Who is the 29th-best prospect on the Giants farm?
You might be wrapped up in watching the San Francisco Giants Spring Training games, and I can’t blame you for that! But while that excitement is happening, so is the 2024 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, in which we’ll rank the top 44 prospects in the Giants organization.
We’re well into the second half of the list, and our next name is one you’ll likely see throw a whole lot of pitches in the Majors this year: it’s left-handed pitcher Erik Miller, who makes his CPL debut as the No. 28 prospect in the system.
Miller is the 13th pitcher to come off the board in this year’s CPL, and while some (most?) of the 12 ahead of him will surely end up in relief roles, he’s the first pure reliever on the list. A southpaw who is built like a tall (he’s 6’5!) football player, Miller (who turned 26 two weeks ago, happy belated birthday!) went to Stanford, where he raised his draft pedigree and was selected in the 4th round of the 2019 draft by the Phillies.
After losing the 2020 season to the pandemic and most of 2021 due to injuries, Miller was finally healthy in 2022. The Phillies, however, had determined that starting pitching was no longer in Miller’s future, and while he shined in AA, he struggled mightily in AAA for the organization. Last offseason the Phillies shipped Miller to the Giants for right-handed reliever Yunior Marté, in a deal that looks great for San Francisco (they cleared a spot on the 40-man roster so they could sign Luke Jackson, and got an exciting prospect in Miller) and not so great for Philly (Marté rocked a 5.03 ERA in 2023).
Miller started his debut Giants season with AA Richmond, where he barely had time to unpack his bags. He struck out 15 of the 36 batters he faced, allowing just three hits and one run in 10.1 innings. That got him the call to join AAA Sacramento.
It was an odd rest of the year for Miller with the River Cats. While we’re used to prospects being very good at some skills and struggle with others, Miller took that to an extreme.
The burly power lefty was exceptional nearly across the board. Among 127 Pacific Coast League pitchers with at least 40 innings last year, Miller (who pitched 52 innings in 48 games) was third in ERA (2.77), seventh in FIP (4.07), sixth in strikeouts per nine innings (12.6), fourth in strikeout rate (32.9%), first in batting average against (.150), and seventh in home runs per nine innings (0.35).
In short, when batters swung at Miller’s pitches, they were helpless. He faced 222 batters in AAA, and 116 of them either struck out or hit a ground ball.
It was when batters weren’t swinging that was a problem. Miller struggled with walks all year, issuing a staggering 7.1 free passes per nine innings in AAA … even in the walk-inflated PCL, that mark was 113th out of those 127 pitchers. His walk rate of 18.5% was 119th. Walks have always been a concern for Miller, who has issued 5.8 per nine innings for his Minor League career. But everything else is dynamic. Can the good outweigh the bad? Or will the bad be fixed this year?
Those are the questions as Miller enters his likely MLB debut season. The Giants rostered him in November to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, and for much of the offseason he was the only lefty in the bullpen other than Taylor Rogers. Even after the Giants added Ethan Small (on a Major League deal) and Amir Garrett (on a Minor League deal), manager Bob Melvin made it clear that Miller is the leading candidate to break camp as the second southpaw. So we probably won’t have to wait long to get some questions answered.
Now let’s move on!
The list so far
- Kyle Harrison — LHP
- Marco Luciano — SS
- Bryce Eldridge — 1B
- Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
- Rayner Arias — CF
- Keaton Winn — RHP
- Walker Martin — SS
- Reggie Crawford — LHP
- Hayden Birdsong — RHP
- Mason Black — RHP
- Wade Meckler — OF
- Grant McCray — CF
- Heliot Ramos — OF
- Aeverson Arteaga — SS
- Tyler Fitzgerald — UTIL
- Joe Whitman — LHP
- Vaun Brown — OF
- Landen Roupp — RHP
- Victor Bericoto — OF
- Trevor McDonald — RHP
- Diego Velasquez — 2B/SS
- Carson Seymour — RHP
- Kai-Wei Teng — RHP
- Onil Perez — C
- Adrian Sugastey — C
- Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP
- Maui Ahuna — SS
- Erik Miller — LHP
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
On to No. 29!
No. 29 prospect nominees
Cole Foster — 22.4-year old SS — .696 OPS/90 wRC+ in Low-A (111 PA); 1.055 OPS/143 wRC+ in ACL (31 PA)
Jairo Pomares — 23.6-year old OF — .804 OPS/115 wRC+ in ACL (31 PA, rehab appearance); .768 OPS/113 wRC+ in High-A (386 PA, 2022 season)
Carson Ragsdale — 25.8-year old RHP — 2.93 ERA/2.33 FIP in High-A (27.2 IP)
Liam Simon — 23.4-year old RHP — 3.86 ERA/2.96 FIP in Low-A (21 IP)
Cole Waites — 25.8-year old RHP — 15.43 ERA/4.11 FIP in MLB (2.1 IP); 6.16 ERA/5.78 FIP in AAA (30.2 IP)