Who is the 33rd-best prospect on the farm?
Note: Today is nomination day! Head to the comment section to nominate the next group of players to vote on in the CPL.
Spring Training is starting this week, and we’re getting closer and closer to finishing up the 2025 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, and our ranking of the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization.
The next player voted onto the list is someone we all hope to see back in the Majors this year: right-handed reliever Cole Waites, who has been voted as the No. 32 prospect in the system. It’s a rise of two spots over last year’s ranking.
By now, you’re probably familiar with Waites’ story. An 18th-round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, Waites rose through the system thanks in large parts to a triple-digit fastball that was considered one of the very best in all of baseball. That pitch, not surprisingly, led a strikeout-heavy profile: in 2021, he struck out 31 batters despite pitching just 13.1 innings and in 2022 — his first full season of professional baseball — he struck out 76 hitters in just 41.2 innings across High-A, AA, and AAA. Elite stuff!
That earned him a late-season promotion to the big leagues, and the trivia answer distinction of being the first Giant drafted by Farhan Zaidi to make the Majors.
Unfortunately, that’s where Waites’ happy story hits the pause button. He looked decent in seven appearances with the Giants, and seemed primed to be a big part of the bullpen in 2023. But he showed up to that season with serious command issues and notably decreased life on his pitches: in 33 innings (mostly in AAA, but a few in the Majors), Waites struck out just 34 batters, and walked a staggering 29.
For better or for worse, his struggles came with an explanation: halfway through the year he was shut down due to lingering elbow pain, and he then underwent Tommy John surgery.
That surgery kept Waites out for the entirety of the 2024 season, and also cost him a spot on the 40-man roster. But he’s fully healthy entering this year, and is one of the most exciting names on the Giants list of non-roster invitees to Spring Training.
There are few prospects in the system who are as easy to define as Waites; not many have such clear reasons for both optimism and pessimism. The optimism is that he’s proven at the highest levels of the Minor Leagues, has no-doubt late-inning stuff, and didn’t look overmatched in his MLB debut. The pessimism is that he’s entering his age-27 season, is coming back from his second Tommy John surgery, and hasn’t pitched in a game in 19 months.
He’s one to watch as pitchers and catchers report this week.
Now let’s add to the list, and don’t forget that it’s nomination day!
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
- Sabin Ceballos — 3B
- Carson Ragsdale — RHP
- Trent Harris — RHP
- Carson Seymour — RHP
- Jose Ortiz — CF
- Maui Ahuna — SS
- Victor Bericoto — OF/1B
- Robert Hipwell — 3B
- Jonah Cox — CF
- Josh Bostick — RHP
- Argenis Cayama — RHP
- Jack Choate — LHP
- Jakob Christian — OF
- Jacob Bresnahan — LHP
- Cole Waites — RHP
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 33 prospect nominees
Gerelmi Maldonado — 21.1-year old RHP — did not play in 2024 (in 2023, 4.71 ERA/4.83 FIP in 65 Low-A IP)
Onil Perez — 22.4-year old C — .637 OPS/87 wRC+ in High-A (350 PA)
Juan Sánchez — 24.2-year old LHP — 3.93 ERA/5.17 FIP in AAA (34.1 IP)
Adrián Sugastey — 22.3-year old C — .545 OPS/54 wRC+ in AA (191 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.