Carsons Seymour and Ragsdale added to 40-man roster; Kai-Wei Teng designated for assignment

These moves are all about the Rule 5 draft.

This afternoon, the San Francisco Giants announced the addition of two players to their 40-man roster and one player designated for assignment:

Seymour, Carson, was acquired in the remarkable Darin Ruf trade with the Mets back in 2022 and was voted as the #22 prospect in the Giants’ system by the McCovey Chronicles community back in April. He backed up a solid 2023 (3.99 ERA in 112.2 IP at Double-A Richmond) with a solid 2024 (4.82 ERA in 134.1 IP at Triple-A Sacramento). Strikeout stuff with command issues is definitionally a “prospect pitcher,” and with 2024 being his age-26 season, it’s definitely time to see where he fits on a major league roster.

Ragsdale, Carson, was acquired before he ever made his pro debut with the Phillies, who drafted him in 2020. The community ranked him #32 and Brady highlighted electric stuff in that profile in the two years the Giants had a good look at him — before injuries sort of derailed his progress. He’s a lot like Seymour in that he has strikeout stuff but trouble with the walks. He struggled a bit more when he made the jump from Double-A (3.49 ERA in 67 IP) to Triple-A (5.03 ERA in 53.2 IP), and he’ll be 27 in May, so, yeah, it’s a good time to see if the Giants have something useful here.

This same degree of calculation is what made Kei-Wei Teng expendable. The 25 (soon to be 26)-year old righty doesn’t have strikeout stuff and walks players at an even greater rate than the aforementioned Carsons. The McC community deemed him the #23 prospect and, at the time, Brady wrote of him:

Given the walk issues — which figure to be exacerbated at the next level, since he lives on the fringes of the strike zone — the Giants likely envision Teng filling a Jakob Junis-esque bulk innings non-starter role. But given that he has an entire swag bag of different pitches, most of which get a lot of swing-and-miss, Teng probably still has his sights set on emerging as an MLB starter.

That didn’t materialize and so it made it a lot easier for the Giants to cast him aside from a 40-man perspective in order to retain two more arms who might be able to help in 2025.

These moves are being done ahead of the Rule 5 draft on December 11th, when players who have been with an organization at least 3 years (if signed 19 years old or older; 4 years if signed at 18 or younger) must be protected by being added to the 40-man roster or else be included in the draft pool.

Buster Posey’s decision to DFA Kei-Wei Teng doesn’t have to be the final judgment of the player, either. If he passes through waivers, he could be outrighted back to the minor league team and remain in the organization if nobody claims him off waivers or selects him in the Rule 5.

With the 40-man roster full, that means the following players of note are in the draft pool: