Wade Meckler leads latest flurry of SF Giant minor league promotions

It is now August and the 2024 Minor League season is entering its home stretch. For the SF Giants, it means that there will be some movement from the Arizona Complex League (ACL) to the San Jose Giants. The ACL season concluded earlier this week.

Plus, 2024 draftees get their first swings or pitches in, as well as the rehabbing players getting their much-needed reps, This chain of promotions runs deep, so I'll take you step by step. Heck, we have not even covered the other promotions and prospect movement that happened throughout the past month!

Wade Meckler leads latest flurry of SF Giant minor league promotions

To check where the Giants' prospects are ranked in the mid-season mark, click here. I'll make a final update in the middle of August.

Let's start from the top down as we head to Sacramento where they will receive a couple of players from Richmond. First on the list is Trevor McDonald (#20 prospect). McDonald has been brought up to Sacramento very quickly, logging only 38.1 innings in his ACL rehab stint, Eugene, and Richmond.

Such speed is relatively unknown before but this is 2024 and ultra-aggression is the name of the game for the Giants' pitching prospects. Reggie Crawford (#3 prospect) has been handed the same treatment but has been on the shelf for a month and a half now. Being included in the 40-man roster might have played a bit in the decision to have McDonald in Sacramento but he legitimately has a shot to make the big league pen before the end of 2024.

A couple of hitters that moved alongside McDonald were Wade Meckler (#19 prospect) and Will Wilson. It was not their first rodeo in Sacramento but will likely be not their last, particularly for Meckler.

It needed around a quarter's worth of games in both Arizona and San Jose for Meckler to be truly online. But once he was locked in, he was the Meckler of old, sporting a .429 batting average in Eugene and a .324 average in Richmond. His outfield defense is still not up to big-league standards, but the contact ability is coming along pretty nicely. On the other hand, Wilson has once again another disappointing offensive campaign, batting below .230 for the second straight year.

Replenishing the Richmond roster are Jack Choate (#26 prospect), Julio Rodriguez, and Justin Wishkoski. Let's start with the tall lefty. Choate dominated the Northwestern League for the first three months of the season with a 2.01 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 63 innings pitched. He's hit a rough patch in July including giving up a career-high seven earned runs in his Fourth of July outing though he's bounced back quite nicely since and is in need of a tougher challenge for his outstanding changeup.

Julio Rodriguez, the pitcher just for clarification's sake, has been exceptional out of the Eugene bullpen. He is not exactly the closer for the squad as it belongs to Trent Harris (#23 prospect) but has been a staple in the back-end where his power stuff shines. He broke out this season with a 2.19 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 37 innings of work as an Emerald with a couple of cameos in Sacramento to boot. He has a sinker that can touch 95 mph with an outstanding low-80 curveball.

On the position player side, Wishkoski has been one of the better-performing players in the Emeralds lineup throughout the 2024 season. His infield defense leaves a lot to be desired but his bat has been quite solid with a 109 wRC+, .723 OPS, and solid peripherals to work.

The Sam Houston University product figures to be a solid organization depth piece but if he can continue to defy the odds, he might see himself be a legitimate prospect. Improving his defense and his power should be in the first and second orders of business.

Moving to Eugene from San Jose are Luke Shliger and Dylan Carmouche while also adding the recently-traded Sabin Ceballos to the roster. Shliger has not been the hitter that most have hoped in terms of swinging the bat with just a .228 batting average, but everything else has been as expected. He was a walk machine in college and that has so far translated to the pros with am 18 percent walk rate and an identical strikeout rate. The over-the-fence pop is not there but he's hit 11 doubles and has stolen 10 bases. His defense has played a bit worse than what his .993 fielding percentage indicates but the package behind the dish has remained solid to above average at best.