Who is the 17th-best prospect on the Giants farm?
The 2025 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List took a little break for the new year, and now, for the first time, it will continue in the actual year involved in the title. What fun!
Kicking off this year’s shenanigans is middle infielder Diego Velasquez, who has been voted as the No. 16 prospect in the San Francisco Giants system. That’s a rise of five spots for Velasquez, who was ranked No. 21 in last year’s CPL.
Velasquez is, at some level, a less-extreme version of Wade Meckler — he has similar strengths (outstanding contact and plate control) and weaknesses (a lack of power and question marks surrounding his defensive ability). The strengths are a little bit less extreme than Meckler’s, but then again, so are the weaknesses.
2024 began in High-A Eugene for Velasquez, a switch-hitter whom the Giants signed out of Venezuela in the 2021 international signing period. His outstanding hit tool was on display in the Northwest League, where he hit .274/.357/.389 with a 10.1% walk rate and a 17.0% strikeout rate, good for a .746 OPS and a 112 wRC+. A midseason promotion to AA Richmond — where he would face better pitchers in less hitter-friendly parks — didn’t slow him down at all. In fact, his numbers were eerily similar, as he hit .313/.389/.374 with a 9.4% walk rate and 17.1% strikeout rate, for a .763 OPS and a 125 wRC+. As if that were not impressive enough, Velasquez was more than three-and-a-half years younger than the average position player in the Eastern League, where his batting average was fifth among the 158 players with at least 150 plate appearances. In addition to all that hitting, Velasquez also stole 21 bases across the two levels, though he was caught stealing 10 times.
But of course, it’s not all good. The lack of power is concerning, even for such a young player. In 488 plate appearances across Eugene and Richmond, Velasquez hit just four balls over the fence, and only 28 of his 120 hits went for multiple bases — his .096 isolated slugging mark ranked 33rd out of 38 Giants prospects with at least 300 plate appearances last year, ahead of only Turner Hill, Matt Higgins, Andy Thomas, Will Wilson, and Onil Perez (players who, excepting the undrafted Higgins, all either play a premier defensive position, were left unprotected in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft, or both).
While some players see their dingers suppressed by poor launch angles or bad swing decisions, Velasquez got his the old fashioned way: by simply not hitting the ball hard. Not quite as softly as Meckler, but still softly enough that there aren’t too many MLB comps for players who have had success with a similar profile. All that said, Velasquez only turned 21 in October, so there is still time for him to pack on a little muscle and some extra power.
The defense is another interesting question for Velasquez. In 2023, Velasquez almost evenly split reps between second base and shortstop. Most evaluators have agreed that shortstop is not in his future, yet the Giants went the other way with things last year — he spent 96 games in the six hole, while playing just 13 games at second base. Some of that might have been out of necessity — and the arrival of Christian Koss and health of Aeverson Arteaga could, perhaps, shift Velasquez towards primarily playing second in the coming season. But given his offensive profile, it seems smart to keep developing him at both positions … he may never field short well enough to be an MLB starter there, but it’s easy to see Velasquez sliding into a utility infielder role, filling in all over the diamond when need be.
It will be interesting to see where Velasquez starts the 2025 season. He only played 42 games in AA, so you could make a strong case for sending him back to Richmond. Then again, a middle infielder who hits .313 in AA is fairly deserving of a promotion to AAA, where he could quickly find himself part of the MLB team’s depth chart.
Now let’s move on and add another name to the list! And we’ve got some new names to choose from.
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
- Wade Meckler — OF
- Walker Martin — SS
- Trevor McDonald — RHP
- Diego Velasquez — SS/2B
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 17 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)
Josh Bostick — 23.2-year old RHP — 4.78 ERA/4.71 FIP in Low-A (107.1 IP)
Sabin Ceballos — 22.4-year old 3B — .763 OPS/120 wRC+ in High-A (517 PA) [.913 OPS/149 wRC+ in 140 PA after being traded to SF]
Jonah Cox — 23.4-year old CF — .674 OPS/94 wRC+ in High-A (185 PA); .797 OPS/124 wRC+ in Low-A (275 PA)
Lisbel Diaz — 19.5-year old OF — .767 OPS/103 wRC+ in Low-A (255 PA); .951 OPS/138 wRC+ in ACL (90 PA)
Trent Harris — 25.11-year old RHP — 6.00 ERA/3.71 FIP in AA (3 IP); 2.00 ERA/3.10 FIP in High-A (45 IP); 1.14 ERA/2.84 FIP in Low-A (31.2 IP)
Carson Ragsdale — 26.7-year old RHP — 5.03 ERA/5.64 FIP in AAA (53.2 IP); 3.49 ERA/3.92 FIP in AA (67 IP)
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.