SF Giants: Spring Training NRI List Includes Intriguing Prospects

The SF Giants have already handed out a bevy of Spring Training invites, but they finalized that list on Friday.

In preparation for the Cactus League, the SF Giants have handed out additional invites to a number of key prospects:

There are several recognizable names from the list and some unheralded prospects as well. Joe McCarthy debuted with the club in 2020, but that was a short-lived experiment. Furthermore, we already knew that Heliot Ramos would be joining the Giants in camp.

SF Giants NRI list includes intriguing prospects

Marco Luciano and Hunter Bishop join Ramos as some of the most intriguing prospects in the organization. However, both Luciano and Bishop still have a lot of development to realize before they join the major league roster. Ramos, on the other hand, could make his debut in 2021 and probably would have done so in 2020, if not for the canceled minor-league season.

With all that being said, the Giants have invited a handful of interesting prospects who could make an impact this season. Sean Hjelle and Tristan Beck both have a shot of earning some starts down the stretch, especially considering how light the Giants are on pitching depth.

As college arms, both have a lot of innings under their belt, and in the case of Hjelle, some of those innings included a late-season promotion to Double-A in 2019. He registered a 6.04 ERA in five starts across 25.1 innings in the Eastern League after beginning the season in the South Atlantic League.

Tyler Cyr and Matt Frisbee work out of the bullpen and rotation, respectively. Cyr has performed well as a pro, posting a 2.65 ERA in five minor-league seasons and reaching as high as Triple-A briefly in 2019.

Frisbee surprised many with an excellent performance in 2019 after being drafted in the 15th round out of the University of North Carolina in the prior year. He posted a 3.13 ERA with a 10.5 K/9 rate in 132.1 frames split across Augusta and San Jose. If his command continues to develop as it did in 2019, then he could stick as a starter. However, even if the command does not fully develop, then he can slot in as a reliever.

Kai Wei-Tang posted a 1.55 ERA in a brief showing with Augusta in 2019 following a midseason trade that sent Sam Dyson to the Minnesota Twins.

Will Wilson and Logan Wyatt are regarded as some of the better prospects in the organization as well. Wilson has yet to take an official at-bat in the Giants organization, whereas Wyatt only has 183 at-bats since being drafted in the second round of the 2018 draft out of the University of Louisville.

You can never have enough catchers in camp, and the Giants also invited Patrick Bailey and Ricardo Genoves to get valuable experience working with the major-league staff.

Outside of the camp battles taking place, it will be interesting to follow how many of these prospects perform given that they are on the Giants’ radar and, in many cases, not too far from forcing a promotion to the big club.