SF Giants: Five prospects other teams should target

SF Giants prospects to target: 3. Jairo Pomares, OF

The San Jose squad has been one of the go-to teams in the minor leagues due to the huge collection of exciting hitters in their lineup. Yet as talented as it has been, the best all-around hitter on the team all season might be outfielder Jairo Pomares. Among prospects who played at least 30 games in the Low-A West, Pomares leads the league in slugging percentage, on-base plus slugging, and among Giants prospects age 25 and lower with at least 100 plate appearances, he is first in both isolated power and wRC+. In 32 games this season, he is hitting .333/.393/.675 with 13 doubles and 10 home runs.

Pomares offensive production is hard to deny, hitting for both average and power. However, there is one glaring concern with Pomares’ bat. Pomares’ swinging strike rate is the highest among all Giants hitters age 27 and below with at least 100 plate appearances. While both his walk and strikeout rate are below average, he’s still relatively young (he turns 21 in August) and started the year late because of injury.

With the way Pomares has been swinging the bat this year, it’s easy to see why the Giants front office would like to keep him on the organization. On the other hand, Pomares’ power bat is also highly attractive for other teams as well, and teams have done deals in the past on prospects with bat-over-glove profiles like Pomares. In 2017, Willie Calhoun was the centerpiece of the Yu Darvish to the Dodgers trade and in 2019, Seth Beer was one of the main pieces in the Zack Greinke to Astros trade. Pomares might not net someone of Darvish’s talent alone. But with the depth of the farm system centered around the outfield, having Pomares as one of the centerpieces of a major trade is a potential win-win scenario for the Giants in their playoff push.