Weekend Minor League roundup, May 16-19: Bryce Eldridge and Carson Whisenhunt dominate

All the action on the farm.

Well, a lot happened for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates over the weekend. We include Friday in the weekend over here at the MCC Roundups, so there’s a whole lot of action to dive into. And since we’re publishing this on Tuesday, we’re even including a Monday game. Hope you all also had a four-day weekend!

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

AAA Sacramento outfielder Wade Meckler (No. 13 CPL) is finally beginning a rehab assignment! Meckler was injured in the opening weekend of the minor league season, so it will be fantastic seeing him back on the field.

The Giants also collected some hardware, as AAA Sacramento LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 2 CPL) and Low-A San Jose RHP Niko Mazza were both named Pitcher of the Week in their respective leagues. Congrats!

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AAA Sacramento (21-24)

Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Salt Lake Bees (Angels) 9-2 [box score]
Saturday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Salt Lake Bees 6-1 [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees 7-1 [box score]

The star over the weekend was the player who has quickly become the best story in Sacramento this year: LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 2 CPL). Whisenhunt was treated to some good news over the weekend, when the Giants announced that Jordan Hicks is moving to the bullpen and Hayden Birdsong will join the rotation. That presumably puts Whisenhunt a step closer to the Major League rotation, though fellow southpaw Kyle Harrison is certainly the next man up.

Whisenhunt celebrated accordingly, with a thoroughly dominant start on Sunday, in which he gave up just 2 singles, 1 walk, and 1 unearned run in 7 innings, while striking out 5 batters. It was the 4th consecutive outing in which Whisenhunt pitched 7 innings … which is pretty noteworthy since he never pitched more than 6 innings last year (and only reached that mark twice), and topped out at 5 innings in his debut full season in 2023.

Even better is the results he’s shown during that time, as the 2022 2nd-round pick has thrown 28 innings and allowed just 18 hits, 2 walks, and 4 earned runs, while striking out 28.

A pair of things to note: while Whisenhunt has done a great job of limiting walks, he’s not exactly living in the strike zone. On Sunday, he threw just 63 of 94 pitches for strikes, despite walking only 1 of the 24 batters he faced. I’m curious if the Giants are at all concerned about that against better hitters in the Majors. And all 4 of Whisenhunt’s earned runs in his last 4 starts have come on solo home runs. That’s kind of funny.

The rest of the pitching was mostly mediocre. RHP Mason Black (No. 7 CPL) had a rough start on Friday, allowing 5 hits, 4 walks, and 5 runs in 5.1 innings, with 6 strikeouts. After a decent start to the year, Black has been laboring a bit, and is up to a 4.89 ERA and a 4.65 FIP. He just doesn’t seem to have enough to get over the hump against a lot of batters right now.

LHP Raymond Burgos had a nice Saturday showing, retiring all 4 batters he’s faced, half by way of strikeout. Since returning from the Development List, Burgos has faced 7 batters, got them all out, and struck out 5 of them. Nice!

RHP Tristan Beck gave up 4 baserunners in just 2 innings, but kept runs off the board and had 4 strikeouts. RHPs Miguel Díaz and Kai-Wei Teng, and LHP Antonio Jimenez all had nice relief outings.

Very little on offense. The highlight came from an unlikely source, as catcher Max Stassi returned from a nearly month-long IL stint on Sunday and hit a perfect 3-3 with a home run, a walk, and 4 runs batted in. Welcome back, Max!

Right fielder/designated hitter Daniel Johnson also homered, and hit 3-12 with a double, a walk, 2 strikeouts, and an error.

It’s been a funny stint with the Giants for the recently-signed outfielder. He has an extra-base hit in 7 of his 14 games, yet has only had 1 multi-hit game, so his overall numbers aren’t too good.

Left fielder Marco Luciano had a rough weekend on offense, hitting 0-8 with 2 strikeouts and getting caught stealing, but he had a pair of outfield assists during Saturday’s game, so that’s fun.

AA Richmond (12-27)

Friday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Erie SeaWolves (Tigers) 5-1 [box score]
Saturday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Erie SeaWolves 8-0 [box score]
Sunday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Erie SeaWolves 7-4 [box score]

The story in Richmond will be first baseman/designated hitter Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) until he gets promoted, so let’s start there. Eldridge is officially finding the stride that led to him breaking out a year ago. On Friday he capped off an absolutely brilliant 24 hours: a day after hitting 2-3 with both a home run and a double, Eldridge one-upped himself, hitting 3-4 with 2 home runs and a double, while driving in 4 runs. A superstar in the making, folks!

Despite making his season debut less than a month ago, Eldridge is already up to 5 big flies on the year, and is rocking a gorgeous .904 OPS and a 161 wRC+. Despite playing in the worst offensive environment of any Giants affiliate, Eldridge has actually increased his isolated slugging year-over-year.

Eldridge hit 90 plate appearances over the weekend, which makes him 1 of 91 such players in the Eastern League. Despite being nearly 4 years younger than the average player at the level, the tall lefty is 7th in OPS, 8th in wRC+, and 9th in isolated slugging (.250). He’s also 14th in batting average (.288), so it’s not just power! He cooled off over the rest of the weekend, hitting 1-8 with a walk, 3 strikeouts, and an error, but needless to say, it’s still been a great year for him.

A trio of other players who are having slow offensive years hit homers in otherwise quiet weekends: shortstop Aeverson Arteaga (No. 12 CPL), catcher Adrián Sugastey (No. 38 CPL), and right fielder/center fielder Cal Mitchell. Other than their dingers, Arteaga (.565 OPS, 66 wRC+) hit 0-8 with a walk and 3 strikeouts; Sugastey (.594 OPS, 72 wRC+) hit 0-5 with a walk and a strikeout, and Mitchell (.513 OPS, 56 wRC+) hit 0-9 with a walk and 7 strikeouts. Sugastey is showing a power increase: his 4 homers has quadrupled his total from last year, and is 1 of his single-season high.

Pretty mediocre pitching. LHP John Michael Bertrand had a delightful start on Friday, going 7 strong innings while allowing just 3 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run, though he only struck out 2 batters. The lack of strikeouts (he has just 26 in 39 innings this year) make it a hard path to the bigs for Bertrand, though the 27-year old has enough funk, control, and left-handedness that I would assume at least a cup of coffee will occur eventually. It’s a 3.92 ERA and a 4.70 FIP on the year for the 2022 10th-round pick out of Notre Dame.

The other starters struggled, with RHP Manuel Mercedes allowing 8 baserunners and 5 earned runs in 4 innings, with 2 strikeouts, and LHP Jack Choate (No. 29 CPL) giving up 9 baserunners and 4 runs in 5 innings, with just 2 strikeouts.

But further dominance out of the pen from RHPs Trent Harris (No. 20 CPL) and Braxton Roxby. The former gave up a hit in a scoreless inning on Friday and struck out 2. He now has a 0.00 ERA and a 1.40 FIP, with 14 strikeouts against 2 walks in 11 innings. The latter struck out 2 batters in a perfect inning on Sunday, lowering his ERA to 1.93 and his FIP to 2.04, and giving him a whopping 23 strikeouts in 14 innings, against just 6 walks. Don’t be surprised if either ends the year in Sacramento.

High-A Eugene (19-20)

Friday: Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane (Rockies) 6-1 [box score]
Saturday: Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane 6-1 [box score]
Sunday: Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane 3-1 [box score]

Hey, that’s some damn fine pitching from the Emeralds, with a trio of games allowing just 1 run. They did it in very different ways, too, as Eugene used a dominant start on Friday and Sunday, and sandwiched a successful bullpen game in between.

One of the dominant starts was predictable, as RHP Shane Rademacher took the mound on Sunday. After a little blip in his last 2 games, Rademacher was back to his dominant self in this one, pitching 6 excellent innings while allowing just 5 hits (all singles), 1 walk, and 1 run, with 4 strikeouts. The 2023 UDFA now has a 1.94 ERA, with just 5 walks in 41.2 innings … though he has a 3.45 FIP, and just 35 strikeouts.

Friday’s performance was less predictable, as LHP Cesar Perdomo has his best outing of the year by a mile, pitching 7 scoreless innings while allowing just 4 hits and 0 walks, with 5 strikeouts. What a showing!

Perdomo only has a 4.86 ERA and a 5.49 FIP, but in 3 May starts he has 13 strikeouts against just 1 walk, and in his last 2 outings has given up 10 baserunners and 2 runs in 12 innings. Great to see!

Plenty of good relief appearances on the weekend, highlighted by RHP Ian Villers, who gave up a hit in 1.1 scoreless innings on Saturday with 3 strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.33 and his FIP to 3.00, and LHP Esmerlin Vinicio, who closed out Sunday with 3 shutout innings featuring 2 hits, 0 walks, and 1 strikeout, which dropped his ERA to 6.00 and his FIP to 5.14. Hopefully the start of his season turning around.

Tons of offense to highlight. The most notable performance belonged to right fielder James Tibbs III (No. 3 CPL) on Friday, who must be a reader of this space and listened when I pointed out that he had been in an extra-base dry spell. Entering the game, Tibbs had just 1 extra-base hit in his previous 14 starts. So what did he do? Went a cool 4-5 with a home run and 2 doubles. That’ll show me!

He was quiet the rest of the weekend, hitting 1-8 with a double and 3 strikeouts, but still. Great to see him have a star game, and be reminded of what he’s capable of. It hasn’t been a stellar season for him, but with a .741 OPS, a 110 wRC+, and just a 14.5% strikeout rate (less than half what it was in his Eugene stint last year), it’s been a pretty encouraging campaign for the reigning 1st-rounder.

Center fielder/designated hitter Bo Davidson (No. 11 CPL) continued his absolutely excellent season, picking up where he left off last year. Davidson was as steady as can be over the weekend, hitting 4-11 with a home run, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and a stolen base.

The only thing that’s been able to slow Davidson this year is the injury that sidelined him for a short period in April; otherwise, he’s been lights out across the board. Among the 45 Northwest League hitters with at least 100 plate appearances this year, he’s 1st in batting average (.336), 7th in on-base percentage (.399), 3rd in isolated slugging (.232), 10th in strikeout rate (19.6%), 1st in OPS (.967), and 2nd in wRC+ (162). What a year!

Also having a nice weekend was catcher Onil Perez (No. 37 CPL), who hit 3-8 with a home run, a double, 2 strikeouts, and an error. Perez is quietly having a nice offensive season, with a .701 OPS, a 108 wRC+, a 14.9% walk rate, and just a 16.1% strikeout rate. We’ll take that with high-quality catcher defense any day of the week!

Second baseman Quinn McDaniel continued his all-or-nothing season, hitting 2-11 with a home run, a walk, and a strikeout. The 2022 5th-round pick only has a .235 batting average, but 12 of his 31 hits have gone for extra bases this year, giving him a .753 OPS and a 108 wRC+.

Speaking of infield dingers, third baseman/shortstop Cole Foster had a really nice weekend in the 2 games he played, hitting 4-6 with a home run and a hit by pitch. It’s been a brutal offensive year for the 2023 3rd-round pick, who has just a .498 OPS, a 44 wRC+, and a 33.3% strikeout rate. His dinger broke a streak of 23 consecutive games without an extra-base hit, and he has just 2 on the year (though they’re both home runs, thankfully). Maybe the hot weekend can help him turn things around.

Left fielder/center fielder Jonah Cox (No. 26 CPL) had a weekend full of hits and stolen bases. He went 5-14 on the weekend with a double, 3 strikeouts, and 2 stolen bases. He’s having just an average offensive season, with a .710 OPS and a 97 wRC+, but he has 17 stolen bases in 19 attempts and some fantastic defense.

And finally, third baseman Charlie Szykowny (No. 43 CPL), who played twice over the weekend, just keeps getting plunked! He went just 1-6 with a strikeout and a stolen base, but was hit twice. He’s already been hit by 12 pitches this season, including 6 in his last 8 games! Ouch!

Low-A San Jose (21-18)

Friday: San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports (A’s) 11-10 (11 innings) [box score]
Saturday: San Jose Giants lost to the Stockton Ports 11-1 [box score]
Sunday: San Jose Giants lost to the Stockton Ports 7-6 [box score]

Well, the series ended in pain for the Baby Giants, as they gave up 3 runs in the 9th inning on Sunday, including a walk-off home run. So it goes!

Not too much to highlight here. Shortstop/designated hitter Walker Martin (No. 14 CPL) continued his absolute explosion, hitting 3-11 with a home run, a double, and 4 walks, though he struck out 6 times and committed 3 errors.

Martin’s home run came on Friday, which gave him a staggering 6 bombs in 7 games. My goodness! It has certainly been a tale of 2 seasons for the 2023 2nd-round pick:

First 17 games: 12-68, 1 home run, 1 triple, 1 double, 4 walks, 23 strikeouts, 1 stolen base
Next 9 games: 12-34, 6 home runs, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 9 walks, 13 strikeouts, 2 stolen bases

And that’s how you fix an OPS and a wRC+, which are now .829 and 116, respectively. Excellent numbers, though the Giants will certainly hope that the .235 batting average can rise, and the 31.0% strikeout rate can drop.

Also going deep was first baseman/third baseman Robert Hipwell (No. 25 CPL), who went 2-7 with a 3-run big fly, a walk, a strikeout, and an error. Hipwell has had a similar, if less dramatic season than Martin, as his bating average is just .204 and his strikeout rate is 31.0%, but a nice walk rate and a good amount of power has given him a .740 OPS and a 107 wRC+.

Second baseman/third baseman Jean Carlos Sio had a tremendous Friday, hitting 4-5 with a double, a hit by pitch, a strikeout, and 5 runs batted in. The rest of the weekend didn’t go quite as well, but the 21-year old left-handed hitter is having a season with some things to like in it nonetheless. He has just a .704 OPS and a 95 wRC+, but he has just an 18.1% strikeout rate and a .276 batting average.

Really not a lot going on with the pitchers, at least in the positive sense. None of the starters were sharp, as LHP Greg Farone and RHP Gerelmi Maldonado (No. 36 CPL) both had poor outings, while LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 31 CPL) was unable to get out of the 1st inning on Saturday.

RHP Ben Peterson had an awesome relief appearance, giving up no baserunners (save for on an error from a suspect San Jose defense) while striking out 4 batters in 2 innings. He’s been having a rough debut season, so nice to see that. RHP Ryan Slater also pitched well after taking over for Bresnahan, tossing 4.1 shutout innings with just 1 hit, while striking out 2. Last year’s 18th-round pick now has a 1.86 ERA and a 3.20 FIP, and has walked only 3 batters in 19.1 innings, though he has just 14 strikeouts.

Arizona Complex League (6-6)

Friday: ACL Giants lost to the ACL D-backs 4-1 (7 innings) [box score]
Saturday: ACL Giants beat the ACL D-backs 9-0 (7 innings) [box score]
Monday: ACL Giants beat the ACL Athletics 10-3 (7 innings) [box score]

Right now, the Complex League is all about rehabbing players. There are a whole lot of lower-level Minor Leaguers rehabbing in Papago, so let’s check in on them.

Designated hitter/shortstop Maui Ahuna (No. 23 CPL) did something exciting on Monday: he played in the field. Ahuna is a highly gifted shortstop, but he’s been limited to DH through the bulk of his short tenure since being a 2023 4th-round pick. It’s great seeing him back on the field. But he made his mark in the batter’s box, hitting 4-8 with a grand slam, a triple, a double, a walk, 3 strikeouts, and a stolen base. He’s been hitting pretty well, so now that he’s back to playing in field, I’d expect him to be in A-Ball pretty soon.

Left fielder Turner Hill, who is early on in his rehab, had a dynamic weekend, hitting 5-7 with 2 doubles, a walk, and a stolen base. Like Ahuna, Hill has yet to play this season outside of his rehab, so good to see him out there. Center fielder Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) hit 2-8 with a double and 2 strikeouts, and should be back in San Jose soon, where he started the year. First baseman Jeremiah Jenkins, who is just getting started on his rehab, hit 4-7 with a double. Good seeing him out there.

Most excitingly, though, was that center fielder Wade Meckler (No. 13 CPL) made his rehab debut on Monday. He hit 1-3 and drove in 3 runs before getting the final few innings off. Meckler hasn’t played since the opening weekend of the Minor League season, so it is just wonderful that he’s on the field again.

Those were the hitters worth taking note of, but shortstop Dario Reynoso (20 years, 2023 IFA) had a nice go of it, hitting 2-5 with 2 walks, a hit by pitch, a strikeout, and a stolen base.

But the star in the ACL was RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 28 CPL, 18 years, 2024 IFA) who was absolutely untouchable on Saturday. Cayama tossed 4 shutout innings and allowed just a single, a walk, and a hit batter, while striking out 8. Through 3 appearances this year, Cayama has yet to allow an earned run, has a 0.79 WHIP, and has 17 strikeouts in just 11.1 innings. His start to the year has justified the hype!

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Home run tracker

AAA Daniel Johnson (3)
AAA Max Stassi (1)
AA Bryce Eldridge x2 (5)
AA Adrián Sugastey (4)
AA Aeverson Arteaga (2)
AA Cal Mitchell (2)
High-A Bo Davidson (5)
High-A Quinn McDaniel (5)
High-A James Tibbs III (4)
High-A Cole Foster (2)
High-A Onil Perez (1)
Low-A Walker Martin (7)
Low-A Robert Hipwell (3)
ACL Maui Ahuna (2)

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Tuesday schedule

Sacramento: at Oklahoma City, 5:05 p.m. PT (SP: Trevor McDonald)
Richmond: at Binghamton, 4:07 p.m. PT (SP: Seth Lonsway)
Eugene: vs. Vancouver, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Josh Wolf)
San Jose: at Fresno, 11:05 a.m. PT (SP: Hunter Dryden)

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Injury Report

Here are all the Minor Leaguers currently on an unable-to-play list. Keep in mind that the Minor Leagues have notoriously poor bookkeeping, so take it with a grain of salt.

Sacramento

LHP Reggie Crawford (No. 10 CPL) — 60-Day IL
RHP R.J. Dabovich — 60-Day IL
LHP Juan Sánchez (No. 33 CPL) — 60-Day IL
OF/1B Victor Bericoto (No. 24 CPL) — 7-Day IL
LHP Ethan Small — 7-Day IL
RHP Cole Waites (No. 32 CPL) — 7-Day IL
RHP Keaton Winn — 7-Day IL
LHP Chris Wright — 7-Day IL

Richmond

2B Nate Furman — 60-Day IL
RHP Ryan Murphy — 60-Day IL
RHP Mat Olsen — 60-Day IL
OF Vaun Brown — 7-Day IL
OF Turner Hill — 7-Day IL (on a rehab assignment)
LHP Nick Zwack — 7-Day IL

Eugene

OF Alexander Suarez — 60-Day IL
LHP Dylan Carmouche — 7-Day IL (on a rehab assignment)
LHP Hayden Wynja — 7-Day IL

San Jose

RHP Sam Bower — 60-Day IL
C Ty Hanchey – 60-Day IL
RHP Spencer Miles — 60-Day IL
SS Maui Ahuna (No. 23 CPL) — 7-Day IL (on a rehab assignment)
RHP Junior Flores — 7-Day IL
INF Jeremiah Jenkins — 7-Day IL (on a rehab assignment)
OF Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) — 7-Day IL (on a rehab assignment)