Four games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Wednesday, as the Dominican Summer League teams had the day off (and the Arizona Complex League season is over). Let’s dive into the 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.

The only news is that AAA Sacramento outfielder Hunter Bishop (No. 34 CPL) was placed on the Development List. With the addition of Drew Gilbert, Sacramento’s outfield has gotten extremely crowded, and Bishop is the obvious odd man out. He’s shown some good things this year, but given the depth at the position — and given that he’ll be a Minor League free agent this winter — it seems there’s a decent chance that the 2019 1st-round pick is fast approaching the end of his time with the organization.

AAA Sacramento (56-54)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Astros) 5-2
Box score

First baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) entered Wednesday’s game as one of the hottest hitters on the planet, but as Kruk and Kuip are fond of saying, the game will find a way to humble you. Nothing Eldridge could do on Wednesday would diminish how good he’s been lately, but it was a reminder that even the best players have hiccups, and even the best prospects hit bumps in the road where adjustments need to be made. Eldridge came up to the plate 4 times during Sacramento’s win, and he struck out in all 4 at-bats. Certainly a day to forget, after plenty of recent days to remember.

But right fielder Drew Gilbert, one of the players included in the Tyler Rogers trade, had yet another great day. It was Gilbert’s 4th game since joining the Giants organization, and it was the 1st time that he didn’t have multiple hits. But that didn’t keep him from having an excellent outing, as he hit 1-2 with a double, 2 walks, a stolen base, and a strikeout. He has been lights out since the start of July, and it certainly seems like the Giants will give him a look in San Francisco at some point before the year ends (the fact that he’s starting to get some reps in right field hints at that as well).

Gilbert’s a left-handed hitter, so I don’t expect him to be at Oracle Park tomorrow to replace Jerar Encarnación. Instead, I expect that honor to go to left fielder Luis Matos, who played for the 1st time since getting optioned over the weekend. It wasn’t a good game for Matos, who hit 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. A fellow recently-optioned player, second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald, had the exact same line.

The biggest hit of the day came from an unlikely source, as third baseman Osleivis Basabe went 1-3 with a 3-run home run, as part of a 5-run 2nd inning for the River Cats. Basabe now has 9 home runs on the year, which is a career high for the glove-first infielder. He has a .736 OPS and a 90 wRC+, which are decent numbers given the quality of his defense, but he was also DFA’d and outrighted midseason, so he’s not really in the team’s backup infielder plans.

Shortstop Brett Wisely is, though, and he had a great day at the outdoor office, hitting 3-4 with a double and a stolen base. He’s been playing much better lately, both for Sacramento and San Francisco.

The only other hitter on the 40-man roster to play was center fielder Daniel Johnson, who hit 2-4 with a strikeout. Marco Luciano and Wade Meckler (No. 13 CPL) did not play, as the River Cats deal with a serious outfielder crunch … with Jesus Rodriguez (who hit 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout) limited to designated hitter right now, Sacramento has 5 outfielders competing for 3 spots on any given day, though that will get a little smoother tomorrow when someone is called up to replace Encarnación.

RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 15 CPL) took the mound for the River Cats and had one of his best performances of the year. It wasn’t the smoothest outing for McDonald — he gave up 5 hits in 5 innings, including 2 home runs, while walking 3 and allowing 2 earned runs — but he struck out 10 batters. McDonald has struggled at times this year (he has a 5.55 ERA and a 5.37 FIP) but he’s really bumped up the strikeout stuff this season. After K’ing just 6.8 batters per 9 innings in AAA last year, McDonald has pumped that number up to 9.3 this year, a virtually identical figure to what he posted during his breakout in High-A back in 2023. Some more days like Wednesday could get McDonald a late season cup of coffee for the 2nd year running, but at this point his focus has to be on how he can become a bigger part of the team’s plans in 2026.

Excellence from the bullpen, which pitched 4 no-hit innings. RHP Antonio Jimenez took down 2 innings, walking 2 and striking out 4, lowering his ERA to 3.55 and his FIP to 5.09; RHP Trent Harris (No. 20 CPL) pitched a perfect frame, dropping his ERA to 6.45 and his FIP to 3.61; and RHP Ryan Watson threw 1 inning with a hit batter and 2 strikeouts, dipping both his ERA and FIP to 4.63.

AA Richmond (39-62)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 6-3
Box score

Some excitement for the Flying Squirrels, as a player made their organizational debut: RHP Trystan Vrieling, one of 4 players the Giants received in the Camilo Doval trade. Vrieling, who was a 3rd-round pick in 2022 (the Giants are just hoarding players from that draft, it seems), took the mound for his 1st appearance for a non-Yankees affiliate. It went quite well, especially if you’re a fan of control pitchers. The 6’4 Gonzaga product only struck out 2 batters, but in 5.1 innings he allowed just 6 hits, 0 walks, and 1 run, as Erie’s batters were unable to build any sustainable rallies against him.

While Vrieling will turn 25 in less than 2 months, it’s worth noting that he’s still fairly inexperienced: he didn’t debut in 2022 after the draft, and missed all of 2023, so he’s pitching in just his 2nd professional season. He’s spent almost that entire time in the Eastern League, too: he’s made 1 rehab appearance in both rookie ball and Low-A, and his other 40 games have all come in AA. Welcome to the system, Trystan!

Vrieling’s arrival pushed LHP Jack Choate (No. 29 CPL) to the bullpen, where the results were middling. Choate, who has a 3.43 ERA and a 3.99 FIP on the season, pitched 1.1 innings and gave up 3 hits and 1 run, with neither a walk nor a strikeout. RHP Tyler Myrick pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout, and it was the 4th consecutive appearance in which he didn’t allow a baserunner. Myrick has only allowed runs in 1 of his last 12 outings, and during that time has pitched 14 innings while giving up just 8 hits, 1 walk, and 2 runs, with 11 strikeouts.

Not much of note on offense. Right fielder Turner Hill had the best game, hitting 2-5 with a double (the team’s only extra-base hit), and an outfield assist, as he raised his OPS to .725 and his wRC+ to 118. Third baseman Dayson Croes made his AA debut following a recent promotion, and hit 1-3 with a walk and 2 RBI.

As for the relative newcomers, left fielder Scott Bandura hit 1-4 with a walk and a strikeout, moving his OPS to .703 and his wRC+ to 116, while center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL) went 0-3 with a strikeout but drew 2 walks, as he now has a .617 OPS and an 87 wRC+ in 14 games at the level.

High-A Eugene (61-43)

Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane (Rockies) 7-2
Box score

The Emeralds are rolling once again, having won all 5 of their August games thus far. That’s a great way to start the month!

A very solid 2-player performance on the mound, with RHP Josh Bostick (No. 27 CPL) getting the start, and RHP Darien Smith handling the rest of the work. Bostick, who has had an up-and-down season, had just a quality start through and through. He threw 55 of 80 pitches for strikes, and gave up just 4 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in 6 strong innings, while striking out 6 batters.

Bostick had been struggling with run prevention in recent starts, so nice to see him address that, but the run totals have hidden an exciting development in his game: a dramatically improved strikeout-to-walk ratio. Let’s look at his months this year:

April: 11.1 innings, 17 strikeouts to 6 walks
May: 18.2 innings, 21 strikeouts to 14 walks
June: 26.2 innings, 25 strikeouts to 9 walks
July/Aug: 34.2 innings, 34 strikeouts to 4 walks

That’s some very exciting development for Bostick, who now has a 4.14 ERA and a 5.15 FIP in his 2nd full season.

Smith finished things off by pounding the strike zone for 3 innings, throwing 25 of 36 pitches for strikes, with 4 strikeouts against 0 walks. He only gave up 2 hits, but that included a solo home run, which tagged him for a run. Smith, a 25-year old undrafted free agent in his debut season, was appearing in just his 2nd game with Eugene following a recent promotion, and this went much better than the 1st one did.

A handful of nice offensive performances, but let’s 1st talk about the new players, of which there are 3, all there for different reasons. Second baseman Nate Furman, shortstop Jean Carlos Sio, and left fielder Damian Bravo were all playing in their 2nd game for Eugene. Furman, who came over in the Alex Cobb trade, is ticketed for AA but continued his rehab (he missed the 1st few months of the year) with a recent move to High-A — he went 0-3. Sio is a 21-year old lefty who was just promoted following a glorious run with Low-A San Jose, which needed to clear space to accommodate new players — he hit 2-4 with a strikeout. And Bravo is the team’s 15th-round pick from July’s draft, who drew an aggressive opening assignment in the Northwest League — after a nearly flawless debut, he went 1-3 with a walk in his follow-up performance.

The star was another late draft pick with an aggressive opening assignment: third baseman Zane Zielinski. The righty is from last year’s draft class, when he went in the 9th round, but he didn’t play in 2024. And, partially due to his age (he’s 24), he earned a crack at High-A off the bat this year. It hasn’t always been smooth, though the glove and baserunning have been impressive. Wednesday was a wonderful day for him though, as he went 2-4 with a 2-run home run and a strikeout. It moved him up to a .627 OPS and an 81 wRC+.

Right fielder Jack Payton hit 3-4 with 2 doubles and a strikeout, while center fielder Jonah Cox went 1-4 with a walk and 2 stolen bases. Payton, an 11th-round pick in 2023 whose catching days seem well behind him at this point, now has a .770 OPS and a 110 wRC+ on the year. Cox, the A’s 6th-round pick in 2023, has a .701 OPS and a 94 wRC+, with an organization-leading 45 stolen bases in 51 attempts.

Low-A San Jose (69-35)

San Jose Giants beat the Visalia Rawhide (D-Backs) 9-3
Box score

Just like their High-A brothers, the Baby Giants have yet to lose a game this month. But their streak carries into late July, as well, as San Jose has now won 8 games in a row. They’re cooking!

Despite scoring 9 runs, the Giants only had 1 extra-base hit. But it sure was an exciting one, as second baseman Jhonny Level (No. 6 CPL) cleared the fence for the 1st time since a recent promotion, as part of a 3-5 day that also featured a stolen base.

It was only Level’s 6th game with San Jose, but so far the results have been right in line with what he did in Papago, when he was arguably the top player in the Arizona Complex League. The 18-year old switch-hitter has gone 7-24 in the Cal League, with 2 extra-base hits, 6 walks, and just 3 strikeouts (plus 2 stolen bases in as many attempts).

Level entered the year as an intriguing prospect and he’s ending the year as a big-time one. He’s now a clear-cut top-of-the-system name, and I’d expect him to populate some top 100 lists when the 2026 ones roll out.

There is something we should note with Level, though: since July’s 1st-round pick, Gavin Kilen joined San Jose, Level has played exclusively at second base, after having been a shortstop his whole career. Most scouts have pegged both of those players to move to second base at some point, so this isn’t shocking news, but it’s worth wondering whether the Giants view Kilen as more likely to stick at the position, or if they just want to make his transition to the pros smoother. If I had to guess, I’d assume it’s the latter, and this is likely a short-term issue anyway. Given Kilen’s age (21), and the fact that he has lots of experience in the advanced SEC, I’d assume he begins the 2026 season in Eugene, with Level continuing his San Jose education.

Speaking of Kilen, he played in his 2nd professional game and hit 2-5 with a strikeout. Those were the 1st career hits for the left-handed hitter, taken No. 13 overall in the draft. Exciting! His fellow recent draftee, right fielder Trevor Cohen, a 3rd-round pick, went 0-3 with a strikeout, but drew 2 walks and stole a base. Both have looked very comfortable in the batter’s box.

RHP Niko Mazza had a so-so start, giving up 4 hits and 3 walks in 4.2 innings, which tagged him for 3 runs, though only 1 of them was earned. The 2024 8th-round pick was constantly in trouble, and needed 89 pitches to get through those 4.2 innings, but settled in as the day went on, and struck out 5 batters. He has a delightful 2.31 ERA in his debut season, though his subpar strikeout-to-walk ratio (73 to 40 in 74 innings) leads to just a 4.26 FIP.

LHP Ricardo Estrada had the very definition of an effectively wild game. He threw just 32 of 61 pitches for strikes, which led to 3 walks in just 3.1 innings. But the Visalia hitters were helpless when they did swing, as they had just 1 hit against him (and 0 runs), and struck out 5 times. Estrada has just a 2.66 ERA in 8 appearances since a promotion, though he has just 17 strikeouts to 15 walks in 23.2 innings.

RHP Cade Vernon, last year’s 10th-round pick, continued his borderline flawless run. Vernon pitched a perfect 9th inning, which marked his 15th consecutive outing without an earned run, and his 9th straight showing without an unearned run. The last time he gave up an earned run, San Francisco was 6 games above .500!

During that remarkable run that covers all of June and July, Vernon has thrown 25.1 innings and allowed just 10 hits and 5 walks, while striking out 21 batters. What a summer!

Home run tracker

AAA Osleivis Basabe (9)
High-A Zane Zielinski (3)
Low-A Jhonny Level (10) [1 in Low-A, 9 in ACL]

Thursday schedule

Sacramento: 6:45 p.m. PT vs. Sugar Land (SP: Seth Lonsway)
Richmond: 3:05 p.m. PT at Erie (SP: Shane Rademacher)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Spokane (SP: Charlie McDaniel)
San Jose: 6:30 p.m. PT vs. Visalia (SP: Luis De La Torre)