Who is the 35th-best prospect on the Giants farm?
After a week-long hiatus so that yours truly could get some time in at Spring Training (where, despite catching just two games, I saw five of the players already ranked on this year’s CPL, plus the player I’m voting for today), the 2024 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List is back in action. We’re officially on the home stretch, with just 10 prospects left until we’ve ranked the top 44 in the San Francisco Giants organization.
Coming in at No. 34 is a player I fear many will forget by this time next year; though for now the community is firm in their opinion that we shouldn’t forget him. It’s right-handed reliever Cole Waites, who has been ranked as the 34th-best prospect in the system, which is a drop of 19 spots from his No. 15 ranking last year.
Waites — a 6’3 pitcher who will turn 26 this summer — had something of a breakout in 2022. Despite starting the year in High-A, and with just 30.2 professional innings to his name, Waites ended the season in San Francisco; the 2019 18th-rounder was the surprising winner of the “first Giant drafted by Farhan Zaidi to make the Majors” sweepstakes. He only pitched 5.2 innings in the Majors that season, with a 3.18 ERA and a quartet of both strikeouts and walks. But his performance in AA Richmond and AAA Sacramento — where he had a combined 49 strikeouts to just 18 walks and four earned runs in 29 innings — was enough to make him look like a crucial part of the Major League bullpen for the foreseeable future.
But 2023 presented a massive obstacle in the road. Waites entered last offseason looking like a frontrunner to win a bullpen job out of the gates, but was injured before Spring Training got started. He returned at the end of spring, appearing in one preseason game and starting the year on AAA Sacramento’s active roster.
Something was off with his performance, though. Waites struggled with the River Cats, and in a brief appearance with the Giants. It wasn’t just the results, though; his pitches had visibly less life and quantifiably less velocity. After struggling his way to a 6.16 ERA, with 7.9 walks per nine innings in AAA, Waites was shut down in July with elbow soreness. We all know that elbow soreness in pitchers makes everyone hold their breath, and two months later it was revealed that Waites would undergo Tommy John surgery. His 2024 season was over before the 2023 season had even concluded.
Due to the long recovery time for TJ, Waites — who was non-tendered and re-signed to a Minor League deal (presumably a well-compensated one) over the offseason — will be on the sidelines all year, but that timeline should put him on track to return at or near the start of the 2025 season. Assuming he makes a full recovery, he’ll return with a fastball that ranks among the very best pitches in the Giants system … and arguably among the very best fastballs in all of professional baseball.
Here’s hoping the recovery is smooth, and Waites returns at the same level he showed us when 2022 wrapped up.
Now let’s add to the list. We’ve got new names to vote on today!
The list so far
- Kyle Harrison — LHP
- Marco Luciano — SS
- Bryce Eldridge — 1B
- Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
- Rayner Arias — CF
- Keaton Winn — RHP
- Walker Martin — SS
- Reggie Crawford — LHP
- Hayden Birdsong — RHP
- Mason Black — RHP
- Wade Meckler — OF
- Grant McCray — CF
- Heliot Ramos — OF
- Aeverson Arteaga — SS
- Tyler Fitzgerald — UTIL
- Joe Whitman — LHP
- Vaun Brown — OF
- Landen Roupp — RHP
- Victor Bericoto — OF
- Trevor McDonald — RHP
- Diego Velasquez — 2B/SS
- Carson Seymour — RHP
- Kai-Wei Teng — RHP
- Onil Perez — C
- Adrian Sugastey — C
- Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP
- Maui Ahuna — SS
- Erik Miller — LHP
- Jairo Pomares — OF
- Cole Foster — SS
- Jack Choate — LHP
- Carson Ragsdale — RHP
- Randy Rodríguez — RHP
- Cole Waites — RHP
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
On to No. 35!
No. 35 prospect nominees
Josh Bostick — 22.4-year old RHP — 3.86 ERA/3.23 FIP in ACL (4.2 IP)
R.J. Dabovich — 25.2-year old RHP — 20.25 ERA/8.45 FIP in AAA (2.2 IP)
Johnny Level — 16.11-year old SS — yet to debut
Manuel Mercedes — 21.5-year old RHP — 3.64 ERA/4.26 FIP in Low-A (106.1 IP)
Ismael Munguia — 25.4-year old OF — .748 OPS/110 wRC+ in AA (335 PA)
Juan Sanchez — 23.4-year old LHP — 2.39 ERA/3.17 FIP in AA (49 IP); 4.26 ERA/4.78 FIP in AAA (25.1 IP)
Liam Simon — 23.4-year old RHP — 3.86 ERA/2.96 FIP in Low-A (21 IP)