Minor League roundup, 5/14: Walker Martin is on fire

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

Just three games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Wednesday, as AA Richmond had their game rained out, while the ACL Giants had the day off.

Let’s jump into the action!

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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News

Just a little bit of news. AAA Sacramento RHP Joel Peguero has been activated after a few weeks on the IL, while AA Richmond outfielder Vaun Brown was placed on the 7-Day Il. High-A Eugene RHP Elijah Pleasants was activated off the Development List.

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AAA Sacramento (20-21)

Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees (Angels) 6-2
Box score

Right now, the big story in Sacramento is the MLB players that are rehabbing. But only 1 of the 3 MLB regulars making a rehab appearance there played on Wednesday, as second baseman Tyler Fitzgerald got the start, hit 2nd, and went 1-3 with a double, a sacrifice fly, and 3 runs batted in.

Fitzgerald hasn’t been injured long, so his rehab shouldn’t be long, either. The Giants have an off-day today, and Alex Pavlovic stated on the Thursday Giants Talk podcast that he thinks Fitzgerald might be back in San Francisco on Friday. That sure will be nice to see.

Casey Schmitt, who, like Fitzgerald, started his rehab on Tuesday, is getting eased in more slowly after his injury, so he took Wednesday off. More concerning is that Jerar Encarnación did not play. There’s no rush to rehab Encarnación quickly, as he isn’t eligible to come off the IL until May 26, but, after beginning his rehab over the weekend, he’s now had 3 straight off days: Sacramento didn’t play on Monday, and Jerar didn’t play on Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully he’s OK, and not dealing with a setback.

The offense came from the back of the lineup, with the final 2 hitters. Batting 8th was shortstop/second baseman Osleivis Basabe, who hit 2-4 with both a home run and a double.

Basabe hasn’t been forcing the issue this year, even though he’s on the 40-man roster — he has just a .656 OPS and a 73 wRC+ — and the return of Fitzgerald and Schmitt makes his path to the Majors even more difficult, especially with how well Christian Koss has been playing lately.

And the final batter was third baseman Brett Auerbach, who hit 2-3 with a home run of his own.

Auerbach has had a delightful season, as he’s sporting a .781 OPS and a 113 wRC+. It’s hard to see how he can force his way to the Majors, but don’t be surprised if he gets a cup of coffee at some point.

Another really nice day for center fielder Grant McCray, who hit 3-4 with a triple. After his very cold start, McCray has started to catch fire. He has a 4-game hitting streak, during which time he’s gone 10-15 with a triple, 2 doubles, 3 walks, just 2 strikeouts, and 3 stolen bases. That came after a 7-game stretch in which he hit just 2-26 with 1 double, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts, and 0 stolen bases. Here’s hoping this is the start of his season turning around!

A pretty solid start for RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 15 CPL), who is finally healthy and getting stretched out. He went 6 innings in this game, and gave up just 5 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs, while striking out 8 batters.

It’s really hard to know where McDonald stands in the organization. His large repertoire makes him highly enticing as a starting pitcher, but the Giants have to make concessions at some point given that Kyle Harrison, Hayden Birdsong, and Carson Whisenhunt are all still looking for ways into the rotation. Still, seeing him make 6-inning starts is exciting, and his 4.03 ERA in the Pacific coast League is quite tidy, though his FIP is just 4.93. The 58.6% groundball rate surely has the Giants fairly excited, too.

RHP Ryan Watson, RHP Joel Peguero, and LHP Joey Lucchesi all pitched scoreless relief innings. It was Peguero’s 1st appearance since returning from the IL, so great to see him out there.

High-A Eugene (16-19)

Eugene Emeralds lost to Spokane (Rockies) 5-3
Box score

Not the most interesting game for the Emeralds. The biggest hit came from second baseman Quinn McDaniel, who hit 1-4 with 2 strikeouts but smacked his 4th home run of the season.

The 2023 5th-round pick is having a pretty similar year to his 2024 at the same level. A year after hitting .236/.345/.390 with a 112 wRC+, the righty has slashed .248/.362/.419 with a 115 wRC+. But while his strikeouts are still a bit of an issue, they’re also the place where he’s seen the biggest improvement year-over-year, as he’s dropped his rate from 32.5% last year to 26.2% this year.

No Eugene hitter reached base multiple times, though center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL) had multiple good plays, hitting 1-4 with a double, a strikeout, and an outfield assist.

A so-so day on the mound, starting with a so-so performance from RHP Josh Wolf, who gave up a whopping 8 baserunners in just 3 innings, but limited the damage to 1 run while striking out 5. RHP Liam Simon, pitching in just his 3rd game this year as he recovers from his latest injury, only faced 4 batters and walked 3 of them.

But RHP Cameron Pfferer and LHP C.J. Widger had brilliant outings, with the former striking out 2 batters in 2 perfect innings, and the latter striking out all 3 batters that he faced. Both relievers have been struggling a bit this year, so nice to see.

Low-A San Jose (20-15)

San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports (A’s) 2-0
Box score

It probably goes without saying that Wednesday was a fantastic pitching day for the Baby Giants.

The star was the starter, RHP Niko Mazza, who was absolutely brilliant. Mazza went 5 spectacular innings, giving up just 1 baserunner, a double, while striking out 6 of the 16 batters he faced. Mazza, last year’s 8th-round pick, has been excellent at suppressing runs all year, but entered the game having had a lot of struggles with issuing free passes (he had 13 in 18.1 innings prior to this start). So seeing him go deep into a game without a walk was a delight. The high walk rate explains the 3.81 FIP for Mazza, but his potential is fully on display with the 1.54 ERA that he has through the 1st 6 starts of his career.

LHP Charlie McDaniel, an undrafted pitcher in his debut season, took San Jose home by pitching the final 4 innings. McDaniel lived in the strike zone, throwing 48 of 68 pitches for strikes. The reality was that he gave up 6 hits in his 4 innings, though all 6 were singles, and he didn’t walk anyone, while striking out 4. After a so-so debut month, McDaniel has been sensational in his 2 piggybacking appearances in May, allowing 9 baserunners in 8.1 shutout innings, with 8 strikeouts.

On offense, the day belonged to the 2 hitters who have been carrying San Jose lately: right fielder Carlos Gutierrez and shortstop Walker Martin (No. 14 CPL). Gutierrez had yet another multi-hit day, going 2-4 with a double and a strikeout. It was his 4th consecutive multi-hit game, and his 6th in his last 7 outings. During those 7 games, the 20-year old lefty — who had just 25 games to his name when the season began — is 16-31 with 1 home run, 2 doubles, 3 walks, just 3 strikeouts, and 4 stolen bases. My goodness can he hit! He’s up to a .350 batting average, an .880 OPS, and a 144 wRC+. What an awesome story he’s been this year.

As for Martin, he had a game emblematic of his scouting report: strikeouts and power. The lefty, taken in the 2nd round in 2023, went just 1-4 with a strikeout hat trick, but the hit was yet another home run.

After a very cold start to the year, Martin has gone scorched earth lately. In his last 5 games, the athletic lefty is 7-20 with 5 home runs, 1 triple, 1 double, 4 walks, 13 runs batted in, and 7 strikeouts. That’s brought him up to league-average performance overall, with a .767 OPS and a 98 wRC+.

If Martin can improve his strikeout rate (30.9%) and his batting average (.216), which are obviously linked, then he could be off to the races. Among the 71 California League hitters with at least 80 plate appearances this year, Martin’s .273 isolated slugging percentage is 3rd … highly impressive for a shortstop, even if evaluators think he’ll have to move off the position.

Unlike last year, we’re starting to see what made Martin such a highly-touted prospect this year. Now it’s just a matter of improving contact.

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Home run tracker

AAA Osleivis Basabe (4)
AAA Brett Auerbach (4)
High-A Quinn McDaniel (4)
Low-A Walker Martin (6)

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Thursday schedule

Sacramento: vs. Salt Lake, 6:45 p.m. PT (SP: Carson Seymour)
Richmond: doubleheader vs. Erie, 2:05 p.m. PT (SP: Joe Whitman)
Eugene: vs. Spokane, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Josh Bostick)
San Jose: at Stockton, 7:05 p.m. PT (SP: Drake George)