I suspect that from here on out, most of the elections in the 2027 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, which will see us rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization, will be tight. But the last one? Not so much.
Giants fans, it seems, see a line of delineation between the top six prospects and the next batch. That was apparent on Monday’s ballot, as the result was a blowout. With an overwhelming majority of the vote, outfielder Bo Davidson has been voted as the No.
6 prospect in the system, it what will almost certainly be his final year of eligibility. It’s a drop of two spots for Davidson, who was No. 4 a year ago, and that says much more about the names ahead of him than it does about him, because it was an absolutely exceptional season for the left-handed slugger.
Davidson, who was an undrafted free agent in 2023 and has been one of the best success stories in all of Minor League Baseball the last few years, kicked off the 2026 season with AA Richmond, where he had ended 2025. He had hit well there during his stint the season prior, but he took it up a notch this year … but not before spinning his tires a little.
It was a slow start to the year for Davidson, who missed time early in the season with an injury, and also to welcome the birth of his first kid. Those absences seemed to throw him off rhythm a bit, and he ended May with just a .664 OPS through the first two months of the season.
And then came June. And with it, all of Davidson’s potential materialized. After hitting just one home run in May, Davidson went 29-94 with 11 dingers in June alone, while also drawing 14 walks. By the time the All-Star break rolled around, his slow start was a distant memory, he had an .861 OPS and a 122 wRC+, and it was time to test his talents in AAA.
A similar thing happened when Davidson joined the Sacramento River Cats. As is the case with most players, there was an adjustment period to the highest level of the Minors, and he was struggling a bit on offense early on. And then everything clicked, and it clicked in a huge way. In the middle of August, Davidson rattled off a 10-game hitting streak that saw him go 23-43 with six home runs and seven doubles.
At that point it was off to the races for Davidson, who ended up being one of the top hitters in the Pacific Coast League: in 53 games, he hit .309/.389/.534 for a .923 OPS and a 138 wRC+. Perhaps best of all, though, were the underlying metrics: Davidson’s AAA Statcast page is a sea of red (which is a good thing), and the hard-hit data jumps off the page. He was 94th percentile in average exit velocity, 95th percentile in 50th percentile exit velocity, 82nd percentile in 90th percentile exit velocity, and 94th percentile in hard hit rate.
There’s been a refrain among the organization that Davidson, who turned 24 in July, should have more untapped potential than one might expect of a player his age. That’s understandable given that he was a Junior College player, and really entered the Minors having never seen serious velocity or spin from pitchers. That belief is backed up by arguably the most promising thing to come out of Davidson’s season: he got better.
In 2025, Davidson hit 18 home runs; in 2026, in a nearly identical amount of at-bats, he pushed that number all the way to 29, tops in the system. His strikeout rate, of 22.8% against High-A and AA pitchers a year ago, dropped to 21.5% against more advanced pitching in AA and AAA, with his swinging strike rate decreasing as well. He even made mild gains on the basepaths, stealing 20 bags in 23 attempts, after needing 25 attempts to swipe 19 bases the year prior.
The only downsides in an otherwise brilliant year were that Davidson was moved off of center field upon his AAA arrival (though he proved to be a very strong defensive corner outfielder), and he didn’t make many gains in hitting same-handed pitching. Should he stick at the Major League level, there’s a high chance of being a platoon bat.
Speaking of the Major Leagues, Davidson got a cup of coffee to end the year, and hit 7-20 with a walk and seven strikeouts in his MLB debut. He’ll come to Spring Training (if there is a Spring Training) with every opportunity to win a job on the Opening Day roster … and even if he opens the year back in AAA (not the worst thing given that he only has played 52 games there), you can be sure that he’ll get ample opportunity in 2027 to prove that he can be a core part of the Giants going forward. The sky’s the limit when you have that much power, backed up with a strong hit tool, quality defense, and exceptional size and athleticism!
Now let’s add to the list, and a reminder that voting takes place in the comment section now.
The list so far
- Josuar González — SS
- Jackson Flora — RHP
- Luis Hernández — SS
- Jhonny Level — SS
- Ramon Marquez — RHP
- Bo Davidson — OF
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 7 prospect nominees
Carson Bolemon — 19.7-year old LHP — yet to debut
Jacob Bresnahan — 21.4-year old LHP — 2.92 ERA/4.32 FIP in High-A (98.2 IP); 5.06 ERA/3.60 FIP in AA (16 IP)
Argenis Cayama — 20.1-year old RHP — 4.87 ERA/4.27 FIP in Low-A (57.1 IP)
Dakota Jordan — 23.5-year old OF — .879 OPS/125 wRC+ in High-A (355 PA); .697 OPS/87 wRC+ in AA (88 PA)
Gavin Kilen — 22.7-year old SS — .811 OPS/112 wRC+ in High-A (349 PA); .811 OPS/112 wRC+ in AA (143 PA)
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 2026 season.
