Well friends, there it is. The San Francisco Giants entered the weekend with just one of their seven Minor League Baseball affiliates in action. And now that number is zero.
And so begins the final Minor League roundup of the season, as there are no more games until the sun disappears and returns again … no, not tomorrow, but spring.
Here’s what happened on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
News
Just one small piece of news: Outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) may have ended the year with an extended stint in AAA,
but he still did enough in the 1st half of the season to be named an All-Star in the AA Eastern League. Very well deserved!
AAA Sacramento (79-68)
Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces 6-4 [box score]
Saturday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces 7-4 [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces 4-1 [box score]
It was a great season for the Giants Minor League affiliates, and that certainly includes Sacramento. But the struggles of the Major League roster have certainly had a trickle-down effect, as San Francisco repeatedly pulled talent from the River Cats, who then had to sap talent from elsewhere. And so it’s not really a surprise that both Sacramento and AA Richmond ended the season on serious skids, which included the River Cats losing all 3 games of their final weekend. So it goes. Sometimes the best things end poorly!
Fittingly, there weren’t a lot of performances to highlight. But right fielder/left fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) ended what possibly could be his final Minor League season on a high note, as he did a little bit of everything. The lefty went 6-10 over the weekend, smashed a double, drew 2 walks, was hit by a pitch, stole a base, registered 2 outfield assists, and struck out 3 times.
With that, Davidson ends his debut AAA stint with a glistening .923 OPS and a 138 wRC+ over 52 games (despite a slow start following a midseason promotion). Perhaps most impressively, he struck out just 18.8% of the time in Sacramento.
Now comes a question that could be answered in the next few hours: will Davidson get to make his MLB debut this year? The beat reporters have suggested that, had he not fouled a ball off his foot resulting in a contusion, Davidson would have been called up last week, instead of Scott Bandura. Instead, he stayed in AAA, got healthy, finished the season with a bang … and now there are still 6 games left on the MLB schedule. Perhaps it depends on whether Jung Hoo Lee, who left Sunday’s game after fouling a ball off a tender region, is going to be placed on the IL or not.
Unfortunately, ending the season on a high note could not be said for another player who is in consideration for a late-season MLB debut: LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL). Whitman getting the call to the bigs seems less likely than Davidson, but if the Giants have already made the decision to roster him ahead of the Rule 5 Draft, they could give him a cup of coffee, especially since Logan Webb has been shut down.
Whitman ended the season on an absolute tear, but unfortunately the final data point was a poor one: the 2023 comp-round pick started on Saturday and, while he did make it through 5.1 innings, it was far from a notable performance, as he gave up a whopping 10 hits, which included a home run and 2 doubles.
Hits happen, and, on the bright side, Whitman did a great job throwing strikes, as 67 of his 88 pitches went for strikes, and he issued just 1 walk. But he wasn’t missing bats, as he not only gave up 10 knocks, but registered just 2 strikeouts on the day, and ultimately gave up 5 runs (though just 3 were earned).
It was still a very successful season for Whitman, especially given how mediocre his 2025 campaign was. The Kent State alum, who turned 25 last week, began the year repeating AA, and was arguably the top pitcher in the Eastern League, where he posted a 3.22 ERA and a 2.37 FIP in 10 starts, with 11.6 strikeouts and just 2.3 walks per 9 innings. Things were, understandably, a bit tougher when he made it to the Pacific Coast League, where he finished with a 3.74 ERA and a 4.73 FIP in 22 games (14 starts), but only had 7.4 strikeouts per 9 innings (though he also only had 2.5 walks).
He’ll need to work on those strikeouts, but there’s some fairly promising stuff in there, especially for a AAA newbie: of the 89 PCL pitchers with at least 50 innings this year, Whitman was 11th in ERA, 16th in FIP, and 8th in walks per 9. Now he just needs to learn how to throw pitchers that aren’t so hittable: complementing the low strikeout rate was a very-high .279 batting average against.
Other than Davidson and Whitman and their respective MLB watches, there wasn’t a lot going on over the weekend. A pair of hitters capped feel-good years with home runs, as designated hitter Eddys Leonard and catcher Fernando Gonzalez both hit the ball over the fence (the former a 3-run shot on Saturday; the latter a solo blast on Sunday).
Leonard otherwise had a tough weekend, hitting 2-12 with 4 strikeouts, but it will be a year to remember for the 25-year old righty. 5 years after getting rostered by the Los Angeles Dodgers as a Rule 5 protection (and a few years after using up his Minor League options), Leonard finally got a chance to make his MLB debut in August. He has since been outrighted, but after post an .812 OPS and a 113 wRC+, while playing in both the infield and the outfield, he should have no shortage of Minor League opportunities to choose from next year.
As for Gonzalez, a 24-year old taken in the 20th round of the 2024 draft, he had a very mild-mannered year with Low-A San Jose, where he posted a .661 OPS and a 79 wRC+ in 42 games. But with the Giants having roster crunches throughout the Minors, the Georgia Bulldog was sent to AAA for emergency depth to end the year.
Gonzalez, who didn’t play Friday or Saturday, but went 1-2 with a hit by pitch and a strikeout on Sunday, made the most of his time in AAA, posting a .918 OPS and a 148 wRC+ in 10 games, while doing an impressive job behind the dish for someone with exactly 0 games in High-A or AA. That will earn him some fans in the organization.
Third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL), who had a very impressive year but ended the season in quite a slump, had another tough go of it over the weekend, hitting just 1-12 with a walk, a stolen base, a strikeout, and an error. The righty slugger, who turns 25 this week, had a delayed start to the season after suffering an injury during a (very impressive) Spring Training showing, but still destroyed AA pitchers to the tune of an .879 OPS and a 131 wRC+ in 66 games. After getting promoted to Sacramento, he laid waste to the PCL for a while, before hitting a wall as the season neared an end. Check out his Sacramento splits:
First 32 games: 40-128, 5 home runs, 0 triples, 8 doubles, 18 walks, 33 strikeouts
Next 22 games: 15-87, 1 home run, 1 triple, 1 double, 11 walks, 26 strikeouts
That slump brought him down to just a .739 OPS and a 98 wRC+ in his debut AAA stint, and the question becomes: did he struggle because he ran out of steam, because he ran out of luck, or because the league made some adjustments and now he needs to make counter-adjustments? Either way, those struggles don’t dim his star, and honestly, if you predicted that Harber leads the Giants in left field starts next year, I wouldn’t call you dumb!
Whitman was the only pure starting pitcher over the weekend. On Friday the River Cats used an opener, as MLB LHP Sam Hentges made his lone rehab appearance before a staggering bit of roster mismanagement (he was activated to the MLB squad for a game that he was not available to pitch in). Hentges struck out 2 batters in a perfect inning before giving way to RHP Darien Smith, who struggled in a bulk innings role, giving up 6 hits, 2 home runs, 2 walks, and 4 runs total in 3 innings, with 2 strikeouts. Smith, who had a 3.93 ERA but a 5.39 FIP across 15 games in AAA, AA, and the Complex League, lost much of the year to injury, but is headed to the desert for the Arizona Fall League.
And on Sunday, LHP Seth Lonsway started but pitched sparingly, tossing 2 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts. Lonsway didn’t have a notable season in the Minors, as the soon-to-turn 28-year old posted just a 5.11 ERA and a 6.24 FIP in 24 AAA games, with only 5.8 strikeouts per 9 innings. But it was still a year to remember, as he made his MLB debut. Unfortunately, Lonsway will almost certainly be a roster casualty this offseason, though the Giants will likely be able to outright him and keep him in Sacramento next year as a depth option.
For the 2nd year in a row, RHP Tyler Vogel got moved up to AAA for the final week of the season. After posting a 3.35 ERA and a 4.63 FIP in AA this year, Vogel made a lone appearance for Sacramento on Saturday and gave up a hit, a walk, and a run in an inning of work, with 1 strikeout.
Nice season-ending outings for RHPs Braxton Roxby, Will Bednar (No. 24 CPL), and R.J. Dabovich, as well as LHP Nick Zwack. All 4 have a whole bunch of talent in their arms, and we’ll see if they can work their way into the bullpen plans next year (though Dabovich is entering Minor League free agency).
Thanks for reading all the Minor League recaps this year, everyone!
Home run tracker
18 — Eddys Leonard — [AAA]
4 — Fernando Gonzalez — [1 in AAA; 2 in Low-A; 1 in ACL]
