NRIs: outfielders

There are three NRI outfielders coming to camp and two of them are among the Giants most exciting young players. Heliot Ramos, 17 years old and just out of high school in Puerto Rico, was the team's 1st-round draft pick in 2017 (#19 overall). He's right-handed and listed as a centerfielder but most people think he'll be a power hitter and wind up at a corner spot. FanGraphs lists him as the no. 3 prospect in the organization. Here's FZ:

"He was probably among our top prospects as hurt by anyone by the lost season because he was on a path to potentially playing in the big leagues in 2020," president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said during a Zoom call with reporters on Friday. "I just know he's motivated and how highly we all think of him from an organizational standpoint. It's going to be fun to see him out there."

Ramos will be 22 in September.

Hunter Bishop was also a 1st-rounder, this time the #10 pick in 2019. The lefty hitter is from San Carlos and like Barry Bonds went to Serra HS and Arizona State. He's a high-OBP guy. FanGraphs rates him the no. 4 prospect in the system. He'll be 23 in June.

The third guy came over from Tampa Bay in a trade in 2019. The Giants gave up a young LHP named Jacob Lopez for Joe McCarthy. McCarthy made his debut with the team last year but unfortunately went 0-for-10. He's a lefty hitter from Pennsylvania who played college ball at Virginia. He has the most experience of the three, playing over 400 games in the minors (1691 PA) and compiling a .261/.376/.406 slash line. He turns 27 next week.

--M.C.

NRIs: pitchers

There are thirteen NRIs who will be in the big league camp next week. Maria Guardado has a piece on the Giants website about them.

Five of them are pitchers, all right-handed: Tristan Beck, Tyler Cyr, Matt Frisbee, Sean Hjelle, and Kai-Wei Teng.

Beck is a starter but has not pitched above A+ ball. He's a SoCal boy originally and pitched for the Stanford Cardinal. He came to the Giants from the Braves in the Mark Melancon trade. (Melancon is now with the Padres.) He'll be 25 in June.

Cyr is a Bay Area boy and was the Giants 10th round pick in 2015 (from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University). He was a closer at AA (Richmond).  He'll be 27 in May.

I hope Frisbee throws a slider!  He's from North Carolina and was the team's 15th round pick in 2018. He was a starter at UNC-Greensboro and also in the Giants system at San Jose. He'll turn 25 in November.

Hjelle (say "jelly") is from Minnesota and was a 2nd round pick from the same 2018 draft. He was a starter for Kentucky and has made 40 starts for the Giants in the minors. We've heard a lot about him and he seems to be on the fast track, jumping from low-A to AA last year. He's 6'-11" and would be the tallest major-league pitcher in history (just nipping Randy Johnson) if he makes the bigs. He'll be 24 in May.

Kai-Wei Teng is from Taiwan. He came to the Giants from the Twins (who had signed him as an international free agent in 2017) in the Sam Dyson trade. He's a starter with a big body (6'-4", 260 lbs.) but is still young and has not pitched above Class A. At Augusta he struck out 39 of the 110 batters he faced in 2019 (5 starts, 29 IP). He's 23 in December.

I'll look at the position players in another post. Things change fast in Zaidi Land and I have to do my homework to keep up on all these guys! I note that lefty Seth Corry was not on the list. He was drafted out of high school (he's from Utah) in the 3rd round in 2017. He's started 50 games in the Giants low minors. FanGraphs has a profile on him and rates him the 11th best prospect in the organization. He turns 23 in November and will probably start the year at AA.

--M.C.

p.s. I should note that the Giants retained their AAA team in Sacramento, the River Cats, as well as their AA team in Richmond (Virginia), the Flying Squirrels. Their new Class A Advanced (A+) will be the Eugene Emeralds. The San Jose Giants drop from A+ to Class A. The minor league contraction eliminated the low-A level and that included the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes. The Class A Augusta GreenJackets are now a Braves affiliate. All MLB teams are now affiliated with four teams at four levels (AAA, AA, A+, and A). There are no AA teams west of Texas.

The rosters so far

I count 41 on the 40-man roster. That is, I've included free agent lefty reliever Jake McGee despite no official word from the Giants about the signing.

There are 20 pitchers on the Giants 40-man roster (according to the website): Caleb Baragar, Tyler Beede, John Brebbia, Kevin Castro, Johnny Cueto, Anthony DeSclafani, Camilo Duval, Jarlin Garcia, Kevin Gausman, Trevor Gott, Conner Menez, Reyes Moronta, Dedniel Nunez, Wandy Peralta, Tyler Rogers, Gregory Santos, Sam Selman, Logan Webb, Matt Wisler, and Alex Wood. The number goes to 21 if you add FNG McGee. Someone will get bumped from this list once they complete that deal.

There are 4 catchers: Buster Posey, Curt Casali, Joey Bart, and Chadwick Tromp.

There are 9 infielders: Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Mauricio Dubon, Wilmer Flores, Tommy La Stella, Evan Longoria, Darin Ruf, Donovan Solano, and Jason Vosler.

That leaves 7 outfielders: Alexander Canario, Jaylin Davis, Alex Dickerson, Steven Duggar, Austin Slater, LaMonte Wade, Jr., and Mike Yastrzemski.

Here's the latest from FZ:

“I think we're still going to look to add,” president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said during a Zoom call with reporters on Friday. “Adding another experienced starting pitcher, whether it's an NRI [non-roster invitee], or potentially a Major League deal or trade, is something we're still looking at. … Certainly, we feel like on the position player side and in the bullpen, we're pretty settled, but starting pitching is probably the one area we're going to continue to look at.”

There are a number if interesting NRIs and I'll cover them in another post. Starter Tyler Beede and reliever John Brebbia are both recovering from TJS and won't be available until summer. It will be a year of re-hab for Beede in March and a year for Brebbia in June.

Right now the rotation looks like Kevin Gausman, Johnny Cueto, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood (L), and Logan Webb. The bullpen looks like Reyes Moronta, Tyler Rogers, Jake McGee (L), Matt Wisler, Jarlin Garcia (L), Trevor Gott, Sam Selman (L), and Dedniel Nunez. The last fellow, Nunez, is a Rule V pick which complicates things. If the Giants don't keep him on the 2021 roster they have to give him back to the Mets.

That's 13 spots on the 26-man roster. Right now it looks like the 13 position player spots will be Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Evan Longoria, Tommy La Stella, Wilmer Flores, Donovan Solano, Mauricio Dubon, Alex Dickerson, Mike Yastrzemski, Darin Ruf, Austin Slater, and Curt Casali.

The Giants are scheduled for their first full-squad workout on February 22nd.

--M.C.

p.s. Roster Resource (now part of FanGraphs) has a handy quick-reference team depth chart. It's a good one to bookmark.

Still seeking southpaws

The Giants have a deal (2 yrs, $7M) with lefty reliever Jake McGee. The 34-year old veteran (11 seasons, 546 games) came up with the Rays and spent time with both the Rockies and the Dodgers. He's a local boy (born in San Jose) but went to HS in Nevada and had his first pro stint at age 17. Lifetime (475-2/3 IP) McGee has a 3.59 ERA, 3.39 FIP, and 3.00 SIERA*. By comparison Tony Watson has a career line of 2.80/3.61/3.47 over 591 innings, and he's a free agent. I assume they don't expect to re-sign Watson and that's why they targeted this guy.

This is a good move as the Giants need lefty arms and competition for spots in the bullpen. Pitchers and catchers report on February 17. I have not heard of a corresponding 40-man roster move to make a spot for McGee.

--M.C.

*if you are not familiar with SIERA FanGraphs has a primer