If you can believe it, Spring Training is right around the corner. Which means we’d better get cracking on the Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, because we have to rank 44 San Francisco
Giants prospects, and we’re only just past the halfway mark!
Our latest name is one that has been all over the CPL: it’s right-handed reliever Will Bednar, who has been voted as the No. 24 prospect in the Giants system. Bednar has been rising in the CPL: last year he came in at No. 42, and the year before, he went unranked. But three years ago who ranked No. 25, and in his CPL debut he was all the way up at No. 8.
Needless to say, his career has also been something of a roller-coaster. The Mississippi State product was the Giants first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, after a spectacular, nearly-perfect showing in the College World Series. At the time of the draft, Bednar was viewed as a high-floor starter who could move quickly.
That didn’t happen. His first full season, in 2022, was a mix of injuries and poor performance, as he put up rough numbers (4.19 ERA, 6.26 FIP, 4.6 walks per nine) in a half-season with Low-A San Jose; those injuries (he had multiple, notably to his back) cost him almost all of 2023, as he made just four rehab appearances in the Complex League.
He returned in 2024 and the Giants, sensing urgency, rushed him through Low-A and High-A (he pitched just 10 games, combined, at those levels), and had him settle in with AA Richmond. While in Richmond — and working mostly in relief — Bednar showed some quality strikeout stuff. But unfortunately, everything else was awful. In 21 games he posted a 7.71 ERA and a 6.93 FIP and, most damningly, walked 36 batters in just 32.2 innings.
But Bednar, who will turn 26 in June, started to turn a corner in 2025. Back in AA, he put the strikeout stuff fully on display in 36 appearances out of the ‘pen, with a staggering 84 punchouts in just 50.2 innings. The walk issue remained, but not nearly as badly: this time he had 38 of them, slashing his AA walks per nine rate from 9.92 to 6.75 … a catastrophic number to a merely very bad one. But it’s worth noting that Bednar made strides in that category as the year went on: in August and September, Bednar had 34 strikeouts against 10 walks in 20 innings.
When the AA season wrapped, Bednar got the call to head to AAA Sacramento for a short stint, though it went quite poorly: in two games he pitched just 1.2 innings, ceding six hits, one walk, one hit batter, and five earned runs, with no strikeouts.
Bednar will need to keep making strides in the walk department if he wants to follow in his brother David’s footsteps and become a high-quality MLB reliever. But he certainly did a fantastic job using 2025 to remake his game, and show off new electricity, as he added a few extra MPHs to his pitches, and flirted with triple digits. The strikeout stuff really was remarkable: his 14.49 strikeouts per nine innings ranked eighth out of the 1,383 Minor League pitchers who threw at least 50 innings last year (and if you remove his AAA stint, his 14.92 mark would have ranked third). There’s the makings of not just an MLB pitcher in there, but a very good one.
But of course, there are reasons for pessimism, too. Further slashing a walk rate won’t be easy, and Bednar is already on the older side for a prospect. He was left unprotected and unselected in the Rule 5 Draft, which offers a glimpse into the industry view about him. He’ll almost surely be an NRI in Scottsdale next month, and open 2026 in Sacramento’s bullpen, where he’ll get a chance to prove that the industry perception is in need of an update.
Now let’s add to the list! As a reminder, voting now takes place in the comment section.
The list so far
- Bryce Eldridge — 1B
- Josuar González — SS
- Jhonny Level — SS
- Bo Davidson — CF
- Dakota Jordan — CF
- Luis Hernandez — SS
- Gavin Kilen — SS
- Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
- Blade Tidwell — RHP
- Keyner Martinez — RHP
- Jacob Bresnahan — LHP
- Trevor McDonald — RHP
- Argenis Cayama — RHP
- Luis De La Torre — LHP
- Trevor Cohen — OF
- Jesús Rodríguez — C
- Parks Harber — OF/3B
- Carlos Gutierrez — OF
- Drew Cavanaugh — C
- Daniel Susac — C
- Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP
- Josh Bostick — RHP
- Lorenzo Meola — SS/2B
- Will Bednar — RHP
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 25 prospect nominees
Lisbel Diaz — 20.5-year old OF — .725 OPS/96 wRC+ in Low-A (561 PA)
Trent Harris — 26.11-year old RHP — 5.44 ERA/4.69 FIP in AAA (41.1 IP); 1.69 ERA/1.73 FIP in AA (16 IP)
Yunior Marte — 22.4-year old RHP — 2.91 ERA/3.19 FIP in Low-A (102 IP)
Diego Velasquez — 22.2-year old 2B — .677 OPS/107 wRC+ in AA (566 PA)
Joe Whitman — 24.3-year old LHP — 5.29 ERA/3.61 FIP in AA (117.1 IP)
Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2025 season.
