Minor League roundup, April 30: Argenis Cayama and Scott Bandura show star potential

Designated hitter Buddy Kennedy had the only other notable day on offense, hitting 1-3 with a walk and his 1st stolen base of the year. Kennedy remains one of Sacramento’s hottest hitters, and while he’s more a depth signing than a developing prospect, he’s a good guy to have around should anyone get injured, especially since Tyler Fitzgerald is no longer in the system.

Unfortunately, the non-Bericoto big names in Sacramento’s lineup were all absent, either due to not playing well or not playing at all. A day after lighting the baseball field on fire with a 4-hit, 2-homer special, first baseman Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) went 0-4 and struck out 3 times, while second baseman Nate Furman (No. 39 CPL) went 0-4, and right fielder Grant McCray hit 0-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Jesús Rodríguez (No. 16 CPL) didn’t play.

Sacramento went with a bullpen game after the scheduled starter, RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 12 CPL), was flown out to Philly to be the Giants 27th man in the doubleheader, though he didn’t pitch there, either (and was optioned today). The River Cats used a quartet of pitchers who are on the 40-man roster, and that quartet resulted in 1 awful outing and 3 great ones.

RHP Spencer Bivens opened the game and again struggled, giving up 3 hits, 1 walk, and 3 runs in just 2 innings of work, while striking out 2 batters. It took very little time for Bivens to go from looking like he’d make the Opening Day roster to struggling mightily in AAA, and he’s now given up 3 runs in each of his last 3 games (though in 1 of those games only 2 of the runs were earned). That has tanked his ERA up to 6.46, and his FIP to 5.90. At this point it might be fair to wonder if his roster spot is starting to be in jeopardy.

But the other rostered pitchers were perfect. Literally! Following a 2-inning, 3-baserunner, 1-run appearance by LHP prospect Nick Zwack, rehabbing LHP Sam Hentges handled all 3 hitters in the 5th inning with 2 strikeouts. RHP Dylan Smith followed it up with 2 perfect frames that featured a pair of strikeouts, and RHP Joel Peguero (No. 27 CPL) finished off the pitching performance with a clean 8th inning that had a strikeout in it, and required just 12 pitches.

Hentges is the name that Giants fans will be looking closely at, given the disaster going on with Ryan Borucki, who seems to just be keeping the third southpaw reliever seat warm until Hentges is ready. His rehab has gone well from a production standpoint, but he hasn’t looked himself, and the velocity has been noticeably down. That was, unfortunately, still the case in this game. While he had a nice game, his fastball — which averaged 95 mph in his last MLB stint in 2024 — sat 92, and peaked at 92.5.

Smith continues to impress in his debut season with the organization, and has now thrown scoreless outings in 6 of his 7 appearances, including 4 times not allowing any hits. Peguero has fluctuated between great and quite poor, and well probably stay in Sacramento after his rehab is complete.

AA Richmond (18-4)

Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Altoona Curve (Pirates) 18-6 (11 innings)
Box score

And now, for the most Minor League game imaginable. An 18-6 extra-innings victory. You don’t see that every day! Richmond trailed 4-2 entering the 8th inning, then tied the game. They took a 5-4 lead in the 9th, then blew the save in the bottom half of the inning. They took a 6-5 lead in the 10th, then blew the save in the bottom half of the inning.

And then they scored 12 runs in the 11th inning.

Leading the charge was the extremely exciting outfield duo of center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) and left fielder Scott Bandura. Davidson is unquestionably Richmond’s top prospect, and while his season has been somewhat rocky — and also interrupted by both an injury (bad!) and a child (good!) — it’s also had plenty of highlights, and provided ample reason for optimism.

Thursday’s game as much more the latter than the former, as Davidson hit 3-6 on the day, drew a walk, and capped the 12-run 11th inning with a majestic 3-run home run that cleared the fence by a mile. Admittedly that home run came off of a catcher who was thrown onto the mound for mop-up duty, but hey! They all look the same on the back of the baseball card!

Davidson’s numbers are still trying to catch up to his teammates, as he has a .765 OPS and a 91 wRC+ on the year, but he’s striking out just 23.2% of the time, and hitting a home run every 13.8 plate appearances. He does have a little bit of a Munetaka Murakami thing going on right now, though, as he’s hitting just .230 and doesn’t have any doubles or triples despite his 5 home runs.

As for Bandura, whose prospect status has at times been overshadowed by Davidson (the pair were promoted together last year), it was more of the same on Thursday, which is to say his excellent season remained excellent. He hit 3-4 in the game and drew 3 walks while striking out once … and while Davidson capped the scoring, Bandura started it, with a home run to lead off the 1st inning.

Bandura, who was also caught stealing once, is now up to a 1.033 OPS and a 168 wRC+ on the season, as he continues to obliterate the Eastern League. The 24-year old, taken in the 7th round in 2023 out of Princeton, has taken huge strides this year, especially in the contact department. He had a 30.6% strikeout rate and an 11.6% swinging strike rate during his 2-month stint with Richmond last year, which followed a 24.1% strikeout rate and a 9.1% swinging strike rate in High-A Eugene. This year? Just a 17.4% strikeout rate and an 8.0% swinging strike rate. Really couldn’t ask for a better start to the season, and it’s hard to find a positional group in the farm that’s as exciting as Richmond’s outfielders (the 3rd player in that exciting trio, right fielder Jonah Cox, only hit 1-5 on Thursday, but did lay down a sacrifice bunt and steal his organization-leading 14th and 15th bases).

Third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL) is starting to settle into the level and had his best game yet, hitting 3-6 with a double and a walk. Harber missed the 1st few weeks of the season rehabbing the hamstring injury that he sustained during Spring Training, but is starting to get into a groove. After striking out 10 times in his 1st 4 games of the year, he didn’t have a single strikeout in this game.

It was a very bad pitching day, with Richmond avoiding trouble despite issuing 13 walks and allowing 13 hits. It was a funny day in the walk department … not only did the Squirrels allow 13 of them, but they worked 11 of them!

Starting LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL) had quite a tough go of it, needing 73 pitches to record just 10 outs. He wasn’t the worst walk offender — he only issued 2 of them in 3.1 innings — but also only threw 42 pitches for strikes. In all, it was the issue that has plagued Whitman for most of his career that bit him on Thursday: throwing too many hittable pitches, especially with his fastball. He gave up 6 hits (which included a pair of doubles), while striking out 3 batters.

All of that added up to 3 earned runs to his name, moving his ERA to 6.04. His FIP remains a much more palatable 3.57, the result of a very nice strikeout rate (11.3 per 9) and a very solid walk rate (3.2 per 9). But, just as he did last year at the same level, the 2023 2nd-round pick is simply allowing way too many hits: in 22.1 innings this year, the 24-year old Whitman has given up 22 hits, which includes 8 extra-base knocks.

The bullpen was bad, and RHP Tyler Vogel gave up 3 hits and 3 walks in 2 innings, though somehow only got tagged for 2 runs and 1 earned run. After a brilliant start to the season, Vogel has now had back-to-back rough games, though he still has just a 1.80 ERA … but a 6.01 FIP, the result of 11 walks in 10 innings.

High-A Eugene (18-5)

Eugene Emeralds beat Spokane (Rockies) 7-5
Box score

It was also a walk-heavy day for the Emeralds hitters, who only had 6 hits on the day but drew a whopping 12 free passes. That primarily came from the star-studded top of the order: the leadoff hitter, center fielder Trevor Cohen (No. 15 CPL), hit 1-3 with a double and a strikeout, and drew 2 walks. The No. 2 hitter, shortstop Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL), also hit 1-3 with 2 walks. And the No. 3 hitter, center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 5 CPL) didn’t put the ball in play all day, striking out twice while taking the slow jog to first base on 3 different occasions.

Walks may not be part of San Francisco’s plan, unfortunately, but for that trio it’s par for the course. Cohen, the team’s 3rd-round pick last year, has a 17.8% walk rate on the season, which has given him a .708 OPS and a 112 wRC+ despite hitting just .220 with limited power. Kilen, the organization’s reigning 1st-round pick, has a more modest but still solid 9.0% walk rate, while striking out just 20.0% of the time, and he’s now at a .767 OPS and a 114 wRC+. And Jordan? Well, it feels like all he does is draw walks, hit for power, and strike out. Thursday’s game brought his walk rate up to 13.1%, but his strikeout rate up to 31.3%. In all, the 2024 4th-round selection has a .896 OPS and a 149 wRC+, and in 99 plate appearances this year has struck out, walked, or had an extra-base hit 54 times. Talk about 3 true outcomes!

That trio set the stage for the cleanup hitter, left fielder Carlos Gutierrez (No. 18 CPL). And because Gutierrez had the team’s best day, they won, with the 21-year old lefty hitting 2-5 with a triple, a double, and 3 runs batted in.

Gutierrez is not your prototypical cleanup hitter, as he’s a speedy contact maven who doesn’t have a ton of power … though the contact hasn’t always been there this year, and he showed up to Eugene looking notably bigger and more athletic, and has turned that into some pretty productive power. Despite having just a .229 batting average (it was .351 with Low-A San Jose last year), Gutierrez is rocking a .759 OPS and a 113 wRC+, the result of 9 extra-base hits in 79 plate appearances and a 10.1% walk rate. He sure is one of the more fun players in the system.

It was a dual starter game for the Emeralds, with RHP Ryan Slater — who faced just 1 batter — providing the only true bullpen work. Those piggybacking starters, LHP Tyler Switalski and RHP Niko Mazza, however, had very different days.

Mazza was the star. He entered to start the 6th inning, and handled the final 4 innings of the game smoothly and easily, giving up just 4 baserunners (2 singles and 2 walks), allowing no runs, and striking out 3 batters. The 2024 8th-round pick out of Southern Mississippi has struggled with walks this year, but lately he’s been nearly unhittable. After a pair of rough outings to begin the year, Mazza has pitched 13 shutout innings over his last 3 games, and allowed just 4 hits, while striking out 16 batters. Paired with the rough start — and the many walks — Mazza has a 3.44 ERA and a 4.34 FIP on the year.

As for Switalski, well … you can’t be perfect forever. The funky southpaw, taken in the 16th round in 2024 out of West Virginia, had been nothing short of excellent to start the year, until Thursday’s start. He found the strike zone fairly well, and struck out 6 batters in 4.2 innings with just 1 walk, but he also gave up 7 hits, which included 2 home runs and 2 doubles, all of which tattooed him for 5 earned runs.

That was quite outside of his character. Switalski wasn’t a big strikeout guy last year, but between San Jose and Eugene he allowed just 75 hits in 96.2 innings … and just 3 home runs. He’s matched that home run total in his last 2 starts this year. Still, he has just a 2.78 ERA and a 3.71 FIP on the season and has dramatically improved both his strikeout and walk rates year over year.

Low-A San Jose (16-8)

San Jose Giants beat the Visalia Rawhide (Diamondbacks) 13-12
Box score

Double-digit runs for the 7th time already this season! If only the Major League Giants could take a hint from the Minor League Giants!

Despite the high-scoring affair on both ends, the star of the game actually came on the mound. San Jose gave up all their runs from the 6th inning onward, meaning one thing: it was a star showing by the starter. And that starter is someone who is heating up in a big way: RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL).

We’re all familiar with the concept of a player performing better (or worse) than their stats, but that happens a lot more in the Minors, where the focus is on development. Cayama had a great game statistically, but it underscores just how good he was, and how encouraging the start was. As we’ve seen a few times this year with top pitching prospects, the trouble for Cayama came at the end of his outing, as the Giants tried to push him a little bit deeper into a game.

But Cayama was utterly dominant up to that point. How dominant, you ask? Through 5 innings he had allowed just 1 baserunner: a bunt single. Thanks to that hitter then getting thrown out by catcher Daniel Rogers, Cayama had faced the minimum entering the 6th inning, which included striking out the side in the 5th inning.

In the 6th he ran into some trouble, and even that was very mild: he hit a batter, and gave up an RBI double. He departed the mound with just that 1 run having scored, though RHP Jose T. Perez would allow the inherited runner to score, giving Cayama a pair of earned runs, which really doesn’t do the rest of his line justice: 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 0 walks, 1 hit batter, 8 strikeouts.

Cayama got rocked a bit in his 1st outing of the year, but since then has been better than advertised. His 4 starts since that opener 19.2 innings while allowing just 14 hits and 4 runs. But most impressively? Even including that 1st game, Cayama has struck out 30 batters in 23.1 innings … and walked 1.

30 strikeouts. 1 walk.

Cayama was a breakout star on the Complex League last year, but really struggled during a late season stint with San Jose, which was understandable given how young he was for the level, and the fact that he had nearly tripled the innings total from his debut season the year prior. No one should have been concerned with Cayama’s A-ball perfermance last year, and now he’s showing exactly why. He looks so much stronger and more physical this year, and the 19-year old is thoroughly dominating the level. What a joy to watch.

Unfortunately, it was nearly wasted by the bullpen, as Perez gave up 3 hits, 3 walks, and 5 earned runs while recording just 1 out, and RHP Melvin Pineda ceded 3 hits, 1 walk, and 3 earned runs, while also just recording 1 out. Both of those players saw their ERAs balloon past 15 which, I’m being told, is not very good.

RHP Garrett Langrell also gave up some runs, as he allowed 4 hits and 2 runs in 2.2 innings. But last year’s 16th-round pick struck out 5 batters, as he is looking like the bullpen’s version of Cayama: in 13.1 innings, the 24-year old has 20 strikeouts and just 1 walk. Fantastic!

It was all about the long ball on offense, as the Baby Giants had 3 home runs and no other extra-base hits (they did have 13 singles and 8 walks, though). Those dingers came from a trio of fairly unheralded prospects: Rogers, second baseman Isaiah Barkett, and third baseman Dario Reynoso.

Rogers hit 1-3 on the day with a solo shot, while also drawing a walk and getting hit by a pitch. He went undrafted last year out of Iowa, but performed well in a short stint with San Jose. He’s only played in 6 games this year, but he’s 5-21 with 2 extra-base hits and 3 walks, so he’s certainly holding his own, especially since he provides nice defense behind the dish.

As for Barkett, he hit 3-6 and smacked a 3-run shot, his 2nd of the year. Last year’s 10th-round pick is off to a blistering start this year, with a 1.048 OPS and a 167 wRC+, while playing all over the field (mostly at second, but a little time at third and in the outfield, as well). Barkett didn’t go to a big school (he played at Stetson), but still, he’s looked completely unfazed by Cal League pitchers, as he has a .383 average, and just an 11.0% strikeout rate. Pretty exciting stuff!

As for Reynoso, he hit 1-4 with a 2-run blast and a walk, while also striking out twice. Getting the ball over the fence had to feel nice for the recently-turned 21-year old, as he blasted 10 home runs in 53 Complex League games last year, but this big fly — in his 31st game with San Jose — was his 1st A-Ball dinger. As he has done throughout his entire career, Reynoso is getting a ton of hits (.276 average), drawing an absurd amount of walks (17.6%), and striking out way, way too much (32.4%). The overall package is an .804 OPS and a 122 wRC+.

Also nice days for shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL), who hit 3-6, and now has a .991 OPS and a 147 wRC+, and designated hitter Broedy Poppell, who went 2-4 with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts, raising his OPS to .649 and his wRC+ to 80.

Home run tracker

5 — Bo Davidson — [AA]
3 — Scott Bandura — [AA]
2 — Isaiah Barkett — [Low-A]
1 — Dario Reynoso — [Low-A]
1 — Daniel Rogers — [Low-A]

Friday schedule

Sacramento: 5:35 p.m. PT at Salt Lake (SP: TBD)
Richmond: 2:00 p.m. PT doubleheader at Altoona (SP: Trystan Vrieling)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Spokane (SP: Luis De La Torre)
San Jose: 6:35 p.m. PT at Visalia (SP: TBD)