Community Prospect List No. 37

Who is the 37th-best prospect on the farm?

We’ve reached the eve of the start of the San Francisco Giants Cactus League season. And we have only eight names remaining to add to the 2025 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, which will see us rank the top 44 prospects in the Giants system. Things are really heating up!

The last chapter brought us one of the most intriguing names to watch in the upcoming season: right-handed pitcher Gerelmi Maldonado, who has been voted as the No. 36 prospect in the system. That’s a drop of 10 spots for Maldonado, who came it an No. 26 in last year’s CPL.

Maldonado took a fall down the CPL for fairly understandable reasons: he didn’t pitch at all in 2024. After an electric 2023 in which he popped onto everyone’s radar with a truly sensational fastball — which earned him 11.2 strikeouts per nine innings with Low-A San Jose in his age-19 season — Maldonado was shelved for all of last year (and the second half of 2023) while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He should be full-go for the 2025 season, and will look to build on that 2023 performance, when his 4.71 ERA and 4.83 FIP didn’t really do justice to the electricity in his arm.

Since he was a 2021 international signing, Maldonado will be Rule 5 eligible this winter, which probably increases the chances that he gets moved to the bullpen at some point. But for now, he’s a starter who has a great chance to make an impression this season, be it back in San Jose or with High-A Eugene. We’ll see if Maldonado — who just turned 21 in December — still has high-90s velocity post-TJ.

Now let’s add to the list, and we have a few new names to choose from.

The list so far

1. Bryce Eldridge — 1B
2. Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
3. James Tibbs III — OF
4. Rayner Arias — OF
5. Josuar de Jesus González — SS
6. Jhonny Level — SS
7. Mason Black — RHP
8. Dakota Jordan — OF
9. Joe Whitman — LHP
10. Reggie Crawford — LHP
11. Bo Davidson — OF
12. Aeverson Arteaga — SS
13. Wade Meckler — OF
14. Walker Martin — SS
15. Trevor McDonald — RHP
16. Diego Velasquez — SS/2B
17. Lisbel Diaz — OF
18. Sabin Ceballos — 3B
19. Carson Ragsdale — RHP
20. Trent Harris — RHP
21. Carson Seymour — RHP
22. Jose Ortiz — CF
23. Maui Ahuna — SS
24. Victor Bericoto — OF/1B
25. Robert Hipwell — 3B
26. Jonah Cox — CF
27. Josh Bostick — RHP
28. Argenis Cayama — RHP
29. Jack Choate — LHP
30. Jakob Christian — OF
31. Jacob Bresnahan — LHP
32. Cole Waites — RHP
33. Juan Sánchez — LHP
34. Hunter Bishop — OF
35. Ryan Reckley — 2B
36. Gerelmi Maldonado — RHP

Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.

No. 37 prospect nominees

Will Bednar — 24.8-year old RHP — 7.71 ERA/6.93 FIP in AA (32.2 IP); 3.18 ERA/4.06 FIP in High-A (11.1 IP); 3.60 ERA/3.97 FIP in Low-A (10 IP)

Jose Bello — 19.8-year old RHP — 7.71 ERA/4.27 FIP in ACL (2.1 IP); 2.49 ERA/2.36 FIP in DSL (25.1 IP)

Spencer Miles — 24.6-year old RHP — 4.91 ERA/2.79 FIP in ACL (7.1 IP)

Onil Perez — 22.5-year old C — .637 OPS/87 wRC+ in High-A (350 PA)

Yohendry Sanchez — 18.3-year old C — .937 OPS/164 wRC+ in DSL (45 PA)

Adrián Sugastey — 22.3-year old C — .545 OPS/54 wRC+ in AA (191 PA)

Oliver Tejada — 18.2-year old OF — .893 OPS/139 wRC+ in DSL (205 PA)

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2024 season.