The future is now for the San Francisco Giants. It’s also bright.
Though a youth movement began about a month ago with the call up of Casey Schmitt, and continued with Patrick Bailey and Luis Matos, there are still a number of talented prospects that are waiting in the wings.
Four of which are among the best in baseball according to the latest MLB.com Top 100 rankings. Two of those are among the top 20.
Kyle Harrison, 21, who is expected by many to make his debut at some point this year, is ranked as the No. 13 overall prospect in baseball and the top left-handed pitcher on the list. Harrison’s stuff is MLB ready, but his command is not. At Triple-A Sacramento this season, he’s struck out 82 in 49.2 innings, but has also posted an ERA of 4.53 and is putting an average of 1.5 players on base each inning.
Also making the top 20 is shortstop prospect Marco Luciano in the No. 17 spot. Luciano, also 21, is playing his first season at Double-A Richmond, and slashing an impressive .218/.335/.468. Luciano looks like a home run-walk guy, with power to all fields and a good eye when pitches don’t challenge him. The Giants would probably like to see him put the ball in play a little more at the lower levels before calling him up.
Other players on the list are Luis Matos (No. 72) who has quickly become the everyday center fielder for the Giants at just 21 years old, and left-handed pitcher Carson Whisenhunt who rounds out the list at No. 100. Whisenhunt, 22, dominated at Single-A earlier this year, and is now working on getting adjusted in Richmond.
Both Whisenhunt and Harrison will play in the MLB Futures Game in a few weeks.