Minor League roundup, May 8-10: Gavin Kilen and Joe Whitman put on a show

In sadder news, the Giants released a pair of players: Richmond RHP Cameron Pferrer and LHP Dylan Carmouche.

And in happier news, Richmond LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL) was named Pitcher of the Week in the Eastern League, while High-A Eugene shortstop Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL) was named Player of the Week in the Northwest League!

AAA Sacramento (20-17)

Friday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces 2-1 [box score]
Saturday: Sacramento River Cats lost to the Reno Aces 4-2 [box score]
Sunday: Sacramento River Cats beat the Reno Aces 9-7 [box score]

With Bryce Eldridge (No. 1 CPL) and Jesús Rodríguez (No. 16 CPL) in the big show, the most notable part of Sacramento’s roster right now is the rehabbing players. A trio of Major Leaguers are rehabbing with the River Cats right now, and they all showed good things over the weekend.

Catcher Daniel Susac (No. 20 CPL) is the most notable of the 3, simply because of the shocking Patrick Bailey trade on Saturday, which sets Susac up to to play a huge role in the Majors going forward. He played twice over the weekend — once at catcher and once at designated hitter — and went 4-7 with a hit by pitch and a strikeout. Tony Vitello said a few days ago that Susac won’t join the Giants for their series against the Dodgers (a 4-game set that begins tonight) but it certainly seems like he’s close to returning, and splitting catching duties with Rodríguez.

Harrison Bader played all 3 games, starting twice in center field and once at designated hitter, before getting activated ahead of Monday’s game. After going just 1-7 with 2 strikeouts on Friday and Saturday, the right-hander exploded on Sunday when he reached base in all 4 plate appearances, with a solo home run, 2 walks drawn, a hit by pitch, and a stolen base.

Bader had just a .338 OPS and a -9 wRC+ with the Giants before landing on the IL, so the hope is that his time in Sacramento got his bat back on track. The Giants could certainly use an offensive boost at the position, as Drew Gilbert hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire in Bader’s absence (Gilbert has a .634 OPS and an 80 wRC+).

There wasn’t much notable offense to speak of beyond the rehabbing pair. Third baseman Buddy Kennedy and first baseman/third baseman Jake Holton continued looking like decent AAA depth in their debut seasons in the organization. Kennedy hit 2-8 with a 2-run home run and a strikeout, and now has a .918 OPS and a 144 wRC+; Holton went 2-10 with a solo home run, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts, which gives him a .739 OPS and a 107 wRC+ in his 1st season of AAA ball.

Outfielder Grant McCray, who played all 3 grassy positions over the weekend, has fallen back into a slump following a brief hot stretch. The lefty went 1-13 with 3 strikeouts over the weekend, which moved his batting average back to the interstate, whole lowering his OPS to .647 and his wRC+ to 79.

The 3rd rehabbing player was on the mound, as LHP Erik Miller opened Sunday’s game with a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and striking out a batter. Miller expressed optimism that his IL stint would be short, and that’s great news to anyone who has watched the Giants bullpen lately.

As for the prospects pitching, Sacramento used a trio of notable starters, with 3 very different results: bad, good, and in between.

The bad belonged to RHP Carson Seymour, who “started” Sunday’s game after Miller’s rehab inning. Seymour made it through 5 innings, but it was a bit of a mess. He allowed 8 hits (which included a homer and 2 doubles), hit a batter, and gave up 5 runs. He only walked 1 hitter, which is good, but he also only struck out 2.

It’s been a disappointing season for Seymour, a 27-year old who made his MLB debut last year. While he’s done a good job limiting walks, Seymour has only struck out 27 batters in 33 innings, and just doesn’t appear to have the electric stuff he has at times shown in the past. On the whole, it’s a 5.18 ERA, a 5.08 FIP, and perhaps a tenuous hold on his roster spot.

The OK start belonged to RHP Blade Tidwell (No. 9 CPL) on Saturday. Tidwell is back to getting stretched out in the Minors after some time in the Major League bullpen, and he showed some really nice things. The power righty struck out 5 batters in just 3.2 innings, while allowing 3 hits (which included a home run to rehabbing Carlos Santana), 1 walk, 2 runs, and 1 earned run. It will be interesting to see what Tidwell’s role is the next time he’s called into Major League duty.

And the best start belonged to LHP Carson Whisenhunt (No. 8 CPL) who had an awesome showing on Friday, pitching 5 innings while allowing just 4 hits, 2 walks, and 1 run, with 8 strikeouts. Whisenhunt’s season has been up and down, but he’s been pretty darned good lately: in his last 3 starts, the 25-year old has pitched 16 innings and ceded just 10 hits, 4 walks, and 4 runs, while striking out 21 batters. With that, Whisenhunt has lowered his ERA to 4.25 and his FIP to 3.51, and has now increased his year-over-year strikeout rate in AAA from 7.9 to 10.8. Highly encouraging stuff!

RHP Trent Harris (No. 29 CPL) made 2 appearances out of the bullpen and was great, throwing 3 shutout innings and allowing just 2 hits, while striking out 4. He could definitely play his way into the bullpen’s plans in the 2nd half of the season, as could RHP Marques Johnson, who needed just 16 pitches to throw 2 perfect innings on Saturday, with 2 strikeouts. Johnson has been great at everything this year except suppressing walks (he’s issued 13 in 14.2 innings), so it was nice seeing him throw 13 of 16 pitches for strikes.

AA Richmond (25-7)

Friday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Akron RubberDucks 9-6 [box score]
Saturday: Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Akron RubberDucks 12-5 [box score]
Sunday: Richmond Flying Squirrels beat the Akron RubberDucks 6-0 [box score]

Whisenhunt isn’t the only high draft pick southpaw who is starting to come into his own. Over on the other side of the country, LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL) is quietly starting to shown some real signs of development after a disappointing 2025.

Whitman, the compensation round pick the Giants got when they lost Carlos Rodón in free agency, started on Sunday and dominated the Ducks with 5 shutout innings. The 24-year old Kent State alum gave up just 3 hits on the day — all singles — and walked 1 batter, while striking out 8. That’s one of the best starts this season, not just for Whitman but for the entire farm!

The biggest issue for Whitman in his career has been allowing hits, but lately he’s started to make significant improvements on that front. This 5-inning, 3-hit outing came after last week’s 6-inning, 1-hit showing, and just like that, the southpaw has dipped to a very respectable 26 hits allowed in 33.1 innings. That’s a massive improvement over last season, when he gave up 129 hits in 117.1 innings.

I would argue that the hits are the biggest improvement Whitman has made, but it’s certainly not the only improvement. Year over year, his strikeouts per 9 innings has jumped from 9.5 to 11.6 and his walks per 9 have lowered, from 3.6 to 3.0. Those numbers rank 5th and 10th, respectively, out of the 51 Eastern League pitchers with at least 20 innings thrown this year, while his FIP (2.99) is all the way up to 3rd. The ERA is lagging a bit behind, at 4.05.

Whitman was a top-10 prospect in our CPL a year ago before stagnating in AA last year, so it’s great to see him excelling. If he keeps this up, he could be in Sacramento’s rotation for the 2nd half of the season.

That was the standout pitching performance, though LHP Cesar Perdomo certainly had a start worth mentioning on Friday. The 24-year old had a funny game, giving up 6 hits, 2 walks, and 5 runs in just 4.2 innings … but struck out 9 Akron batters. Hot and cold! It’s been a pretty solid AA debut for the Venezuelan, who has a 3.81 ERA and a 3.09 FIP through 6 games. He’s walking a few too many batters (12 in 26 innings), but has 29 strikeouts, has allowed just 19 hits, and hasn’t given up a home run.

RHP Mitch White pitched 2 perfect innings with 4 strikeouts to earn the save on Friday. White, a 26-year old who who is making his professional debut after the Giants signed him out of indy ball, has started his career with 18 strikeouts against 5 walks in 13.2 innings, and has a 2.63 ERA and a 4.29 FIP.

No hitter had a superstar weekend, but plenty had good outings. Most notably, third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL) smashed his 1st AA home run, as part of a weekend where he went 3-9 with a double, a walk, and 2 strikeouts.

Harber missed about a month while rehabbing a hamstring injury sustained during Spring Training, but is wasting no time getting up to speed. While there are still signs of rust — most notably the 30.6% strikeout rate — Harber is rocking an .888 OPS and a 132 wRC+. His 2-run shot on Saturday may have been his 1st homer at the level, but he already has 8 doubles in just 13 games.

Second baseman Diego Velasquez (No. 31 CPL) had his best game of the year on Friday, when he hit 3-4 with a 2-run home run and a double, though he also committed an error. The 22-year old switch-hitter followed that up by hitting 2-4 with a strikeout on Saturday, though he went 0-3 with 3 strikeouts and a hit by pitch on Sunday.

Velasquez isn’t making a ton of noise this year, at a level he’s been at since late 2024, but it’s still been a nice year, as he has a .775 OPS and a 110 wRC+. Most notably, Velasquez has really cranked up the power: during his stint with Richmond in 2024, he had just a .061 isolated slugging percentage, and that mark was only .059 last season. This year it’s all the way up at .141. If that can maintain, that will be huge.

The only other player to homer was catcher Adrián Sugastey, who went 2-3 with a 2-run blast and a sacrifice bunt in the only game he played over the weekend. Like Velasquez, the 23-year old Sugastey is trying to shine in his 3rd year with the Squirrels. And while his numbers still aren’t particularly good, he’s improved virtually all of them for the 2nd year running. In his 3 stints with Richmond, his average has gone from .210 to .231 to .283; his on-base percentage from .241 to .284 to .302; his isolated slugging percentage from .094 to .111 to .167; and his wRC+ from 55 to 84 to 92.

Decent weekends for center fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) and left fielder Scott Bandura. Davidson hit 4-12 with 1 double, 1 walk, and 0 strikeouts, while Bandura went 4-11 with 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, 1 sacrifice fly, and 3 stolen bases. The 23-year old Davidson now has an .809 OPS and a 109 wRC+, while the 24-year old Bandura has a .932 OPS and a 146 wRC+, with 10 stolen bases in 12 attempts.

High-A Eugene (25-8)

Friday: Eugene Emeralds lost to the Vancouver Canadians 4-2 [box score]
Saturday Game 1: Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians 7-5 (7 innings) [box score]
Saturday Game 2: Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians 5-1 (7 innings) [box score]
Sunday: Eugene Emeralds beat the Vancouver Canadians 13-8 [box score]

Welcome back, Gavin Kilen (No. 7 CPL). Welcome back.

The Giants 1st-round pick last year — and the 1st draft pick ever by Buster Posey — began his debut full season with a flurry back in early April. And then he started slumping in a big way. And now he has started bouncing back in an even bigger way.

On Saturday, in the 1st game of a doubleheader, the lefty shortstop had about as good of a day as you can have in a 7-inning game: he went 3-4, with all 3 of his hits being extra-base knocks: a pair of doubles and a 3-run home run, all as part of a day in which he knocked in 5 of the team’s 7 runs.

On Sunday, he attempted to one-up himself, by hitting 4-5 with yet another 3-run home run. My goodness!

In all, the recently-turned 22-year old hit 9-15 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 1 walk, and 0 strikeouts on the weekend, with the only negative play being when he was caught stealing. What a dynamic string of games! Not only that, but Kilen played shortstop in all 4 games, including both ends of Saturday’s doubleheader.

Kilen had been having really good at-bats coming into the weekend, but it was still very nice to see the power play, as his big game on Saturday broke a streak of 9 straight games without an extra-base hit. On the year, he’s up to an .876 OPS and a 138 wRC+, with just a 16.1% strikeout rate, and the Giants have to be utterly thrilled with all of that. It’s extremely early days, but he’s looking like a fantastic draft selection.

The 2nd draft pick Buster Posey made has had a slightly rockier season, but you wouldn’t know it based on the weekend, as right fielder/center fielder Trevor Cohen (No. 15 CPL) had a delightful string of games as well. The 3rd-round pick hit 6-15 over the quartet of games, with 2 doubles, 2 walks, 1 strikeout, 1 stolen base, and 1 caught stealing. The 22-year old lefty has really started to find his swing lately, and has a 6-game hitting streak with just 1 strikeout. You can certainly see Posey’s affinity for contact in these recent draftees: the Rutgers product has a .732 OPS and a 110 wRC+, with just a 15.8% strikeout rate (and a matching 15.8% walk rate). He’s also up to 13 stolen bases in 16 attempts.

Left fielder Carlos Gutierrez (No. 18 CPL) had a hilarious game during the double-header: despite being a contact maven, he didn’t put the ball in play at all, as he drew walks in all 3 of his plate appearances, and then proceeded to steal a pair of bases. That’s one way to offense, and a way that is completely foreign to the Major League Giants!

Gutierrez did have an 0-4 on Friday, but he followed up Saturday’s walk excursion by hitting 1-3 with 2 walks on Sunday, bringing his walk rate up to 16.2%, which isn’t tremendously out of the ordinary, as it was 12.6% is Low-A a year ago. His batting average, however, has tumbled from .351 to .209 (though his strikeout rate is still very low) … so even though he’s walking a lot and has had an uptick in power, he has just a .716 OPS and a 103 wRC+ in his High-A debut. Super fun player, still!

A quartet of Emeralds hitters joined Kilen with home run trots: left fielder/right fielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 32 CPL) hit 4-10 with a solo blast, a walk, a strikeout, and a caught stealing, moving his OPS to .681 and his wRC+ to 78; first baseman Jakob Christian (No. 40 CPL) went 2-8 with a solo shot, 2 walks, a hit by pitch, and 3 strikeouts, and is sitting on a 1.279 OPS and a 245 wRC+ through 8 games; third baseman Walker Martin hit just 2-12 with 4 strikeouts and his 11th error of the season, but blasted a 3-run home run, and now has a .707 OPS and a 98 wRC+; and infielder Zander Darby went 3-12 with a 2-run dinger, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, and a caught stealing while playing first, second, and third base, moving his OPS to .894 and his wRC+ to 143.

Diaz’s season in particular has been a touch funny: the 20-year old has the speed and defense to make you think he might be a light hitter, yet he has 5 home runs and a .191 isolated slugging, marks that rank among the top on the team, all while sporting just a 19.2% strikeout rate. Yet despite that, he only has a .225 batting average and a 4.0% walk rate, and that has resulted in poor numbers overall.

It was definitely a series where the hitting was more interesting than the pitching, but there was a standout performance on the mound, from someone it was great to see excel: LHP Luis De La Torre (No. 14 CPL). LDLT started Friday’s game and absolutely shined in 4 innings, giving up just 1 hit, 3 walks, and 1 unearned run, while striking out 7 batters.

It’s been a little bit of a troubling season for De La Torre after his breakout 2025, as the strikeouts and ground balls have been way down, and the walks have been way up, so it was nice seeing him dominate a lineup, even if there were still a lot of walks. Those 7 Ks are what we’ve grown accustomed to for the 22-year old, who had 109 strikeouts in just 74.1 innings last year, between the ACL and Low-A. Hopefully this is the start of him finding his groove in the Northwest League, as he entered the game with just 14 strikeouts in 15 innings.

The other notable starters didn’t have such good days, as LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 11 CPL) gave up 2 hits, 5 walks, and 2 earned runs in 3.2 innings in his 3rd start of the year, though he struck out 6. The strikeouts are definitely playing to the level for Bresnahan, who has 16 punchouts in just 11.2 innings. And RHP Yunior Marte (No. 25 CPL) allowed 4 hits, 3 walks, and 3 runs in 4 innings, with 4 strikeouts. The 22-year old, who came to the Giants in the Mike Yastrzemski trade, has been pretty dynamic this year, with a 2.25 ERA and a 3.71 FIP. He only has 26 strikeouts in 28 innings, but has only allowed 16 hits all year.

A pair of relievers had great games: RHPs Ryan Vanderhei and Liam Simon. Vanderhei retired all 7 batters he faced, with 4 strikeouts, marking his 3rd straight scoreless appearance. The 2023 10th-round pick has had a dynamic year in relief, with a 2.00 ERA, a 3.21 FIP, and 11.5 strikeouts per 9 innings, against just 3.0 walks. As for Simon, he struck out 2 batters in a no-hit inning, while issuing 1 walk, as he finally appears to be shaking off the injury rust. Simon could not find the strike zone to save his soul after returning from Tommy John, as he walked 31 batters in 27.2 innings last year … then started this season with 9 walks in 4 innings over 4 appearances. But since then? He’s pitched in 5 games and allowed just 2 walks in 5 innings, while striking out 10 and only allowing 1 hit. You love to see it!

Low-A San Jose (19-14)

Friday: San Jose Giants beat the Fresno Grizzlies 4-3 [box score]
Saturday: San Jose Giants lost to the Fresno Grizzlies 8-7 [box score]
Sunday: San Jose Giants lost to the Fresno Grizzlies 8-2 [box score]

A pretty uninteresting group of games for the Baby Giants, who really didn’t have standout performers on either side of the ball. Like Sacramento, however, San Jose had a few players rehabbing. Most notably, Major League RHP Jason Foley began his rehab assignment on Sunday, though it didn’t go great. Foley made it through just 0.2 innings while ceding 2 hits and a walk which, combined with some rough defense, resulted in 4 runs, though just 1 earned run. He also struck out a batter. The start of rehab assignments is just about getting on the field and getting used to playing again, so nothing to read into the poor results.

LHP Nick Margevicius, who has MLB experience but was signed to a Minor League deal, also is beginning a rehab assignment, as he started Saturday’s game, which was his 2nd outing during his rehab (the 1st came in the ACL). He got ripped up, allowing 8 hits, 6 runs, and 5 earned runs in 3.1 innings, with just 1 strikeout. So it goes.

The best pitching performance belonged to RHP Cody Delvecchio, last year’s 12th-round draft pick out of UCLA. The 22-year old was awesome on Sunday, striking out 7 batters in 4 innings, while giving up 5 hits, 0 walks, and 1 run. All of Delvecchio’s hits were singles, and he threw 43 of 64 pitches for strikes. The Giants are surely quite pleased with his 28-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 22 innings this year, though the rookie has just a 4.09 ERA and a 5.01 FIP, the result of having given up 3 home runs already this year.

Shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL) had a great day on Friday, when he hit 2-3, drew a walk, and stole 2 bases. The rest of the weekend didn’t go so well, as he had Saturday off and had an 0-4 on Sunday, but my goodness what a season he’s having. It’s now a .977 OPS and a 144 wRC+ for Level, who has 10 stolen bases in 12 attempts and just a 15.7% strikeout rate, to make no mention of the quality defense. If he and Kilen keep this up, I’m guessing we see double promotions sometime in July.

Third baseman Dario Reynoso had an up-and-down performance, hitting 3-11 with 2 doubles, 2 walks, and 2 stolen bases, but also 5 strikeouts. He has a .989 OPS and a 152 wRC+. Left fielder Jose Astudillo hit 2-7 with a walk and stole 3 bases (his 1st 3 of the year), and now has an .808 OPS and 123 wRC+ through 7 games, after getting a late start to the season. He’s only struck out 1 time this year.

Arizona Complex League (1-5)

Friday: ACL Giants lost to the ACL Mariners 2-1 (7 innings) [box score]
Saturday: ACL Giants lost to the ACL Rockies 6-1 (7 innings) [box score]

A very boring set of games down in the desert. That included mild-mannered weekends for the pair of stars on the ACL Giants team, as shortstop Josuar González (No. 2 CPL) hit 1-4 with a double and 2 strikeouts, while shortstop/third baseman Luis Hernández (No. 6 CPL) went 2-8 with a double and 3 strikeouts. The future is incredibly bright thanks in large part to those 2, but they weren’t enough to lead the Giants to success in these games.

Left fielder/right fielder Oliver Tejada had the best weekend among the hitters, as he went 2-4 with a walk anda hit by pitch, though he also committed an error. Otherwise, it was slim pickings: outside of those 3 players, the team managed just 3 hits in the 2 games.

The pitching wasn’t too much better. RHP Brayan Narvaez, a 21-year old from Venezueala, had a nice game on Friday, tossing 2 no-hit innings with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts in his 2nd game. This is Narvaez’s 1st year stateside after 3 seasons in the DSL, so he’s hoping to run with the opportunity.

RHP Luke Mensik, an 18-year old taken in the 17th round a season ago, struck out 5 batters in 4 innings on Saturday, though he gave up 3 hits, 3 walks, and 2 runs. Always exciting to see High School pitchers in the ACL, though it hasn’t been the smoothest start to his career for Mensik through 2 games.

Home run tracker

5 — Lisbel Diaz — [High-A]
5 — Zander Darby — [High-A]
4 — Buddy Kennedy — [AAA]
4 — Gavin Kilen x2 — [High-A]
4 — Walker Martin — [High-A]
3 — Harrison Bader — [1 in MLB; 2 in AAA]
3 — Jake Holton — [AAA]
2 — Diego Velasquez — [AA]
2 — Adrián Sugastey — [AA]
1 — Parks Harber — [AA]
1 — Jakob Christian — [High-A]