SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA – MARCH 19, 2026: Keyner Martinez #48 of the San Francisco Giants throws a pitch during the second inning of a spring training Spring Breakout game against the Cincinnati Reds at Scottsdale Stadium on March 19, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
What a fun weekend for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates! Here’s everything that happened.
Link to the 2026 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)
All listed positions in the roundup are the position played in that particular game.
Low-A San Jose RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL) has been named the Pitcher of the Week in the Cal League!
Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Tacoma Rainiers 6-5 [box score]
Saturday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Tacoma Rainiers 15-11 [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Tacoma Rainiers 3-1 [box score]
Well, Sacramento’s 5-game winning streak came to a screeching halt, and was replaced by a 3-game losing streak. But, as I often say, individual performances matter far more than team outcomes in the Minors, and there were still plenty of individual outings to make you smile.
Perhaps most notably, left fielder/right fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) continued his tear through AAA. It was yet another strong string of games for the 24-year old lefty, who seems hell bent on earning an MLB debut before the season ends. Davidson hit 4-12 over the weekend, with a home run, 2 doubles, 3 walks, a stolen base, and outfield assist, and just 1 strikeout.
This is perhaps the most amateur way imaginable to scout, but you watch Davidson and he just looks like a Major Leaguer. I’m reminded of a Farhan Zaidi quote about disregarding numbers with young players and just watching how they look in the batter’s box to know they’re ready. Then again, Zaidi was talking about Luis Matos and Marco Luciano, so perhaps I should disregard that quote as well.
Anyway, here’s your update on when Davidson flipped the switch and seemingly figured out AAA:
First 22 games: 17-86, 0 home runs, 3 doubles, 10 walks, 21 strikeouts
Next 11 games: 23-45, 6 home runs, 7 doubles, 7 walks, 4 strikeouts
Absolutely comical!
With that, the outfielder — who has been moved off of center since getting to AAA — is up to a .910 OPS and a 135 wRC+ through 33 AAA games, with 5 stolen bases in as many attempts. Equally encouraging is that he has just a 16.6% strikeout rate and an 8.0% swinging strike rate, which are phenomenal numbers. They’re also fairly dramatically better than the marks he was putting up in AA earlier this year, so that could point to some oncoming regression … or it could mean that he’s made dramatic strides.
Meanwhile, Davidson’s grassmate, center fielder/right fielder Scott Bandura is taking the same approach to AAA: he took a while to adjust following an early-season promotion (much earlier than Davidson’s), and now refuses to stop raking. It was just another brilliant weekend for Bandura, who hit 9-14 with 3 doubles, 1 walk, 2 stolen bases, and 0 strikeouts.
Bandura, a 7th-round pick in 2023 out of Princeton, who turned 25 earlier this month, is smoking hot. He has multiple hits in 11 out of 19 games this month, and his season is a true tale of adjustments, just like Davidson’s, but in a larger sample for both the struggles and the successes:
First 34 games: 31-129, 1 home run, 2 triples, 7 doubles, 8 walks, 28 strikeouts
Next 44 games: 67-176, 7 home runs, 0 triples, 14 doubles, 30 walks, 25 strikeouts
What a remarkable adjustment! The lefty is up to an .877 OPS and a 130 wRC+ with 20 stolen bases in 21 attempts. Like Davidson, his contact numbers are encouraging: he has just a 15.0% strikeout rate and a 5.9% swinging strike rate, the latter of which is 91st percentile. The future is pretty darned exciting for the outfield!
It was a quieter weekend for third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL), though he did plenty to get excited about, as he hit 3-9 with 2 doubles and a walk, albeit with 3 strikeouts. Unlike Davidson and Bandura, Harber hit the ground running in AAA, though he’s cooled down a bit following a red-hot start. Still a great debut AAA stint for the 24-year old slugger, who has an .866 OPS and a 127 wRC+ through 31 games.
Catcher Adrián Sugastey continues to adjust well to life in AAA, as he hit 2-7 with a home run, 2 walks, and a strikeout. Sugastey has taken advantage of the offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, as he’s posted an .812 OPS and a 114 wRC+ through his 1st 20 games. That’s a huge improvement over his .715 OPS and 91 wRC+ in AA, which was the best offense he’s posted in 3 years at the level.
The offense will regress eventually, but when it does, the defense will likely still be standing strong. The 23-year old showed off his impressive control of the run game in this one, throwing out 4 of the 5 runners who tried to steal on him.
A few other offensive performances of note: shortstop Shay Whitcomb hit just 2-9, but smashed a home run; center fielder Grant McCray continued his post-optioning struggles, hitting 2-11 with 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and a stolen base; and designated hitter Jesús Rodríguez (No. 16 CPL) began a rehab assignment and hit 0-4 with a strikeout.
The best pitching performance came from LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL), who had an excellent start on Friday. It’s been a difficult transition to AAA for the comp-round pick in 2023, but this was his 2nd awesome start in a row. Whitman took down 6 innings while giving up just 4 hits, 0 walks, 1 hit batter, 3 runs, and 2 earned runs, while striking out 4 batters. He needed just 81 pitches to get through those 6 innings, and threw 54 of them for strikes. Whitman, who turns 25 next month, has just a 4.85 ERA and a 5.28 FIP since getting promoted, but he’s trending in the right direction and doing a strong job limiting walks. I don’t think we’ll see him debut this year, but since he’ll likely need to be protected in the Rule 5 Draft, it wouldn’t be a shocking thing if he strings together a few more good outings.
LHP Seth Lonsway pitched on Sunday and also went 6 innings deep, though his outing was a bit more clunky: 7 hits, 2 walks, 3 earned runs, 98 pitches thrown, and just 2 strikeouts. Lonsway has been good at eating innings for Sacramento, which has value of course, but isn’t really setting himself up for an MLB debut. The 27-year old, who was taken in the 6th round in 2021, has a 6.00 ERA and a 6.54 FIP on the year, with just 5.6 strikeouts per 9 innings (against 6.1 walks).
Saturday’s game was a bullpen affair, but it featured something exciting: a rehab appearance by LHP Matt Gage. It initially looked like Gage would be done for the year after being left to die on the MLB mound, but he’s working his way back. He wasn’t sharp in this game, giving up 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in an inning of work, but it’s just great that he’s out there.
LHP Philip Abner made his 1st 2 appearances since getting claimed off of waivers by the Giants. He pitched 2 innings and allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run in 2 innings, with 3 strikeouts.
Friday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Chesapeake Baysox 4-3 [box score]
Saturday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Chesapeake Baysox 4-3 [box score]
Sunday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Chesapeake Baysox 6-5 (10 innings) [box score]
Excitement on the mound for the Squirrels, as RHP Miguel Mendez made his Richmond debut on Friday night. Mendez, a recently-turned 24-year old who came to the Giants in the Robbie Ray trade, made a single rehab appearance with Low-A San Jose before heading up to AA. As such, he wasn’t fully stretch out, and had a short outing … but it was a good one! Mendez, who has an excellent fastball and a strong slider to pair with it, tossed 2.2 scoreless innings, with 2 hits, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. Those strikeouts were great to see for Mendez, who racked up a large number of Ks last season, but had more modest totals this year (38 in 34.2 innings with San Diego’s AA affiliate). He had just a 4.93 ERA during that time, but a 3.20 FIP. Very much looking forward to seeing how he closes out the season with Richmond.
The other starts were less exciting, as LHPs Charlie McDaniel and Greg Farone took down innings, but without doing too much. McDaniel made it through 6.1 frames, but gave up 6 hits (including 2 home runs), 2 walks, and 4 runs, with 3 strikeouts. Farone pitched 5.1 innings with 4 hits (including 2 home runs), 4 walks, and 3 runs, though he did strike out 6. McDaniel, a 25-year old who was a UDFA in 2024, has a 5.27 ERA and a 4.73 FIP in 13 starts since getting promoted; Farone, a 24-year old taken in the 7th round in 2024, has a 5.65 ERA and a 5.73 FIP in 23 starts with the Squirrels.
Nice relief outings from LHP Jack Choate (No. 37 CPL) and RHP Tyler Vogel. Choate tossed 2 no-hit innings with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts, while Vogel, who pitched twice, allowed 1 hit in 2 scoreless frames, with 1 strikeout. Choate, a 25-year old taken in the 9th round in 2022, has a 3.12 ERA and a 3.92 FIP on the year, with 11.4 strikeouts and 6.0 walks per 9 innings; Vogel, a 25-year old taken 3 rounds later, has a 3.13 ERA and a 4.40 FIP, with 9.6 strikeouts and 5.3 walks per 9.
RHP R.J. Dabovich pitched for the 2nd time since returning to Richmond. He retired both batters he faced, with a strikeout. Great to see him healthy at long last.
No one had a great weekend on offense, but there were performances to highlight. Most notably was that center fielder/right fielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 32 CPL), who is tied with Davidson for the organizational lead in home runs, bopped his 1st AA bomb on Friday, and it was a glorious one, as it was a go-ahead 3-run shot in the 8th inning.
The adjustment to AA has been a slightly slow one for the 21-year old from Cuba, and understandably so. He finished the weekend 2-11 with a home run, a double, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts, and now has a .564 OPS and a 48 wRC+ through 6 games in the Eastern League.
Another player who had a stellar season in High-A but has been going through an adjustment period in AA is catcher Jancel Villarroel (No. 42 CPL) who, like Diaz, left the yard over the weekend. Villarroel, a 21-year old righty acquired in the Kai-Wei Teng trade, hit 1-6 with a solo home run, 2 walks, a sacrifice fly, and 2 strikeouts. He has just a .561 OPS and a 49 wRC+ through 21 games in the Eastern League, but growing pains are to be expected with new levels, especially for younger players.
Also homering was third baseman/right fielder Charlie Szykowny, who finished the weekend 4-10 with a solo shot, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts, and an outfield assist. Szykowny has cooled off after some strong player earlier in the year, and has a .739 OPS and a 95 wRC+. There’s definitely something intriguing in the lefty’s bat, though the 2023 9th-rounder is already 26.
A good weekend for left fielder/second baseman Jean Carlos Sió (No. 44 CPL), who was an on-base machine, hitting 3-7 with 5 walks, 2 strikeouts, and a stolen base. The 22-year old lefty is dealing with some bumps in the road following a promotion to AA, and has a .750 OPS and a 97 wRC+ through 60 games at the level. A lot to love about the versatile Sió, and hopefully his bat can continue to develop with more experience at the level.
Quiet weekends for shortstop Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL) and center fielder Trevor Cohen (No. 15 CPL), who have both cooled down a bit after blistering starts to their AA tenures. Kilen played in just 2 of the 3 games, and hit 0-8 with a strikeout, while Cohen went 1-13 with 2 walks, a stolen base, and 4 strikeouts. Kilen, last year’s 1st-round pick, has an .822 OPS and a 116 wRC+, while Cohen, a 3rd-rounder last year, has a .709 OPS and a 90 wRC+.
Friday: Eugene Emeralds lost to the Vancouver Canadians 12-10 (10 innings) [box score]
Saturday: Eugene Emeralds lost to the Vancouver Canadians 9-3 [box score]
Sunday: Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians 6-5 [box score]
A lot of good hitting performances for Eugene, with none better than the effort put forth by left fielder/center fielder Damian Bravo, who is hotter than hot. Last year’s 15th-round pick had himself a weekend, hitting 5-12 with 2 home runs, 2 walks, 2 stolen bases, and 4 strikeouts.
Bravo had a decent year with Low-A San Jose (.860 OPS, 109 wRC+), before sustaining an injury in mid-June. 2 months later, he returned from the IL and was promoted to High-A, all in one fell swoop. And what has he done there? 4 home runs in 6 games (plus 4 singles and 4 walks). I’d say this is the right level for him!
Speaking of the right level, shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL) is, emphatically, the right Level … though one could make the case that he’s not at the right level, since he is making the Northwest League his personal playground. It was another sensational weekend for the 19-year old switch-hitter, who went 7-13 with 3 doubles, a hit by pitch, a sacrifice fly, 3 stolen bases, and just 1 strikeout. That’s just another day at the office for Level!
Level’s batting average in High-A is just a hair below what it was in Low-A (.325), while his strikeout rate and walk rate have both improved (16.6% to 16.4% and 7.8% to 8.6%, respectively). The only part of his game that’s still lagging behind what it was in San Jose earlier in the year is his power, as his isolated slugging dropped from an elite .251 to a still very good .177. But that will come with more reps and more growth at the level (and future levels). He’s been one of the top hitters in the league as is, with an .869 OPS and a 128 wRC+. He is the real deal, and then some.
Second baseman/right fielder/left fielder Jose Ramos continued a funny trend this year: despite awful numbers in Low-A, Ramos has been spectacular in High-A. It was a great weekend for the 23-year old, who hit 5-12 with a home run, 3 stolen bases, 3 strikeouts, and an outfield assist. The right-hander from Colombia now has an .852 OPS and a 141 wRC+ in 23 High-A games this year … after just a .592 OPS and a 52 wRC+ in 13 games with San Jose.
Second baseman Dalton Wentz continues to search for his footing after skipping Low-A for his professional debut. July’s 16th-round pick, who was given a 4th-round bonus, hit 4-13 with a double and 4 strikeouts, giving the just-turned 21-year old from Wake Forest a .611 OPS and a 59 wRC+ through 4 career games.
A pair of rough starting pitching outings on Friday and Saturday. First it was RHP Niko Mazza, who failed to make it out of the 1st inning, giving up a hit, a hit batter, 2 walks, and 2 runs, with 1 strikeout, while recording just 2 outs before getting pulled on account of having thrown 36 pitches. And then it was LHP Luis De La Torre (No. 14 CPL), who allowed 5 hits, 2 walks, a hit batter, and 6 runs in just 2.2 innings, though he did strike out 5 batters.
Thankfully, things were salvaged on Sunday courtesy of RHP Hunter Dryden, who had one of his best outings of the year. The 24-year old went 6 strong innings while allowing 7 hits (6 singles and 1 double), 0 walks, and 1 run, though he only struck out 3.
Dryden, who was taken in the 17th round of the 2024 draft, hasn’t had a very strong season, but he has been excellent lately. In his last 5 starts, the D3 Whitworth product has thrown 26.2 innings and allowed just 24 hits, 5 walks, and 5 earned runs, with 21 strikeouts. That’s lowered his ERA to 4.55, albeit with an FIP of 5.44, which is largely the result of having allowed 16 home runs in 97 innings this year.
Eugene employs a trio of high-octane, low-command RHP relievers, and all 3 of them pitched over the weekend. It didn’t go well for a pair of them, as Liam Simon allowed a double, 4 walks, and 2 runs, while recording just 2 outs, while Gerelmi Maldonado (No. 21 CPL) gave up 2 home runs, 3 walks, a hit batter, and 3 runs, while also recording just 2 strikeouts. Things went much better for Marty Gair, who retired all 4 batters he faced, with 1 strikeout.
Friday: San Jose Giants beat the Lake Elsinore Storm 21-2 [box score]
Saturday: San Jose Giants beat the Lake Elsinore Storm 6-3 [box score]
Sunday: San Jose Giants beat the Lake Elsinore Storm 5-0 [box score]
Well, the Baby Giants can’t be stopped! They not only swept the weekend by a combined score of 32-5, and they not only swept the series, but they’re now on a 10-game winning streak! Hot dang!
Needless to say, there were some phenomenal outings. And while the offense was absurd — on Friday, at least — I want to start with the pitching, because there were 2 outstanding performances to highlight.
The runner-up pitching performance of the weekend belonged to LHP Jordan Gottesman, who struck out 8 batters in 6 scoreless innings on Friday, while only giving up 1 hit. What a showing! Gottesman was effectively wild, as he did walk 4 batters and threw just 51 of 92 pitches for strikes, but still. Anytime you have an 8-to-1 strikeout-to-hit ratio, you’re doing something very, very right!
Last year’s 6th-rounder hasn’t had the strongest debut season, but he’s been lights out over his last 3 starts, so perhaps he’s figuring something out. On the year, the Northeastern product, who will turn 24 this weekend, has a 4.07 ERA and a 4.96 FIP, with 9.9 strikeouts and 3.1 walks per 9 innings.
But the star of the mound was Sunday’s starter, RHP Keyner Martinez (No. 10 CPL). It’s been an at-times difficult season for Martinez, who hasn’t built on his breakout 2025 campaign as much as we had hoped. But even in his struggles, the absurd level of talent has been on display.
On Sunday, it all came together. Martinez faced 16 batters. He retired 15 of them, with a double being the lone baserunner he allowed. Of those 16 batters he faced, he struck out half of them. And despite those 8 strikeouts, he needed just 66 pitches to get through his 5 innings.
Were it earlier in the season, Martinez probably would’ve been allowed to pitch deeper into the game, but he’s in winding down territory. He threw just 32.2 innings in his debut season in 2024, and 69.1 last year. This year he’s already at 83 innings.
Those 83 have been a roller coaster. We had higher hopes than a 5.10 ERA, a 4.94 FIP, and 4.8 walks per 9 innings. But 13.2 strikeouts and a .217 batting average against? Absolutely elite. There is a whole lot of gas in that tank.
In between it was LHP Leandro Rodriguez, a 20-year old who has only made 5 Low-A starts, but who opened a ton of eyes in the Complex League. Rodriguez is still trying to find his footing in Low-A, as he walked 5 batters in 4.2 innings, though he only gave up 2 hits (but that included a home run). He threw just 39 of 76 pitches for strikes, while giving up 2 runs and striking out 2.
Nice relief appearances from RHPs Samir Chires, Cooper McGrath, Evan Gray, Melvin Pineda, and Chen-Hsun Lee.
Now, onto that offense. And my goodness were there ever some dreamy performances on that side of the ball!
The best singular day belonged to center fielder/right fielder Broedy Poppell during Friday’s 21-run explosion, as he simply could not be stopped. The 2025 13th-rounder out of Florida A&M hit 3-4 with 2 homers and a triple, while also drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch, with a strikeout. What a day!
The 24-year old switch-hitter went 1-5 with 3 walks, a stolen base, 2 strikeouts, and an error in the other pair of games, bringing him up to a .773 OPS and a 97 wRC+. Poppell had a fairly slow start to the season, and spent some time demoted to the ACL, but in his last 13 games has hit 15-46 with 10 extra-base hits and 11 walks. He’s starting to figure it out, it seems.
Also going deep twice was left fielder Oliver Tejada, who hit 5-12 over the weekend, and not only did hi hit 2 home runs, he hit 2 grand slams!
He also had a walk, a sacrifice fly, and an outfield assist, though he did strike out 4 times. The 19-year old from the Dominican Republic was mired in quite a slump for a while there, but this is one hell of a way to break out of it! He still has just a .719 OPS and a 79 wRC+, with a 29.9% strikeout rate, but he’s moving in the right direction.
Third baseman Dario Reynoso had an absurd game on Friday, hitting 3-6 with a home run, 2 doubles, a walk, and a strikeout, before hitting 1-4 on Saturday and getting Sunday off. Still a lot to love (.863 OPS, 118 wRC+) and a lot to fear (32.8% strikeout rate) in Reynoso’s profile.
And of course, it wouldn’t be San Jose baseball if it didn’t feature shortstop Josuar González (No. 2 CPL) reminding us that the world is his. González only played in 2 of the 3 games, but that was plenty enough for him to make an impression, as he hit 6-9 with a double, 3 walks, 2 stolen bases, and a strikeout.
On the one hand, the 18-year old switch-hitting phenom has only played 21 games in San Jose. On the other hand, he’s hitting .379/.476/.609 with a 170 wRC+, an 18.1% strikeout rate, and 7 stolen bases. He just might be the best prospect in baseball, friends. You can sure as hell make a case for it…
His running mate, Luis Hernández (No. 6 CPL), did not play over the weekend after suffering an injury on Thursday. Here’s hoping he’s able to get back on the field before the year ends.
A pair of players made their debuts over the weekend! That’s always exciting. It was a nice initial showing for center fielder Peyton Bonds (Barry’s nephew), who was taken in the 3rd round in July. Bonds went 0-4 with a walk and 2 strikeouts in his Saturday debut, but bounced back on Sunday to hit 2-5 with a strikeout. A slightly slower introduction for second baseman/shortstop Luke Nixon, who was taken in the 5th round. The 21-year old lefty went just 0-6 with 4 strikeouts, though he did draw 3 walks. Welcome to the pros, both of you!
Friday: DSL Giants Black lost to the DSL Mariners 8-7 [box score]
Saturday: DSL Giants Black lost to the DSL Padres Gold 5-3 [box score]
Monday: DSL Giants Black beat the DSL Royals Ventura 15-1 [box score]
Shortstop Joniel Hernandez wanted to make sure that he eked as much performance as possible out of his debut season. The 17-year old, who came over in the Robbie Ray trade, played in all 3 of these postseason games, and hit 4-14 with 2 homers, a walk, a stolen base, and 2 strikeouts. That’s after ending the regular season with a .978 OPS and a 132 wRC+!
Designated hitter Diego Villegas hit 3-8 with a pair of home runs, a double, a walk, and a strikeout. The 22-year old had a tough season in which he didn’t hit any home runs, and then hit a pair in this game. Go figure.
20-year old RHP Luis Hernandez (not that one), tossed 5 shutout innings with just 4 baserunners and 5 strikeouts, which is a tremendous postseason showing. He had a very difficult year, with far more walks than strikeouts … so nice to see.
25 — Bo Davidson — [6 in AAA; 19 in AA]
25 — Lisbel Diaz — [1 in AA; 21 in High-A; 3 in Low-A]
18 — Zander Darby — [High-A]
17 — Jeremiah Jenkins — [Low-A]
14 — Charlie Szykowny — [AA]
14 — Damian Bravo x2 — [4 in High-A; 10 in Low-A]
13 — Dario Reynoso — [Low-A]
12 — Shay Whitcomb — [2 in MLB; 10 in AAA]
11 — Broedy Poppell x2 — [8 in Low-A; 3 in ACL]
9 — Jancel Villarroel — [2 in AA; 7 in High-A]
9 — Joniel Hernandez x2 — [DSL]
8 — Keiberg Camacaro — [DSL]
7 — Oliver Tejada x2 — [6 in Low-A; 1 in ACL]
6 — Adrián Sugastey — [3 in AAA; 2 in AA; 1 in ACL]
2 — Jose Ramos — [1 in High-A; 1 in Low-A]
