Giants Minor League roundup, September 10: Jordan Hicks rehabs in Low-A

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

Just three games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Tuesday, as the season is over for High-A Eugene. Let’s dive into the action.

Link to the 2024 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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News

A little bit of late-season roster shuffling to get to. With the season over for High-A Eugene, RHP reliever Trent Harris has been promoted to AA Richmond, his 2nd promotion of the year. He takes the spot of LHP starter John Michael Bertrand, who got the always-exciting promotion to AAA Sacramento.

AA Richmond outfielder Vaun Brown (No. 17 CPL) was activated off the Development List, while Low-A San Jose RHP Kanoa Pagan was placed on the Development List.

And finally, a pair of recent additions to the system who had yet to debut, 17th-round pick RHP Hunter Dryden and undrafted RHP Darien Smith, have been assigned to Low-A San Jose.

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AAA Sacramento (75-64)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Round Rock Express (Rangers) 11-6 (11 innings)
Box score

A rather funny game in Texas, as the River Cats and the Express were tied 3-3 after 9 innings, before both putting up a 3-spot in the 10th, with Sacramento then dropping 5 runs in the 11th. The offense happened, it just took a while.

No one provided more of it than third baseman David Villar, who had a splendid game, hitting 3-6 with a 3-run homer that provided all of the 10th-inning scoring for Sacramento.

Villar’s nice game was a little less nice when you look under the hood, as all 3 of his outs were strikeouts and he committed 2 errors. But still and all, a very nice game for a player who is ending the season on a high note after quite a lull. Villar is 13-28 with 6 extra-base hits and 4 walks so far in September, and while it’s hard to see how he would stay on the roster next year (he’s out of options), he’s at least finishing strongly enough that perhaps the Giants will keep him rostered into the spring and see what he looks like then.

The other big offensive day came from designated hitter Trenton Brooks, who finished 2-6 and broke the game open with a 3-run home run in the 11th inning.

Brooks has also been fairly hot lately, and has had a strong season overall, even though he struggled during his MLB debut. He’s certainly going to be a quality depth option in someone’s farm system next year.

And speaking of players ending the year strong, catcher Blake Sabol went 2-4 with a double and a walk. It’s been a pretty disappointing year for Sabol who, a year after being on the active roster all season, has spent the vast majority of the year in AAA. Not only that, but he hasn’t hit particularly well, nor has he improved his defense behind the dish enough to get Bob Melvin’s attention as a serious backup catcher candidate.

But he’s ending the year on a high note. In his last 11 games, Sabol has hit 16-43 with 4 home runs, 3 doubles, 3 walks, and 10 strikeouts. Very nice to see.

It was a dominant performance from Sacramento’s crop of relievers, who gave up just 1 earned run in 7.1 innings of work. Not a great start for LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 4 CPL) though, as he gave up 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 runs in just 3.2 innings of work, with 4 strikeouts.

Whisenhunt’s arm strength is fully built up following his recent IL stint, as he threw 87 pitches in this one, but obviously he was hopping those 87 pitches would get him more than 11 outs.

We’ll likely see 2 more starts from Whisenhunt before the year ends, and then he can put a cap on a somewhat odd season. There was perhaps an unfair level of expectations on the 2022 2nd-round pick when the year began, and his 1st pass through AAA has resulted in a few bumps and bruises: he has a 5.86 ERA and a 4.97 FIP, is walking 4.7 batters per 9 innings, and has thrown just 93.2 innings despite making 23 starts.

But the most important part of AAA is making it there, and Whisenhunt now has a full season under his belt at the most advanced level in Minor League Baseball. He’s set up to hopefully have a killer 2025.

And then he handed it to the bullpen, which carried the team to victory. RHP Spencer Howard had a particularly strong game, tossing 2.1 no-hit innings with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts, while LHP Kolton Ingram retired all 3 batters he faced, with 2 strikeouts. In his last 3 games, Ingram has struck out 6 batters in 3.1 innings without allowing a baserunner.

AA Richmond (63-70)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Altoona Curve (Pirates) 6-2
Box score

All eyes are on first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 3 CPL) for every Richmond game, and for good reason. It wasn’t Eldridge’s best game on Tuesday, as he went just 1-5 with a strikeout, but the hit he had was a mighty impressive one: an absolutely blistered triple.

It’s extremely early on, and it does need to be stated that AA pitching is a bit worse this time of year (when the bulk of the best players have been promoted to AAA), but Eldridge is so far fitting in more than comfortably with his 2nd promotion of the year. In 7 AA games, Eldridge is 7-28 with a home run, a triple, a double, 3 walks, and just 6 strikeouts, good for a .787 OPS and a 114 wRC+. He’s good.

2-hit days for center fielder Carter Howell, right fielder Victor Bericoto (No. 19 CPL), and left fielder Turner Hill, who also had a walk and a stolen base. Howell and Hill have really impressed this year and become honest-to-goodness prospects, while Bericoto is trying to get back on track after a tough start to the year.

The pitching was the star, and it was led by a tremendous performance from LHP Jack Choate (No. 31 CPL). Choate, like so many players, had really been struggling since getting promoted, but Tuesday was a big step in the right direction. He tossed 5 strong innings with just 5 hits, 0 walks, 1 hit batter, and 2 runs, while striking out 5. Choate should be lined up to pitch once more, in Richmond’s season finale, which will give him a chance to keep the momentum going. It’s been a really good year for the 2022 9th-round pick.

Finishing the nice pitching day off were RHPs Mat Olsen and Tanner Kiest, who both pitched 2 scoreless innings. Kiest, who was perfect in his 2 innings, has now gone 10 straight games without allowing an earned run. During that time, he’s given up just 5 hits and 6 walks in 13.1 innings, with 12 strikeouts.

Low-A San Jose (0-1 in Division Series)

San Jose Giants lost to the Modesto Nuts (Mariners) 4-2
Box score

And with that, the Baby Giants find themselves on the brink of elimination. They’ll need to win Thursday and Friday to keep their season going.

I understand why, in the Majors, postseason stats don’t count towards your total stats. But it makes no sense for me in the Minors, when we just want data points for how players are performing and progressing.

To wit, second baseman Zander Darby — the Giants 12th-round pick in July’s draft — hit 1-4 with a home run. When we look at stat pages in Spring Training to get excited about another year of Minor League Baseball, we’ll see that Darby hit 4 home runs, even though he’s now put the ball over the fence 5 times (in just 14 games, I should note).

Well, stat books be damned, I’m listing him as having 5 home runs, even if I’ll forget that in a few months.

His fellow recently-drafted right side infielder, first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins, also had a nice game, hitting 2-4 with a triple. Jenkins, the team’s 14th-round pick, has shown a lot of power, and has 7 extra-base hits in 12 games.

A notable development on the mound: RHP Jordan Hicks made a rehab start. Hicks pitched the 1st 2 innings of the game and gave up just 1 hit, 0 walks, and a hit batter, though a pair of errors by his defense allowed 2 unearned runs to score (Hicks also committed an error, though it didn’t hurt him). He struck out 2 batters. The Giants revealed on Tuesday that both Hicks and Robbie Ray are expected to play again this season.

That pushed RHP Josh Bostick into a piggybacking role, with so-so results. Bostick pitched 4.1 innings with 3 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs, while striking out 4. It was an up-and-down year for him, but he’s showed so much life on his pitches … I’m excited to see him in Eugene next year.

And LHP Timmy Manning pitched a perfect frame with 3 strikeouts. Love to see that!

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Home run tracker

AAA David Villar (17 total, 16 in AAA)
AAA Trenton Brooks (9)
Low-A Zander Darby (5)

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Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: at Round Rock, 5:05 p.m. PT
Richmond: at Altoona, 3:00 p.m. PT
Eugene: Season over
San Jose: Off day

Reminder that Minor League games can be watched on MLB TV.