Keith Law has SF Giants taking Walnut Creek native with No. 4 pick in 2026 MLB Draft

The SF Giants have the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. Keith Law of The Athletic just came out with his first mock draft and he has the Giants selecting pitcher Jackson Flora who just so happens to be a Bay Area native.

Flora was born in Walnut Creek, an East Bay city a little east of Oakland. He grew up in the Bay Area and went to Foothill High School in Pleasanton. He is now at UC Santa Barbara and is considered the top pitching prospect in this year’s draft.

Giants projected to take top pitching prospect in MLB Draft by Keith Law

Here is what Keith Law wrote about the Giants selecting Flora: “Flora is the top pitching prospect in the class, college or high school, and the Giants have gone college in the first round seven times in eight years, with Bryce Eldridge as the exception (and a good one).“

He also writes that top consensus prospect shortstop Roch Cholowsky, who is also a native of the Bay Area and grew up cheering for the Giants, could go to the Giants as he does not have the Chicago White Sox taking Cholowsky with the No. 1 pick.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today has been fueling speculation about Cholowsky and the Giants. It’s fair to question the veracity of Nightengale as a source since he’s known for being wrong a lot, but it’s still an interesting possibility to think about.

Still, Flora seems like a very likely target for the Giants. FanSided just released its first mock draft and Flora goes to San Francisco in that projection as well. It makes sense. The Giants only have two pitching prospects in the top 10 of their farm system. Jacob Bresnahan is ranked No. 8 and has a lot of promise and Blade Tidwell is ranked No. 10 although it seems like he may not be a prospect for much longer.

The Giants could use an infusion of young pitching talent into the system especially after they traded away Kyle Harrison in the Rafael Devers trade last year, a move that will likely be heavily debated for years especially with how well Harrison is pitching this year for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Flora is a tall right-handed arm with a big fastball that lives in the high-90s velocity-wise. So far this season for the Gauchos, Flora has a 1.15 ERA in 13 starts. He’s thrown 78 and 1/3 innings and has struck out 103 batters while walking just 28. 

He’s going to turn 21 in a couple of weeks and seems like he would be a great boost to San Francisco’s farm system. It may be too early to say that there’s a consensus that the Giants are going to draft Flora, but if they want to go with a pitcher then the Walnut Creek native will likely be the best arm on the board.

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