SF Giants Gregory Santos Is a Top 100 Prospect to FanGraphs

FanGraphs prospects writer Eric Longenhagen had some surprising news for SF Giants fans about right-handed pitcher Gregory Santos.

Since the SF Giants acquired Gregory Santos from the Boston Red Sox in the Eduardo Nunez trade, he’s been one of the most tantalizing prospects in the farm system. Injuries and inconsistencies have seemed to take some of his prospect status, but prospect writer Eric Longenhagen dropped a big surprise on this week’s FanGraphs Audio podcast when he said, “Gregory Santos is gonna be on my top 100 this offseason.”

In our most recent Giants prospect rankings, Santos ranked the 19th best prospect in the system. He received a future-value grade of 40 but maintained a high ceiling. Still just 21-years old, injuries hampered his 2018 and 2019 seasons and raised a lot of questions about whether he would ever be able to tap into his top-of-rotation potential.

Santos’ best pitches are a mid-90s sinker and cutter that pair with a slider that also flashes plus. His changeup remains a relatively recent development and probably projects as average at best, but there’s obviously been a lot of time for things to change. His stuff is strong enough to be effective even if his control only reaches a 40-grade (50 is considered league-average), but it’ll probably limit him to an erratic mid-rotation role.

To be in the conversation to be a top-100 prospect, a player has to be around a 50 future-value grade player and Santos had a 40+ grade in FanGraphs’ most recent prospect ranking, which suggested that Longenhagen has reason to believe Santos has taken a substantial step forward.

In FanGraphs most updated prospect board, Joey Bart, Marco Luciano, and Heliot Ramos are the only Giants prospects ranked in their top 100. Luis Matos was one of three additional Giants prospects ranked among the top-175 prospects in the league as well.

The SF Giants farm system has taken great strides, but pitching remains the most obvious hole. If Gregory Santos can become a consensus top-100 prospect, he would immediately become the best pitching prospect in the organization and could one day become the big-league team’s ace.