Top Performances from San Francisco Giants Minor League Players

With the minor league seasons wrapping up, we’ll take a look at some of the top performances in the San Francisco Giants system.

I will not be including Rookie and Short Season leagues in this article. But Heliot Ramos and Jacob Gonzalez, as well as others, certainly had good performances down there.

We’ll start at the top with who I think is the team’s organizational player of the year in Chris Shaw.

Starting the year at Double-A, Shaw hit .301 in 133 at-bats with six home runs and a .390 on-base-percentage. The Giants moved him up to Triple-A where he hit .289 in 336 at-bats with 18 home runs.

Overall he hit .292 on the season with 24 home runs, 79 RBI and had a .346 on-base-percentage. He proved he can give the San Francisco Giants the type of pop they need in their major league lineup.

The outfielder should get a good look in spring training and should compete for a starting job.

Another outfield prospect who should give Shaw a run for his money for player of the year is Bryan Reynolds. He spent the entire year with the High-A club in San Jose where he hit .312 in 491 at-bats. Reynolds scored 72 runs, had 26 doubles, 10 home runs and drove in 63.

The former second round pick out of Vanderbilt should move up the prospect lists after this season.

Catching prospect Aramis Garcia showed some power potential this year with 17 home runs in 402 at-bats. He hit .274 between High-A and Double-A. He also spent time at first base, which could be his ultimate position in the big leagues.

You’ll be hard pressed to find many good pitching performances from San Francisco Giants prospects this year, but Andrew Suarez gets my vote as the top pitcher in the organization.

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Suarez started out the year in Double-A where he posted a 2.96 ERA in 11 starts. He struck out 55 batters in 67 innings. Then he moved up to Triple-A where he had a 3.55 ERA in 15 games (13 starts), while striking out 80 in 88.2 innings.

On the season he had a 3.30 ERA in 155.2 innings pitched with 135 strikeouts. This season set him up to compete for a spot in the San Francisco Giants starting rotation next year.

Those are the top four in my opinion. Shortstop Ryan Howard had a good year at High-A hitting .306. Carlos Diaz may have been the best relief pitcher in the system this year with a 2.47 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in 58.1 innings with 67 strikeouts.

Stephen Woods and Domenic Mazza also had good years as starting pitchers in Single-A.

Next: San Francisco Giants: How realistic is a run at Shohei Otani?

I’m not going to lie to you and say that this was a great year for the San Francisco Giants system, but there are some bright spots. I think we’ll get to see a few of these guys compete for a spot on the major league roster next season.