SF Giants GM basically admits where Jackson Flora will start in 2027, but team must be cautious

With the way Jackson Flora has looked in his first few outings with the SF Giants organization after being selected with the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, it’s hard not to be excited about his potential. The stuff looks great and he has a swagger that could easily make him a fan-favorite in San Francisco someday.

The fact that the team decided to promote him to Double-A Richmond for a start in a playoff game seemed to be a pretty clear sign that he could start next season with the Flying Squirrels and general manager Zack Minasian essentially confirmed as much after Flora looked dominant in that outing, striking out four over two innings of work.

In a recent piece by Andrew Baggarly in The Athletic, he quotes Minasian as saying the following when asked whether Flora’s strong start will nudge him towards beginning next season in Double-A:

“It might do more than nudge, but I’ve got to be careful. I don’t want (vice president of player development) Randy Winn to get too mad at me. … I’ll say this for Jackson: He’s put himself in such a great spot with the season ending and what he can be next year.”

That seems to be a pretty clear sign that the Giants plan on starting him in Double-A next season. Baggarly even speculates that Flora could potentially be promoted to the big league club straight from Double-A, comparing him to Seattle Mariners pitcher Kade Anderson who got promoted straight from Double-A after 18 starts. The Giants also promoted Jonah Cox and Yunior Marte straight from Double-A this season so they haven’t been afraid to be aggressive in promoting prospects.

Giants have to be careful and patient with Jackson Flora

Still, they have to be careful. While it would be awesome to see Flora make his big league debut in 2027, and the fact that he will get to pitch in the minor leagues even if there is a lockout since he is not on the 40-man roster definitely increases the chances of that, there is always the risk that they could rush him up too quickly.

He only made three brief minor league outings in which he didn’t pitch beyond two innings. That’s a very small sample size and the Giants will want to see him be effective two or three times through the batting order and be able to work deep into games.

It’s easy to think a top prospect like him will just have some linear path to the big leagues, but that’s not always a given. Sometimes prospects, especially pitchers, have setbacks or get injured or get out of wack with their mechanics. Rarely is a guy just totally dominant in the minors.

That’s not to say Flora can’t do it, but the Giants just have to be patient with him. They also shouldn’t use Flora as an excuse to not add more to the rotation. They still need at least a couple more starters in the offseason to have a somewhat respectable rotation and it would be malpractice if they made another Tyler Mahle type of signing, even though he is now dominant with the Atlanta Braves, and called it a day because they are banking on Flora making it to the big leagues quickly.

It’s more than fair to be excited about Flora because the team hasn’t had an exciting homegrown pitcher in some time, but the Giants still have to be smart with him and make sure they are doing what is best for his development in the long run.

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