Minor League roundup, May 28: Hayden Birdsong is pitching his way towards a promotion

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

The Low-A San Jose Giants weren’t in action on Tuesday, but the San Francisco Giants other Minor League Baseball affiliates were. 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

There were a few transactions on the farm on Tuesday. In exciting news, High-A Eugene RHP Will Bednar, the team’s 1st-round pick in 2021, was activated from the 7-Day IL. Bednar had been rehabbing in Low-A San Jose, where he was pitching quite excellently. If he’s healthy, that’s very exciting news!

RHP Nick Garcia, a Minor League Rule 5 Draft pick, was promoted from AA Richmond to AAA Sacramento. He had been utterly lights out with the Flying Squirrels, so it’s a very well-deserved promotion. Taking his place in Richmond is RHP Dylan Cumming, who got promoted from High-A Eugene after being equally lights out. Congrats to both!

RHP Brayan Palencia was moved from the ACL to Low-A San Jose, where he swaps places with LHP Michael Rodriguez. And, now that the Giants have returned to the west coast, catcher Blake Sabol was moved back to AAA Sacramento after being optioned to AA Richmond to stay near the team.

The Giants also signed outfielder Allan Cerda to a Minor League contract and assigned him to AA Richmond. Cerda is a 24-year old right-handed hitter with good power and athleticism, but a limited hit tool.

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AAA Sacramento (31-21)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners) 5-3
Box score

On Tuesday, Sacramento first baseman Trenton Brooks had his contract purchased by the Giants, was added to the active roster, started at first base in the team’s win over the Phillies, and made his MLB debut. Brooks was one of two first basemen on the River Cats that the Giants could call up if they wanted to replace the injured LaMonte Wade Jr. with an actual first baseman.

The other option was David Villar. It would have been easier to call up Villar, since he’s already on the 40-man roster. But given that he’s right-handed (same as Wilmer Flores) and, perhaps more importantly, struggling in AAA, he likely wasn’t a very compelling option.

Perhaps he took offense at that. Playing at third base on Tuesday, Villar had a delightful game for the River Cats, hitting 1-3 with a home run, a walk, and a strikeout.

It certainly hasn’t been the year that Villar wanted in his final season with options. He has just a .729 OPS and a 79 wRC+, but it’s been the lack of home runs that have been the most surprising for the former Richmond Flying Squirrels single-season home run record holder. Just 2 years ago, Villar made his AAA debut and hit a whopping 27 big flies in just 366 plate appearances. He’s already at 205 plate appearances this season, but has just 7 home runs. So here’s to more days like Tuesday, which … hey, would you look at that! More days like Tuesday is exactly what Villar has been doing lately. The righty is sitting on a 7-game hitting streak, and during that time is 11-30 with 4 home runs, 1 double, 5 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 12 RBI. That’s a fairly dramatic shift from how he was hitting for a few weeks, and if he can keep it up he’ll work his way back into being a viable option.

The other home run on the day belonged to second baseman Donovan Walton, who hit 1-2 with a solo dinger and 2 walks.

It’s hard to see a path to the Majors for Walton this year, but then again, I was saying the same thing about Brooks all year long, and here we are. Like Villar, Walton doesn’t have strong season numbers — he has a .701 OPS and a 72 wRC+ — but is on a hot streak. His hit streak has reached 9 games, during which time he’s 13-37 with 1 home run, 1 triple, 1 double, 2 walks, and just 5 strikeouts.

The other strong offensive game belonged to shortstop Casey Schmitt, who hit 2-4 with a double and a walk. Schmitt is on a mission to return to San Francisco, and has been a slightly revamped batter since getting optioned. In 9 games since returning to AAA, Schmitt is 14-40 with 4 home runs, 4 doubles, 5 walks, and, perhaps most importantly, just 7 strikeouts. He’ll be back in the Majors again this year, surely … especially if he keeps hitting like this.

And right fielder Austin Slater began his rehab assignment! Regardless of how you feel about Slater’s performance this year and whether or not he should be on the roster, we should all be happy that he’s back on the field after a concussion. Brain health is so much more important than baseball.

Slater hit 0-2 with a walk and a strikeout. I’d guess that the Giants drag his rehab assignment out for a while … half to make sure the concussion symptoms don’t return like they did for Patrick Bailey, and half to delay having to make a difficult roster decision.

It wasn’t a great day on the mound, as RHP Mason Black (No. 10 CPL) struggled in his return to AAA after being optioned. Black — who was not snubbed for the Giants game on Tuesday, but simply wasn’t eligible to return to the roster yet — had a tough go of Tacoma’s roster, making it through just 2.2 innings while allowing 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs, with 3 strikeouts. It’s still been a fantastic AAA season for him, and he’ll certainly be back in San Francisco a few more times this year, but he was no doubt hoping to get in on the “get optioned and dominate in AAA” party that Schmitt and Tyler Fitzgerald seem to have perfected.

Strong relief outings from LHP Raymond Burgos and RHPs Tanner Andrews and Justin Garza. Burgos, who gave up 2 hits, 1 hit batter, and 1 run in 3.1 innings (with 3 strikeouts), has been fantastic since returning to AAA following an injury that took out the start of his season. In 4 games and 9.1 innings, he has 9 strikeouts to just 1 walk, and has allowed only 2 runs.

AA Richmond (23-23)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 5-0
Box score

A fun game for the Squirrels, and while there were some key hits, this one was all about the pitching. Specifically, it was all about RHP Hayden Birdsong (No. 9 CPL), whose days in Richmond seem to be very, very numbered.

Birdsong was nothing short of spectacular on Tuesday, pitching 6 shutout innings, and holding the SeaWolves to just 5 hits (all singles). If you want to pick some nits, the Giants would probably like to see the 2022 6th-round pick have more than 46 of his 71 pitches in the zone … but when you have no walks and strike out 6 batters, that concern is somewhat alleviated, I’d think!

Walks have typically been what has kept the Giants from promoting AA pitchers, and it’s great to see Birdsong start to get a hold of them. Through his first 7 starts and 30.1 innings, he’d issued 17 free passes. But in his last 2 games, Birdsong has walked just 1 batter in 11 innings. That, more than anything, is what will probably get him a ticket to Sacramento soon … though the 1.96 ERA and 3.60 FIP sure don’t hurt, either. Nor do the 11.54 strikeouts per 9 innings, which ranks as 5th among 49 Eastern League pitchers with at least 30 innings thrown this year … behind players significantly older than he is.

While Birdsong was the star, the bullpen was perfect. LHP Nick Swiney retired all 6 batters he faced, while RHP Tyler Myrick set down the side in order in the 9th inning, with a strikeout. It was nice to see Swiney have a good outing … it was his 2nd consecutive clean appearance, after 7 straight outings in which he allowed a run. It was also the 2nd straight clean outing for Myrick, after a similarly tough stretch. Both pitchers have some really nasty stuff, so hopefully they can get it going.

The offense was led by the heart of the order, batters 2 through 4. The big hit came from first baseman Victor Bericoto (No. 19 CPL), who hit 1-3 with a home run, a walk, and a strikeout.

The Giants surely want to see Bericoto lower his strikeout rate (27.0%) and raise his batting average (.211). But the oddest part of the disappointing season for the 22-year old has been the lack of power. This was just his 4th home run in 159 plate appearances, which comes after bopping 11 homers in just 204 plate appearances with Richmond last year (and an organization-leading 27 home runs in 513 plate appearances across 2 levels). As is usually the case, everything is fairly connected. If Bericoto were selling out for power, his strikeout and average numbers would be a little more explainable … but without the power results, everything ends up looking bad.

Speaking of selling out for power, reigning Eastern League Player of the Week, center fielder Grant McCray (No. 12 CPL) had an extremely Grant McCray day, hitting 2-5 with a triple and 3 strikeouts.

Strikeouts remain quite an issue for McCray (he has a 30.5% K rate), but you can live with that issue when the results are as spectacular as they’ve been lately. After a rough April, McCray is sporting a blistering 1.060 OPS in May (which has brought his season OPS to .808 and his wRC+ to 127). And if you zoom in even closer, the numbers get even wilder: in his last 13 games, McCray is hitting an obscene 19-40 with 2 home runs, 3 triples, 6 doubles, and 8 walks, and, even with Tuesday’s hat trick, has just 8 strikeouts in that time. If the Ks keep coming down, well … yeesh. Watch out world, here comes Grant McCray!

And rounding things out was another nice game from shortstop Will Wilson, who hit 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout. The last few years have been fairly tough for the former 1st-round pick, but he’s been showing great bat control and plate discipline lately. Over the last 8 games, the right-handed hitter is 10-29 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 8 walks, and just 3 strikeouts. That’s quite nice!!

High-A Eugene (24-21)

Eugene Emeralds lost to the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks) 4-1
Box score

A nothing game on offense, with the Emeralds mustering just 8 baserunners and 1 run against 14 strikeouts. The only player of note was first baseman Zach Morgan, who hit 3-4 with a double. Morgan’s season hasn’t gone very well, in part because this was just his 7th extra-base hit of the year (6 of which have been doubles). He only has a .628 OPS and an 88 wRC+, but his 12.9% walk rate and 16.1% strikeout rate are both quite nice … 14th and 6th, respectively, out of 50 Northwest League hitters with at least 100 plate appearances.

The pitching was sensational, save for a blowup outing for recently-moved-to-Eugene RHP Kyle Cody, who was tagged for all 4 runs in just 0.1 innings of work. RHP Nick Sinacola got the start and needed just 60 pitches to cruise through 5 shutout innings, allowing a mere 4 hits and no walks. It was a great outing to see for the 2021 7th-round pick, who had been struggling in May (22 baserunners and 10 earned runs in 18.1 innings before this start), after a delightful April (10 baserunners and 2 runs in 17 innings).

Sinacola is unlikely to ever be a big strikeout guy (he had just 2 in this game), but his command is sensational, and he limits hard contact. He’s walked just 1.56 batters per 9 innings this year, which is 2nd among 40 Giants Minor League pitchers with at least 20 innings thrown this year. That’s led to a 2.68 ERA and a 3.43 FIP, dramatic improvements over last year’s performance.

A pretty decent relief outing for LHP Matt Mikulski, who allowed just 1 hit and 0 walks in 2 scoreless innings, with a strikeout. The one negative of his outing was that Mikulski did plunk a pair of batters, which he does quite a bit of. After having a pair of ERA-busting outings to start the month, Mikulski has been a lot better his last 4 times out, tossing 7.1 innings and allowing 8 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run, while striking out 7.

ACL Giants (10-7)

ACL Giants lost to the ACL Angels 3-2 (7 innings)
Box score

A very uneventful game, highlighted by one very eventful and exciting thing: a professional debut! RHP Ryan Vanderhei (22 years, 2023 10th-round) took a professional mound in a real game for the first time in his career. He started the game and, working as an opener, was fantastic: he pitched a perfect inning, and struck out a batter. Welcome to the pros, Ryan!

The bulk innings went to RHP Johan Rodriguez (21 years, 2023 international signing), who had by far the best outing of his debut stateside season. Rodriguez pitched 4 shutout innings, giving up just 1 hit and 2 walks while striking out 4. It’s been a bumpy ACL debut for Rodriguez, which isn’t surprising … it takes time to settle in. But he has struck out 16 batters in 12.2 innings, so there’s clearly life in the arm.

The best offensive day belonged to rehabbing second baseman Christian Koss, who hit 2-3 with a double, the team’s only extra-base hit. He’s been very strong in his rehab assignment, and hopefully will be back in AA Richmond soon.

And center fielder Jose Ortiz (19 years, 2023 13th-round) continues to be an on-base machine. He hit 0-2 with a strikeout, but was hit by 2 pitches, raising his on-base percentage to a hilarious .610. It’s only been 10 games, but the right-handed hitter is showing fantastic bat control (13 hits in 29 at-bats), and ability to draw free passes in various forms (7 walks and 5 hit by pitches). Most impressive, however, is that he only has 4 strikeouts! That’s amazing for such a young player, regardless of the level.

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Home run tracker

AAA David Villar (7)
AAA Donovan Walton (2)
AA Victor Bericoto (4)

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Wednesday schedule

Sacramento: vs. Tacoma, 6:45 p.m. PT
Richmond: vs. Erie, 3:35 p.m. PT
Eugene: at Hillsboro, 6:35 p.m. PT
San Jose: vs. Fresno, 6:30 p.m. PT

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