2023 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List No. 24

Feb 8, 2023 - 6:42 PM

We’ve officially started to fill in the back half of the 2023 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, our noble quest to rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization.

Kicking off the second half by coming in at No. 23 is right-handed pitcher Trevor McDonald. Amusingly, McDonald was not on last year’s CPL, but he did make the 2021 CPL when he came in at ... you guessed it, No. 23.

As with most of the players at this point in the exercise (and most prospects in general), you can easily find optimism and pessimism in McDonald’s profile.

Let’s start with the good for the 2019 11th-round pick. His run prevention — which is still, you know, the goal for pitchers — was very strong in 2022. He had just a 2.39 ERA with Low-A San Jose, though his 3.74 FIP was less stellar (still good though!). The numbers got even better when he was promoted to High-A Eugene, albeit in just an 11 inning sample size: 1.64 ERA, 3.30 FIP. And he’s still decently young, as he turns 22 at the end of the month.

The ERA outperforming the FIP has been a theme in McDonald’s career, and while some pitchers can maintain that (hello, Matt Cain!), it leads us to McDonald’s downside. The strikeout and walk numbers aren’t particularly encouraging, as McDonald K’d 10.2 hitters per nine innings in Low-A, while walking 4.0 (the year before, those numbers were 9.2 and 4.1, respectively, in rookie ball). Without improvement on that front, McDonald’s ERA will probably rise to match his FIP as he starts to face more advanced hitters.

The Giants seem a little less enthused by McDonald than the fans. Despite his strong ERA, he didn’t get promoted to High-A until September, and it seems likely that his future is as a reliever, not a starter.

Still, if you have a 2.39 ERA, you’re doing something right, so it’s with open arms that we welcome McDonald back to the CPL! He’ll be fun to keep an eye on in 2023.

Now on we march, and we have new names to add to choose from.

The list so far

1. Kyle Harrison — LHP
2. Marco Luciano — SS
3. Casey Schmitt — 3B
4. Luis Matos — CF
5. Vaun Brown — OF
6. Grant McCray — CF
7. Aeverson Arteaga — SS
8. Carson Whisenhunt — LHP
9. Reggie Crawford — LHP/DH
10. Patrick Bailey — C
11. Mason Black — RHP
12. Heliot Ramos — OF
13. Eric Silva — RHP
14. Jairo Pomares — OF
15. Cole Waites — RHP
16. Keaton Winn — RHP
17. R.J. Dabovich — RHP
18. Tyler Fitzgerald — INF
19. Ryan Murphy — RHP
20. Landen Roupp — RHP
21. Will Wilson — INF
22. Adrian Sugastey — C
23. Trevor McDonald — RHP

Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.

On to No. 24!

No. 24 prospect nominees

Rayner Arias — 16.9-year old OF, yet to debut
Tristan Beck — 26.7-year old RHP, 4.28 FIP in AAA (97.1 IP), 3.34 FIP in AA (14 IP)
Will Bednar — 22.7-year old RHP, 6.26 FIP in Low-A (43 IP)
Jose Cruz — 22.8 year old RHP, 3.10 FIP in Low-A (51.2 IP)
Ryan Reckley — 18.5 year old SS, 86 wRC+ in DSL (46 PAs)
Randy Rodriguez — 23.5-year old RHP, 7.52 FIP in AAA (6 IP), 5.21 FIP in AA (10 IP), 4.10 FIP in High-A (50.2 IP)
Nick Swiney — 23.11-year old LHP, 4.11 FIP in High-A (89 IP)

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page.

Reminder: voting is now in the comments!