Minor League roundup, 4/8: Keaton Winn shines, bats wake up

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

It was the rare three-game day for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Tuesday, as High-A Eugene had a second consecutive off-day. But the other three squads were in action!

Let’s dive into another great day in the Minors. They’re all great days!

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

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

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AAA Sacramento (5-5)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners) 6-1
Box score

The River Cats’ highly impressive cast of MLB-adjacent pitchers is on display every single game, and the results have mostly been good this year. Occasionally they’ve been poor, though. Tuesday’s game featured a pair of the former performances from players rebounding from the latter performance.

Getting the start was RHP Keaton Winn, who got quite roughed up in his season debut. But in his second start of the year? Well, that was a chef’s kiss of an outing. Winn absolutely pounded the strike zone, throwing a whopping 50 of 68 pitches for strikes, while K’ing 5 batters in 4.2 innings. He gave up just 4 hits and, after allowing 2 walks and a hit batter in just 2 innings his last time out, didn’t issue any free passes.

The end result? A fantastic scoreless outing, and a reminder that he should be in heavy consideration anytime the MLB team needs another arm, even if it will be hard to find the space in the rotation. His fastball was sitting 95 at the end of the outing.

The piggybacking starter was RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 15 CPL) who, after tossing 4 shutout innings in his season debut, could only get through 1 inning his second time out. He got back to his out-recording ways in this one, pitching the final 4 innings while allowing just 1 hit and 2 walks, with 5 strikeouts. The hit was a home run, which tacked a run on his ERA, but a very strong outing nonetheless, and he only needed 47 pitches to get through 4 innings.

One minor interesting note is that McDonald pitched at all. The last time Winn’s turn came through the rotation, it was RHP Mason Black (No. 7 CPL) who piggybacked with him. McDonald piggybacked with Kyle Harrison on Friday, meaning he had just 3 days of rest between outings. Are they trying to get McDonald more used to bullpen-style rest? Did something happen to Black, who now hasn’t pitched since April 2, that forced them to adjust their plans? Time will tell. Or not.

While the River Cats did score 6 runs (all in the 4th inning), they didn’t get a whole lot going on offense. First baseman Jake Lamb had the best day with the bat, hitting 2-4 with a double. The veteran lefty has been a doubles machine to start the year, with 5 of them through 38 plate appearances. He hasn’t done much else though, as he’s sporting a 2.6% walk rate, a 42.1% strikeout rate, a .748 OPS, and an 88 wRC+.

Center fielder Grant McCray had a really nice day, hitting 2-4 and stealing 2 bases. McCray has started to turn his line around after a cold start to the year (he now has a .646 OPS and a 77 wRC+), but the cynical take is that a lot of what he’s doing might not be as successful in the Majors, against better pitchers and better defenses. Lately a lot of his hits have been of the infield variety, including his first single on Tuesday, which came on a bunt. He’s had multiple bunt singles this year, which is certainly a nice skill to have, but one that perhaps inflates the OPS in a non-projectable manner.

Another rough day for left fielder Marco Luciano, who hit 0-4 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. He just hasn’t been able to get it going at all this year, as he has a paltry .466 OPS and 22 wRC+. He is hitting the ball significantly harder than last year though, which is very encouraging, but he still seems to have the passive approach that negatively defined his 2024. My very amateur take is that Luciano, who admitted to being “lost” last year, is still feeling that a little bit, and is having a hard time pulling the trigger on hittable pitches. Hopefully he can keep hitting the ball hard, and get a little more batted-ball luck (his .174 BABIP is 95th out of 103 PCL hitters with at least 20 plate appearances), and if that happens, hopefully it starts to give him a little more comfort just swinging at pitches he can do damage on.

For a more in-depth analysis of Luciano, I recommend reading Roger Munter’s post this morning.

AA Richmond (1-3)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals) 7-4
Box score

And the Squirrels are finally in the win column! And it took a dominant starting pitching performance, and an exceptionally well-balanced offensive attack.

A whopping 4 different players reached base 3 times for Richmond, with third baseman Sabin Ceballos (No. 18 CPL) hitting 2-4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout; first baseman Victor Bericoto (No. 24 CPL) and catcher Adrián Sugastey (No. 38 CPL) both hitting 1-3 with 2 walks; and right fielder Vaun Brown going 2-4 with a double, a hit by pitch, and 2 strikeouts. Lovely days for a quartet of prospects who are all exciting in their own unique ways.

It’s been nice to see Brown have a good start to the year after his absolutely brutal 2024, which went as poorly as a Minor League season can possibly go for a player (non-injury department). His 2025 is far from perfect — he’s struck out 4 times in 13 plate appearances and is still occasionally platooned — but it’s significantly ahead of his 2024 pace. The Giants have not been playing Brown at center field this year, which is probably less about his abilities there, and more an admission that his odds of making the Majors are low enough that they should prioritize other players there.

But the star on offense wasn’t one of those aforementioned players: instead, it was designated hitter Jairo Pomares (No. 41 CPL). The lefty slugger hit 2-5 with 2 strikeouts, but provided a huge blast of insurance in the 9th inning when he smacked a 2-run home run the other way, his first of the year.

Pomares has such a gorgeous swing that I certainly haven’t given up on the possibility that he could still actualize the potential that made him a top-10 prospect in the system a few years ago. Here’s hoping!

The star pitcher was LHP Seth Lonsway, who was utterly dominant in his season debut. The 6th-round pick in 2021, who was fantastic in his short stint with the Flying Squirrels following a promotion last year, picked up where he left off, striking out 7 batters in 5 shutout innings, while allowing just 2 hits and 0 walks. What a way to start the year!

Lonsway is a control pitcher, excelling at avoiding walks and creating soft contact and ground balls, so don’t expect him to always strike out so many hitters (last year in High-A and AA, for instance, he had 7.8 strikeouts and 2.5 walks per 9 innings, with a 59.4% groundball rate). Given his age (he turned 26 in October) and excellent at the level last year (1.38 ERA and 3.59 FIP in 6 games), he might not be too many starts away from proving that he deserves a promotion to AAA. But even if he does prove that, it’s hard to see it happening with how congested that rotation (and bullpen!) is.

RHP Evan Gates had a phenomenal relief appearance in the 8th inning, needing just 8 pitches to set down the side in order, with 2 strikeouts.

Low-A San Jose (1-3)

San Jose Giants beat the Visalia Rawhide (D-Backs) 11-1
Box score

And the Baby Giants are in the win column, too! All of the Giants affiliates now have felt the sweet joy of victory.

This was a well balanced game for San Jose, which is to say that the offense was great and the pitching was great.

Let’s start on the mound, where RHP Hunter Dryden made his professional debut. A 2024 17th-round pick out of D3 Whitworth University, Dryden is already an awesome story. And if he keeps pitching like he did on Tuesday, that store will only grow.

The 22-year old was sensational in his debut, striking out 7 batters in 4 shutout innings, while allowing just 4 hits and 0 walks, and throwing 46 of 68 pitches for strikes. That’s how you make an impression!

Dryden was the star and the main story on the mound, but it was a great day until the end. RHP Cameron Pferrer had the lone hiccup, giving up 5 baserunners and a run in 2 innings of work, but RHPs Junior Flores and Cade Vernon were great. Flores, who really struggled with walks last year was again plagued by them, giving up 2 in as many innings, but he didn’t allow any hits or runs, and he struck out a pair of batters. And Vernon, a 10th-round pick last year who was making his professional debut, pitched a perfect inning with 2 strikeouts. Welcome to the pros, Cade!

The offensive output was just as exciting. First baseman Jakob Christian (No. 30 CPL) had the biggest day, hitting 2-5 with both a home run and a double, as well as a strikeout. A right-handed hitter, Christian was taken in the 5th round last year and went straight to San Jose, bypassing the ACL. He did fantastically there in 9 games, and is so far off to a similarly excellent start this year.

Shortstop Walker Martin (No. 14 CPL) continued his encouraging start to the year, hitting 3-5 with a triple and a strikeout. Martin’s 2024 was fairly difficult to watch, as he had massive strikeout issues. He played 25 games with San Jose last year, and had multiple strikeouts in 19 of those games, and multiple hits in just 5 of them. So seeing him have a 3-hit, 1-strikeout game was great … and even though it was his first game of the year with a hit, he’s had just 1 strikeout in each of his 3 games so far this year.

Right fielder Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) had a do-everything game, recording a single and a walk, getting hit by a pitch, and throwing out runners at both third base and home. What a fun game! Ortiz is a must-watch player on defense, with mesmerizing speed and routes, and a cannon for an arm (hence the assists!). He has all the tools to be a plus corner outfielder, or even a quality center fielder, though for now the organization is giving middle-of-the-grass reps to Dakota Jordan (No. 8 CPL), who hit 1-5 with a walk and a strikeout on Tuesday … and made a highlight play in center field.

Designated hitter Carlos Gutierrez, a 20-year old who was limited by injuries to just 3 ACL games last year, had a lovely day, hitting 2-5 with a triple, a walk, and a strikeout. He’s not showing much rust after a lost 2024 (and just 25 games, total, in his pro career). Third baseman Robert Hipwell (No. 25 CPL) also had a nice game, hitting 1-4 with a double, a walk, 3 runs batted in, and 2 strikeouts.

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Home run tracker

AA Jairo Pomares (1)
Low-A Jakob Christian (1)

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Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: @ Tacoma, 6:05 p.m. PT (SP: Carson Seymour)
Richmond: @ Harrisburg, 3:30 p.m. PT (SP: Joe Whitman)
Eugene: vs. Tri-City, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Cale Lansville)
San Jose: vs. Visalia, 6:00 p.m. PT (SP: Niko Mazza)