Grading every pick the SF Giants made on Day 1 of 2026 MLB Draft

Day 1 of the 2026 MLB Draft is in the books and the SF Giants went heavy on pitching while also sprinkling in a little bit of nostalgia by drafting Peyton Bonds, the nephew of Barry Bonds. They made five picks total and I actually guessed two out of the five right in my quasi-mock draft from Friday night so I’ll definitely take my .400 batting average even if it wasn't too hard to predict.

Day 2 of the draft is on Sunday and will be incredibly important as well, but let’s stop and take a minute to grade the team’s Day 1 selections.

Grades for every SF Giants pick on Day 1 of MLB Draft

No. 4: Jackson Flora

The Giants needed to infuse their farm system with promising young arms and they did that from the start by drafting Jackson Flora out of UC Santa Barbara. He made sense for so many reasons, from the fact that he was the best college arm in the draft and, if things go perfectly, he could be in the big leagues by late 2027 or early 2028.

Flora had a 12-0 record with a 1.06 ERA and 133 strikeouts in 102 innings pitched in his final year at UCSB. He features a high-velocity fastball with a solid slider and changeup.

Plus, he grew up a Giants fan which always makes it cooler to cheer for a guy. He went to the same high school as Brandon Crawford and there’s a reason why Crawford’s Giants career was made so much cooler by the fact that he grew up in the Bay Area as a Giants fan.

It’s the same reason why Kyle Harrison was so fun to cheer for when he got called up in 2023 and why it also stung so bad when the Giants traded him in the Rafael Devers trade. Now it stings so much to see him pitch well for the Milwaukee Brewers that we should probably all go see the doctor to see if they have some sort of cream to stop the sting.

If Flora can develop into a legitimate member of the rotation in a few years it would be amazing. He has the stuff to do it and nothing would be better than a local kid taking the ball every five days for the Giants.

Grade: B+

No. 29: Carson Bolemon

The Giants acquired this pick in the Patrick Bailey trade with the Cleveland Guardians, so in essence the Giants got two promising young left-handed prospects out of the deal between Carson Bolemon and Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson.

Bolemon is a high school pitcher but he seems to have a ton of upside. He’s got a fastball in the low-to-mid 90s but many think he has more velocity in his arm. He’s also got two impressive breaking balls for a pitcher his age.

Grade: B

No. 55: Kaeden Wechter

Yet again the Giants went with a pitcher and they took right-handed high school arm Kaden Waechter. Like Bolemon he has a lot of upside but you never know how high school arms will turn out. His father was former big league pitcher Doug Waechter.

Grade: C+

No. 90: Peyton Bonds

It made almost too much sense for the Giants to draft Peyton Bonds. Not only does he come from a family that has produced two Giants legends but he’s got some speed, can play center field, and is a high-contact hitter with a low strikeout rate which is the exact kind of young hitter the Giants have targeted the last few years.

If the Giants can help him develop his power in the minor leagues then he could be something really special and it would be awesome to see another Bonds in a Giants uniform.

Grade: B-

No. 118: Carlos Martinez

The Giants selected right-handed pitcher Carlos Martinez out of Hofstra University with their final pick on Day 1. He had a 3.30 ERA in 13 starts and 76 and 1/3 innings pitched with 96 strikeouts last season. ESPN ranked him as the 212th best overall player in the draft so going off that some may consider it a reach but he could obviously still develop into a solid arm.

Grade: C

Overall, it was a pretty solid Day 1 of the draft for the Giants. We won’t know how any of these guys will turn out for years but the team infused a lot of pitching into a farm system that badly needed it and also added another Bonds to the organization so it was a pretty good day overall.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow