Wednesday wasn’t a great day for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball teams. The Low-A San Jose Giants lost the California League championship and, with that, we’ve worked our way from seven teams down to two. That two will quickly become zero, as AAA Sacramento is playing their final series of the year, while AA Richmond is in their playoff run.
Here’s everything that happened on Wednesday, with one of our final Minor League roundups of the 2027 season.
Link to the 2026 McCovey Chronicles
Community Prospect List (CPL)
All listed positions in the roundup are the position played in that particular game.
News
The High-A awards were announced on Wednesday, and the Eugene Emeralds positively cleaned up. Eugene had 4 players make the Northwest League All-Star team: shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL), who was named to the team as a utility player after getting some time at second base, outfielder Dakota Jordan (No. 5 CPL), LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 11 CPL), and RHP Ryan Vanderhei. That’s impressive work, but it doesn’t stop there!
Level was given arguably the most important honors in the league, as he was named the Top MLB Prospect in the Northwest League. It’s the 2nd year running that Level has been bestowed with that honor, after earning it in the Arizona Complex League in 2026.
But winning an award twice in a row won’t impress Bresnahan who, remarkably, was named the Pitcher of the Year in his league for the 3rd year running! My goodness! Let’s hope he keeps that honor up all the way into the Majors.
In addition to those four All-Stars, manager Jacob Heyward was named the Northwest League Manager of the Year, as he continues to look like a future MLB manager.
AAA Sacramento (78-65)
Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) 3-2
Box score
A fairly uninteresting loss for the River Cats, though there were some things to note. The biggest thing to come out of this game was the return of left fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL). When Davidson fouled a ball off of his foot last week, and needed help walking off the field, it certainly looked like his season was over, and even allowed you to be concerned about his offseason work and Spring Training. But thankfully, it was announced that he had a contusion rather than a fracture and, just a few days later, he was back in the lineup.
Davidson didn’t play particularly well, as he went 0-4, but it’s just great seeing him healthy. Had he not suffered that minor injury, he might be in the Majors right now instead of Scott Bandura, not that I’m upset about Bandura getting that opportunity!
The lefty slugger, who is a lock to be added to the roster as a Rule 5 protection, now has 4 games to hit 2 home runs, which would make him the Giants first Minor Leaguer with 30 home runs since Adam Duvall in 2012.
Davidson wasn’t the only River Cat to struggle at the plate, as Sacramento had just 4 hits on the day. Half of those came off the bat of third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL), who is doing a decent job bouncing back from his slump to end the year on a high note. The righty went 2-4 in this game, while bashing a triple and striking out once.
Harber hasn’t been quite as dynamic lately as he was when he first got to AAA, but he has been swinging the bat well, which is a very welcome sight. After an 8-game stretch in late August and early September where he hit just 1-34 with 0 extra-base hits, 4 walks, and 12 strikeouts, Harber has responded with a 10-game run where he’s gone 13-39 with 3 extra-base knocks, 6 walks, and 12 strikeouts. Love to see players work through struggles, and it’s brought him back to a positive line overall, as he has a .781 OPS and a 109 wRC+.
Second baseman Zane Zielinski made his AAA debut, as he was moved up to help out the depleted Sacramento roster. It was a sterling debut for the 2024 underslot 9th-rounder, who hit 1-2 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.
It will be interesting to see where the Giants put Zielinski, who recently turned 25, when the 2027 season rolls around. He’s a very good defensive infielder, which has made the team comfortable moving him up levels to cover roster holes. But he has really struggled with the bat this year, posting a .657 OPS and an 82 wRC+ with High-A Eugene, and a .551 OPS and a 47 wRC+ with AA Richmond.
Right fielder Victor Bericoto (No. 35 CPL) continued his rehab assignment and hit 1-4 with a double and a strikeout.
Another very rough start for RHP Trystan Vrieling, who has quickly learned a hard lesson about the quality of AAA hitters and the environment of the Pacific Coast League. Vrieling, a 2022 3rd-rounder who came over in the Camilo Doval trade, needed exactly 100 pitches to get through just 4.2 innings, and while he only gave up 3 hits, 1 of those hits was a home run, and he walked 6 batters on the day, leading to 3 runs on his stat sheet.
The one good part of Vrieling’s performance was that he struck out 7 batters and, interestingly, that’s been a trend for him. He’s been completely beaten up in 4 starts since his promotion, giving up 31 hits, 14 walks, and 19 earned runs in just 17.2 innings, good for a 9.68 ERA and a 5.84 FIP. But he does have 25 strikeouts during that time, which means he’s sitting on 12.7 Ks per 9 innings in AAA … after that number being just 8.3 in AA this year. Hopefully that’s the start of something, but in all likelihood it’s just fun with sample sizes.
The bullpen, however, was great, as RHPs Braxton Roxby and Alex Carillo, and LHP Nick Zwack combined for 4.1 scoreless innings. Roxby gave up just 1 hit in 2.1 innings, with 2 strikeouts, as he looks to stay in the organization’s plan after being added to the 40-man roster recently. Zwack pitched a perfect frame with a strikeout; after having a rough August, he’s yet to allow a run in 5 September appearances.
Low-A San Jose (eliminated)
San Jose Giants lost to the Lake Elsinore Storm (Padres) 13-2
Box score
And with that, San Jose’s splendid season is over. The Baby Giants posted the best record in the California League this year with an 80-52 mark, and ended the regular season with 20 wins in their final 22 games. They cruised through the Division Series, and looked unbeatable. And then they ran into the Storm in the Championship Series, and their otherwise sensational season came to a sad trombone of an end.
It was a sloppy game all around. San Jose had 5 errors on the day, and their pitchers issued nearly as many walks (7) as strikeouts (9). The hitters, meanwhile, had 12 hits, but only converted them into 2 runs, the result of 3 deadly sins: hitting into 2 double plays, going 1-15 with runners in scoring position, and striking out 15 times. Yep, that’ll do it.
It was a particularly rough end to an otherwise magnificent season for shortstop Josuar González (No. 2 CPL), though it wasn’t the worst game imaginable. González did hit 1-4 with a double (1 of just 2 extra-base hits on the day for San Jose), and drew a walk. But he struck out once and committed 2 costly errors.
After injuries sapped some of his playing time and he cooled off a little at the end of the year, I suppose there’s a chance that González returns to San Jose for the 2027 season, though I certainly think he should be in High-A Eugene.
Nice games to end the season for second baseman Lorenzo Meola (No. 23 CPL), third baseman Dario Reynoso, and first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins. Meola hit 2-4 with a hit by pitch and a strikeout; Reynoso went 3-5 with an error and a strikeout; and Jenkins hit 2-4 with a double, a walk, and 2 strikeouts. I would expect all 3 to be in Eugene when next season gets underway.
The pitching was as bad as it could be, though I suppose that’s hardly surprising. San Jose used their ace, RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL) in Tuesday’s no-hitter, and their electric duo of RHP Keyner Martinez (No. 10 CPL) and LHP Leandro Rodriguez were unavailable after pitching on Sunday. Add in the fact that RHP Jackson Flora and LHP Jordan Gottesman were moved up to new levels to end the year (the former to AA and the latter to High-A), and San Jose was thin on options.
They went with LHP Ricardo Estrada, who struggled his way through 2.2 innings. The 24-year old from Mexico gave up 4 hits, including a home run and 2 doubles, while also walking a batter, which tagged him for 3 runs (he did have 4 strikeouts, though).
Estrada, who spent 4 years in the DSL before coming to the states last year, spent all of 2026 with San Jose, where he posted a 4.12 ERA and a 5.77 FIP, with 8.4 strikeouts and 5.1 walks per 9 innings.
From there, things got even worse with the bullpen, with the next 4 arms all giving up multiple runs (RHP Ben Bybee, who allowed a hit and 2 walks in 2.1 innings, had both of his runs be unearned due to the aforementioned shoddy defense).
The lone bright spot on the pitching front was the final arm to take the mound for San Jose: LHP Beau Bryans. Bryans, who was the team’s 7th-round pick in July’s draft, was making his professional debut. It was a very short debut, as he only faced 1 batter, but he struck that batter out!
Welcome to the pros, Beau … now go enjoy the offseason.
Thursday schedule
Sacramento: 6:45 p.m. PT vs. Reno (SP: Duncan Davitt)
Richmond: 3:45 p.m. PT vs. Erie (SP: Jackson Flora)
