The 2025 season was arguably the best in recent memory for the San Francisco Giants farm system, but most of the work has happened at lower levels. As such, the development hasn’t left too many players on the precipice of the Majors, and that was on display Tuesday, with a critical decision the Giants made. As the deadline approached and passed to add eligible players to the 40-man roster and protect them from the Rule 5 Draft, the Giants stayed seated, and opted to protect no one.
It’s not particularly
surprising news, as the Giants, unlike in some past years, didn’t have any slam dunk options. Furthermore, it seems likely that all the players the Giants gave serious consideration to were pitchers, and the team, which has an entirely full 40-man roster, already have 21 pitchers on the roster.
Because the Giants made no protections, all of their Rule 5 eligible players can be poached from them during the Rule 5 Draft on December 10. As a reminder, players drafted in the Rule 5 Draft have to be added not just to the 40-man roster, but also to the active roster, where they must remain for a full season without being optioned, or else offered back to their original team.
There are a handful of players whom other teams will consider, primarily right-handed relievers Will Bednar (who had 14.9 strikeouts per nine innings in AA), Braxton Roxby (who had a 1.20 ERA in AA), Marques Johnson (who had a 2.53 ERA across two levels), and Spencer Miles (who opened tons of eyes in the AFL over the last month). But each of those four comes with question marks and concerns that will likely keep them from being selected: Bednar had a sky-high walk rate and got lit up in his short AAA stint; Roxby had a 5.91 ERA in 32 innings after getting promoted to AAA; Johnson spent the year between High-A and AA and has yet to make the highest level of the Minors; and Miles has only pitched 14.2 innings in the Minors since getting drafted in 2022 due to countless injuries.
Some other notable names that will be eligible to be drafted from the Giants system: left-handed pitchers Juan Sánchez, Reggie Crawford, and Jack Choate; right-handers Trystan Vrieling, Gerelmi Maldonado, and Tyler Vogel; and infielders Diego Velasquez and Nate Furman.
Partially due to philosophy, and partially due to roster and farm logistics, the Giants have been much more stingy with Rule 5 protections since Buster Posey took over than they were with Farhan Zaidi at the helm. The Giants have protected just two players in Posey’s two offseasons, with none this year and righties Carson Seymour and Carson Ragsdale a year ago.
In Zaidi’s final year as president of baseball operations, in the winter of 2023, the Giants protected three players: right-handers Trevor McDonald and Kai-Wei Teng, and lefty Erik Miller. In 2022, they protected a whopping six players: righties Tristan Beck, Keaton Winn, and José Cruz, outfielder Luis Matos, infielder Brett Wisely, and (then) shortstop Marco Luciano. In 2021, they protected three players: right-handers Randy Rodríguez and Sean Hjelle, and outfielder Heliot Ramos. Back in 2020, the team opted for four protections: right-handers Camilo Doval, Kervin Castro, and Gregory Santos, and outfielder Alexander Canario.
Immediately following the standard Rule 5 Draft, the 30 MLB teams will partake in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Prior to that, teams must submit a list of up to 38 Rule 5-eligible players who are protected by being “added” to the AAA roster; anyone left unprotected can be drafted by other teams who are not yet at 38 players. However, those lists are not made public, so we won’t know who is and is not protected.
