Who is the 18th-best prospect on the farm?
The 17th chapter of the 2025 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List was a fairly one-sided affair, which was a little surprising. Comfortably winning the vote was outfielder Lisbel Diaz, who has been voted as the No. 17 prospect in the San Francisco Giants organization. That’s a rise of a whopping 25 spots for Diaz, who made his debut at No. 42 on last year’s CPL.
As you can probably predict from that rise, 2024 was an awesome year for the right-handed hitter from Cuba. Despite being a late, in-season signing in 2023, and only getting to play 22 games in the Dominican Summer League, Diaz was one of the few DSL prospects that the Giants moved to the states in 2024.
He began the year in the Arizona Complex League, where he hit a brilliant .329/.411/.539, for a .951 OPS and a 138 wRC+. He had a solid walk rate (8.9%), a great strikeout rate (16.7%), and bopped four home runs in just 90 plate appearances.
The “90 plate appearances” is meaningful, because it can mean one of two things: either Diaz struggled with injuries, or was promoted quickly. Thankfully it was the latter. The Giants didn’t even wait for the short ACL season to end before sending Diaz to Low-A San Jose, where he got a few months of action. And he played fairly well there, hitting .279/.333/.433 for a .767 OPS and a 103 wRC+, with a 5.5% walk rate, an 18.8% strikeout rate, and six home runs in 255 plate appearances … numbers that look a lot better with the context that Diaz was more than three years younger than the average position player in the California League.
Diaz — who turns 20 in July — also grew as the season went on, ending the year on a tear. From August 8 onward, he hit 40-109 with four home runs, three triples, five doubles, four walks, and 18 strikeouts.
After playing some center field in the DSL, Diaz exclusively played corner outfield this season, which is where he’ll surely stay going forward. He also stole nine bases on the year, in 13 attempts. We’ll soon see whether the Giants reward him for his hot end to the year with an opening assignment in High-A Eugene, or if he heads back to San Jose for some fine tuning.
Now let’s add to the list!
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
- Lisbel Diaz — OF
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 18 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)
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.