Who is the 13th-best prospect on the farm?
The MLB offseason is rolling right along, and so is our 2025 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, which will see us collectively rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization.
The voting in the last chapter was close, but in the end, shortstop Aeverson Arteaga was selected as the No. 12 prospect in the Giants system. It’s a rise of two spots over his ranking of No. 14 last year, which tells you that a lot of players ranked ahead of him (six, specifically) graduated, because 2024 was essentially a lost year for Arteaga.
After spending all of 2023 with High-A Eugene, Arteaga was sidelined by thoracic outlet surgery before his 2024 ever got started. He returned in late July for a rehab assignment with the Giants’ Complex Level team, playing in the final three games plus the postseason game. He then stayed in Arizona for a few weeks playing in the unofficial post-season (not to be confused with “postseason”) games, before re-joining Eugene in mid-August and playing 21 games before the season ended.
He didn’t perform well in those 21 games, but I would advise against reading anything into that. Rust is hard for any player to overcome after such a long absence, and that’s doubly true for a medical issue as bizarre and uncommon as thoracic outlet syndrome. Personally, I would just kind of throw out Arteaga’s 2024 entirely, and just be happy that he’s healthy. And since thoracic outlet syndrome is such an uncommon injury, and Arteaga has typically been one of the most durable players in the system, I wouldn’t have any long-term injury concerns with him.
Arteaga has long been viewed as the best defensive shortstop in the Giants system, with essentially all the pieces you ask for from the position. He has good range, a strong arm, a good glove, and excellent instincts. The question has really been if he can hit well enough to let his glove play.
He’s yet to emerge as a strong offensive player, but he’s definitely showed plenty of signs. In 2023 he hit just .235/.299/.410 for an 89 wRC+ in High-A, but his strikeout rate (24.2%) was not concerning, and represented his second straight year of improvement, and he bashed 17 home runs, which was tied for fifth among all Giants prospects … and second among Giants prospects who didn’t get to play in the homer-happy Pacific Coast League. And while the overall offensive output was still below average, it’s worth noting that Arteaga was two-and-a-half years younger than the average position player in the Northwest League.
Arteaga, who doesn’t turn 22 until March, has the defense and the power that his ceiling remains a quality starting shortstop in the Majors, but he’ll need to work on the hit tool if he wants to have a chance to get there.
Now let’s move on, and we’ve got some new names to vote on today!
The list so far
- Bryce Eldridge — 1B
- Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
- James Tibbs III — OF
- Rayner Arias — OF
- Josuar de Jesus González — SS
- Jhonny Level — SS
- Mason Black — RHP
- Dakota Jordan — OF
- Joe Whitman — LHP
- Reggie Crawford — LHP
- Bo Davidson — OF
- Aeverson Arteaga — SS
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 13 prospect nominees
Maui Ahuna — 22.9-year old SS — .636 OPS/84 wRC+ in Low-A (107 PA); 1.063 OPS/158 wRC+ in ACL (42 PA)
Lisbel Diaz — 19.4-year old OF — .767 OPS/103 wRC+ in Low-A (255 PA); .951 OPS/138 wRC+ in ACL (90 PA)
Walker Martin — 20.9-year old SS — .691 OPS/96 wRC+ in Low-A (123 PA); .795 OPS/115 wRC+ in ACL (189 PA)
Trevor McDonald — 23.9-year old RHP — 0.00 ERA/3.50 FIP in MLB (3 IP); 4.72 ERA/4.61 FIP in AAA (47.2 IP); 3.21 ERA/3.52 FIP in AA (14 IP); 4.86 ERA/5.75 FIP in High-A (16.2 IP); 3.52 ERA/4.83 FIP in ACL (7.2 IP)
Wade Meckler — 24.7-year old OF — .866 OPS/113 wRC+ in AAA (196 PA)
Carson Ragsdale — 26.6-year old RHP — 5.03 ERA/5.64 FIP in AAA (53.2 IP); 3.49 ERA/3.92 FIP in AA (67 IP)
Diego Velasquez — 21.2-year old 2B/SS — .763 OPS/125 wRC+ in AA (170 PA); .746 OPS/112 wRC+ in High-A (318 PA)
Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2024 season.