SF Giants have youngest player on any Spring Breakout roster (by a mile)

Spring Breakout games are taking place in spring training and the SF Giants will get a chance to display some of their young talent against a contingent of Cincinnati Reds prospects on Thursday night at Scottsdale Stadium. The Giants will have the youngest player by far of any Spring Breakout roster in Luis Hernández, the 17-year-old shortstop signed out of Venezuela in the offseason.

The next youngest player on any Spring Breakout roster is nearly four months older than Hernández so he will be going against players older than him as he looks to impress. 

SF Giants have the youngest, and potentially most promising, Spring Breakout player

Hernández was considered the top international prospect in the offseason and the Giants signed him for $5 million. That came a year after the Giants signed shortstop Josuar Gonzalez, who will not be on the Spring Breakout roster. Gonzalez was considered the second-best international prospect of his class after Roki Sasaki so the Giants have been loading up in recent years.

Some fans may be reluctant to get excited about prospects like Hernández and Gonzalez due to how Marco Luciano turned out. When the Giants signed Luciano as an international prospect, he was considered a lock to be the shortstop of the future for the Giants after Brandon Crawford left. Instead, he proved he cannot play shortstop nor could he really hit at the big league level and now he finds himself with the New York Yankees after riding the waiver carousel in the offseason.

It’s a crap shoot with these young prospect. Hernández is just 17 years old. Do you remember what you looked like and were doing at the age of 17? Yeah, I’d like to forget too. So who knows how these guys are going to turn out.

Hernández is considered the No. 3 prospect in the organization after Bryce Eldridge and Gonzalez. He’s seen as a great hitter and has shown that he can compete against much older competition. Some believe he could be a 25-homer-per-year player if he reaches the big leagues someday. He is reportedly set to begin the season stateside rather than with the DSL so the Giants are choosing to speed up his progression a bit.

Who knows? But it will at least be interesting to see the young talent get some action.

Other young players on the Spring Breakout roster to keep an eye on are Gavin Kilen, San Francisco’s first-round draft choice in last year’s MLB Draft. He played for Tony Vitello in his last college season at the University of Tennessee and is seen as a contact-first infielder who can play up the middle. He’s a guy we could see in the big leagues within the next few years while we probably won’t see someone like Hernandez for quite some time.

Outfielders Bo Davidson and Dakota Jordan are two players to keep an eye on as well. Both have shown impressive power in the minors so they’ll get a chance to show it off.

At the very least, the Giants host the youngest player on any Spring Breakout team. Perhaps Hernández will look much older than 17 against the Reds on Thursday night.