The Minor League Baseball roundups were on hiatus for a few days, so, sorry about that. Things got a little busy and I wasn’t able to wrap up the season conclusions for the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels (who went 56-79 and missed the postseason) and High-A Eugene Emeralds (who lost 3-1 in the Northwest League Championship).
But two of the San Francisco Giants Minor League affiliates are still playing … or, more accurately, were still playing on Tuesday. So let’s dive into that action.
Link to the 2025
McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)
All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.
News
With AA Richmond seeing their season come to an end, a pair of high-performing players were sent to AAA Sacramento to get acclimated before presumably beginning 2026 there: outfielder Turner Hill and RHP Will Bednar (No. 42 CPL). Bednar is especially exciting, as the 2021 1st-round pick has seen things click this year following a move to the bullpen, and has turned into one of the best strikeout pitchers in all of Minor League Baseball.
Awards came out in the California League on Tuesday, and Low-A San Jose cleaned up. LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 31 CPL) was rewarded for his spectacular season by being named Pitcher of the Year and also making the All-Star team, where he was joined by outfielders Dakota Jordan (No. 8 CPL) and Carlos Gutierrez, and infielders Jakob Christian (No. 30 CPL) and Jean Carlos Sio. Manager Ydwin Villegas was named Manager of the Year for the second year running. Congrats to all of them!
Awards also came out in the Northwest League, where High-A Eugene was well represented: outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL) and corner infielder Charlie Szykowny (No. 43 CPL) were both named All-Stars, while manager Jeremiah Knackstedt took home Manager of the Year honors. Awesome!
AAA Sacramento (74-71)
Sacramento River Cats lost to the Round Rock Express (Rangers) 8-3
Box score
The big news for Sacramento, as they kicked off their final series of the year, was that LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 2 CPL) was making a rehab start. That was very exciting given that the Giants are leaking oil on the mound and can use all they help they can get.
Unfortunately, that help might not come from Whisenhunt, who had a difficult day. The southpaw made it through just 1.2 innings in his return to action, while allowing 4 hits (including 3 doubles), 1 walk, 3 runs, and 2 earned runs, with just 1 strikeout. That’s not a performance that will have the Giants rushing to put Whisenhunt back in the rotation and, unfortunately, throwing just 39 pitches isn’t enough to give the team confidence that he could chew up 4-6 innings. I’m guessing he’ll make another rehab appearance in the Sacramento’s season finale on Sunday, and then hopefully return to the Giants.
The bullpen pitched well, with the exception of RHP Braxton Roxby, who had an ERA buster, ceding 2 hits (including a home run), 1 walk, 1 hit batter, and 4 runs, while recording just 1 out. Roxby is going to be an interesting Rule 5 decision for the Giants, and I would certainly expect him to make his MLB debut next year, but there have been a lot of struggles since he got promoted to Sacramento.
RHP Mason Black (No. 7 CPL) had a nice game, giving up just 1 walk in 1.2 innings, with a strikeout. He’s been transitioning to the bullpen lately, and that. might mean that he gets some MLB time this month if the Giants find themselves in need of a fresh arm.
RHP Cole Waites (No. 32 CPL) pitched in his 2nd game with Sacramento this year, and threw a scoreless inning with 2 hits and a strikeout. Waites missed all of 2024 and the start of 2025 following Tommy John surgery, and returned this year in July. He made just 1 rehab appearance in the ACL before getting shut down for a few months again. So it’s great to see him back on the mound.
In the batter’s box, all 3 runs came with one swing of the bat, as first baseman Drew Ellis bopped a 3-run dinger as part of a 1-4 day.
Ellis hasn’t had a particularly strong season, and I’d assume he’ll look to be depth in a different organization next year, as the 30-year old doesn’t figure to have many chances to fill in at the corner infield spots for the Giants anytime soon. He’s certainly ending the season on a high note, as the right-handed hitter has hit 3 home runs in the last 4 games.
Center fielder Wade Meckler (No. 13 CPL) is trying to end his season on a high note, as he had a 3-4 game that featured a double. Meckler has climbed his batting average up to .279, which is much closer to what we’ve come to expect from the contact wizard, though it’s still not high enough to make up for his lack of power and likely inability to play center field at the next level. Even with Tuesday’s 3-hit day, it’s been a mediocre September for Meckler, who has a .709 OPS in the month … and a .734 OPS overall, with a 103 wRC+.
Unfortunately, we need to talk about someone who is not ending his season on a high note, but is doing the exact opposite: left fielder Marco Luciano. It was another atrocious day at the grassy office for Luciano on Tuesday, as he hit 0-4, struck out 3 times, and committed an error.
After a delightful hot streak, Luciano has fallen into what has to be the worst stretch that any Giants hitting prospect has had this year. Over the last 7 games, Luciano’s line reads like it has a few typos: 0-29 with 20 strikeouts.
I’m just going to repeat that: 0-29 with 20 strikeouts.
Luciano is completely lost at the moment, and it’s hard to diagnose it. Perhaps it’s fatigue after a long season in which he learned a new position. Maybe it’s the letdown of realizing he wasn’t going to make the Majors this year and not feeling urgency to compete. Possibly it’s a minor injury that he’s working through. It could be all three, and some other things as well.
Whatever it is, it’s painful to witness, especially since it looks all but guaranteed that Luciano — who will be out of options next year — is wrapping up his final week playing games for the organization (well, that’s probably not true: I think we’ll see him in Spring Training still).
The other 40-man hitters: catcher Jesús Rodríguez hit 1-4 with a double, and now has an .836 OPS and a 127 wRC+, while shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald went 0-4. with 2 strikeouts, dipping his OPS to .683 and his wRC+ to 79.
Low-A San Jose (Champions!)
San Jose Giants beat the Inland Empire 66ers (Angels) 4-2
Box score
The Baby Giants capped off a brilliant year with a trophy. They swept both best-of-three playoff series, and are the very deserving Cal League champions. Congrats!
As was the case all year, the Giants won with a balanced approach, getting contributions on both sides of the ball, up and down the lineup, and through the rotation and bullpen. It’s a testament to both how deep the Giants are in the lower Minors and the next-man-up mentality that they cruised through the postseason despite missing 3 of their best players (Dakota Jordan, Carlos Gutierrez, and Gavin Kilen).
Pitching was the star in this one, and it was led by one of the breakout performers of 2025: LHP Luis De La Torre. It wasn’t De La Torre’s best game, as he allowed 6 baserunners in 4 innings, but he limited the damage to just 2 runs, while striking out 5 batters. De La Torre was an unknown to many entering the year, but has now solidified himself as one of the very best pitching prospects on the farm, after posting a 1.77 ERA and a 2.46 FIP with San Jose. Between San Jose and the Arizona Complex League, and including his pair of playoff starts, De La Torre, who turned 22 earlier this month, struck out 120 batters in just 83.1 innings, while only walking 29. An absolutely brilliant season, and one that I’m guessing leads to beginning 2026 in Eugene, despite not pitching all that much in Low-A this year.
And then it was RHP Hunter Dryden, who ended a fantastic debut season with emphasis, throwing 4.2 shutout innings with just 3 hits and 0 walks, while striking out 3 batters and throwing 40 of 57 pitches for strikes. What a game! Dryden, the team’s 17th-round pick a year ago, finished his debut regular season with a 2.90 ERA and a 3.82 FIP. And he couldn’t have ended the year any better: over his final 3 appearances (2 of which occurred in the postseason and thus don’t count towards his ERA or FIP), Dryden threw 14.2 innings while allowing just 7 hits, 2 walks, and 0 runs, with 19 strikeouts. That’s how you stamp a strong season!
And a shout out to RHP Cade Vernon, who only faced a single batter, but retired that batter to be the man on the mound when the championship was won. Vernon, who was drafted in the 10th round a year ago, ended his debut season with a 1.60 ERA, albeit with a 4.23 FIP.
There were no stars on offense, but plenty of good performances. Left fielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 17 CPL) hit 1-3 with a triple and a walk, ending his solid season on a high note. He hardly conquered Low-A this year, but he did perform well all-around, while still being very young.
Catcher Diego Cartaya, the former top-10 overall prospect from the Dodgers system ended his debut short stint with the Giants by hitting 2-4 with 2 strikeouts and driving in 2 of the team’s runs. It will be very interesting to see him next year, presumably in AAA, assuming he stays in the system.
And the team’s recent 3rd-round pick, center fielder Trevor Cohen, ended his awesome debut season in style, hitting 2-4 and drawing a walk while striking out once. After posting an .840 OPS and a 140 wRC+ in 28 regular season games following the draft, Cohen hit 7-16 with 2 walks and just 1 strikeout in 4 playoff games. It’s a tiny sample size, but that sure looks like a dynamic pick!
Home run tracker
10 — Drew Ellis — [9 in AAA; 1 in AA]
