me of Steve Finley, that type of player.”
This article originally published at Which Giants prospects are showing the potential to play in the big leagues?.