SF Giants prospects position preview chat: Outfielders

Around the Foghorn contributor, Wrenzie Regodon and co-site expert Marc Delucchi are beginning the season with some discussions about the SF Giants minor-league depth at each position. They’ve discussed the organizations catching, middle infield, and corner infield already and now are looking at the team’s outfield prospects.

SF Giants prospects position preview chat: Outfield Part 1

Marc Delucchi: So this is the deepest part of the organization to you, right?

Wrenzie Regodon: *chuckles* It sure is the deepest part of the organization. There are 4 players inside the top 10 of my most recent top 30 ranking, and as I went deeper down the outfield rabbit hole, I still found potential big leaguers throughout the rest of my top 30. Even outside of that, there were a lot of outfielders that deserve plenty of love.

MD: I do my rankings more through positional needs, so since I divide the players between the 3 outfield positions, I still view catcher as the strongest overall. But it’s right there. Obviously, Heliot Ramos, Luis Matos, and Hunter Bishop are three of those top prospects you’re talking about. How do you differentiate them?

WR: I do not really divide outfielders anymore since we see players we once did not consider center fielders begin playing up the middle more often.

As for Ramos, Bishop, and Matos, they sure are the top 3 outfield prospects in the organization at the moment. Matos has the best hit tool out of the three, Bishop has the best athleticism but biggest risk, and Heliot is kind of in the middle. I do not know if you’ll agree with me but Matos’ hit tool is a potential plus. There are only a few prospects that I can think of that have Matos’ trunk rotation when swinging. Couple that with his innate bat-to-ball ability and he can be a pretty special hitter.

Bishop as well all know has loud three-true-outcomes traits in his offensive profile but he has the range and athletic ability to play center field. However, we have not really seen him very much in his top form.

To be honest, I was so close to putting Matos ahead of Heliot when I did my rankings because of Ramos’ oblique issue last year. However, his strong spring reminded me of how good he can be. The maturity in all the facets of his game is incredible considering he is the same age as a college junior.

SF Giants prospects position preview chat: Outfield Part 2

M: Ramos is clearly the safest bet, and I ranked Matos the highest of them all, but I do think it’s fair to say Matos is as risky as BIshop, just in different ways. We’ve yet to see Matos against high-caliber prospect competition and there are legitimate questions about his power ceiling. Bishop, of course, has the contact questions you mentioned. After them, what do you see as the next tier of outfield prospects?

W: I agree with you that Matos and Bishop both have similar risks because they have not really faced better competition. However, power tends to comes last in development, and with the kind of hit tool that Matos could potentially have, I think Matos is just a touch safer.

In terms of the next tier, Alexander Canario is definitely not far behind. I actually have Canario ranked above Bishop (#6 for Canario, #7 for Bishop) with similar FVs (45), characteristics, and risks. However, Canario suffered a severe shoulder injury last fall. He’s been hitting the cage at the moment and I heard that he will be ready to play around June. I did like what I heard about the progress that Canario made last year in instructs though, particularly with his plate discipline. He still gets beat by sequencing, but he seemed to be moving in the right direction.

After Canario, there’s a pretty big gap in terms of FVs but it’s also a mix of youth and experience. Specific prospects that I really like are Grant McCray, particularly his ability to put the barrel to the ball with advanced plate discipline while playing three sports in high school. His issues are strength-related and I can definitely see him tuck in pounds to become better.

Another one is P.J. Hilson, who is kind of an enigma in the prospect community. Dazzling tools but further away from his ceiling than anyone else in the org. However, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel in his offensive game when I talked to him last year about the strides that he’s made during the quarantine, particularly knowing specifically his issues in his batting stance. I think he’s going to break out this year.

The list can go on all day, Marc, but those two are the particular outfield prospects that I really like outside the top 4 at the moment.