Not many Minor League Baseball roundups are left in the 2026 season, sadly. But all four of the San Francisco Giants A-ball affiliates played on Wednesday, so let’s dig into the action.
Link to the 2026 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)
All listed positions in the roundup are the position played in that particular game.
News
A few transactions. There were a pair of promotions, with RHP Logan Martin moving from AA Richmond to AAA Sacramento, while catcher Onil Perez jumped from High-A Eugene to Richmond. Sacramento catcher Adrián Sugastey landed on the 7-Day IL, as did Low-A San Jose RHP Trey Seeley, which was no surprise after Seeley left Tuesday’s start in the 1st inning, and fairly emotionally distraught.
Catcher Charlie Muniz was signed out of an independent league and assigned to Eugene.
Some exciting hardware to hand out, as Sacramento outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) was named the Player of the Month in the Pacific Coast League, while Richmond LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 11 CPL) was named Pitcher of the Month in the High-A Northwest League, which he dominated before a recent promotion.
And some fun video for you! Shortstop Joniel Hernandez, the extremely exciting 17-year old that the Giants acquired from the Padres at the trade deadline, has made his way to the states following the conclusion of the DSL season. He’s getting into some bridge league games.
AAA Sacramento (75-56)
Sacramento River Cats beat the Salt Lake Bees (Angels) 3-1
Box score
It’s been notable that in recent weeks the Giants have called up LHPs Matt Wilkinson and Cesar Perdomo from AAA, and even RHP Yunior Marte (No. 25 CPL) straight from AA, while leaving LHP Joe Whitman (No. 26 CPL) in the Minors. I’ve noticed it. You’ve noticed it.
And you know who else has surely noticed it? Joe Whitman.
But perhaps a chip on the shoulder is precisely what Whitman needed, because he’s been pitching very well lately. Wednesday was a particularly impressive performance for Whitman, a compensation round pick in 2023. The Kent State alum, who turns 25 later this month, went 8 innings in this game (!!!), giving up just 6 hits and 0 walks, while striking out 5 batters. 5 of the 6 hits he gave up were singles, but the 6th was a home run, which put the lone run on the board for the Bees.
If memory is serving me correctly, it’s the 1st time this year that a Giants prospect has pitched 8 innings in a game, and to do it in the Pacific Coast League only makes that feat more impressive.
Whitman hasn’t been great in AAA, as he has a 4.23 ERA and a 4.94 FIP, but he’s really started to find his rhythm and adjust to the level. In his last 4 starts, Whitman has pitched 24 innings, and allowed just 23 hits, 3 walks, and 6 earned runs, while striking out 21.
With Marte, Perdomo, and Wilkinson in the Majors, Whitman becomes arguably the most difficult Rule 5 protection choice for the Giants. Southpaws in AAA with prospect pedigree who are starting to figure things out will look juicy to another front office … but the Giants also currently have 31 pitchers and 53 total players on the 40-man roster.
Yet despite the brilliant game, Whitman was, tragically, in line for a loss. The River Cats had been shut out for 8 innings, and after RHP Alex Carillo pitched a scoreless top of the 9th (with a hit and a hit batter allowed), Sacramento went into the bottom of the 9th trailing 1-0.
And then magic struck. Left fielder Will Brennan, who continued his recent hot streak by hitting 2-4, opened the inning with a double. Designated hitter Diego Velasquez (No. 31 CPL), who hit 1-3, followed it up with a walk.
That brought up first baseman Charlie Szykowny. The recently-turned 26-year old was playing in just his 5th game with Sacramento, following a recent promotion that accompanied all of the roster shuffling going on in the Majors and at the top of the Minors. Szykowny, a 9th-round pick in 2023, has looked pretty comfortable in AAA, though he was 0-3 on the day.
But, given a chance to save his starting pitcher from the rare PCL Caining, Szykowny sprung into action, and launched a splendid walk-off home run for his very 1st AAA home run. Talk about a swing that he will never, ever forget!
The rest of the offense struggled, as you can predict given the fact that it was held scoreless before that final swing. The star trio at the top of the lineup continued their recent struggles, as they all seem to be leaking oil a little bit: center fielder Scott Bandura hit 0-3 with a walk, third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL) went 0-2 with 2 walks and a strikeout, and right fielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) went 1-4 with a strikeout and a caught stealing. For Harber, it continued a tough hit drought: he’s now 1-26 with 4 walks and 9 strikeouts over his last 7 games.
AA Richmond (73-53)
Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Akron RubberDucks (Guardians) 13-4
Box score
Not the most interesting game for the Squirrels, who gave up 13 runs a night after allowing 12 (though they won that game). Despite the high run total, it was an encouraging performance from the starting pitcher, RHP Miguel Mendez.
Mendez, a recently-turned 24-year old who came over in the Robbie Ray trade, made his 3rd appearance with Richmond, and made it through 4.1 innings, giving up 4 hits, 1 walk, and 2 runs, while striking out 5 batters. Mendez is still brushing off the dust after some time on the IL, but through 9 innings with the Squirrels, he’s struck out 12 batters while allowing just 3 walks, and that’s pretty nice.
The 6’2 righty, who is from the Dominican Republic, is on the 40-man roster, and while I doubt we see him in San Francisco this year, he could definitely be a big factor in the team’s 2027 plans.
Mendez’s overall line could have been better than it was, as only 1 of his 2 runs scored while he was in the game. He left with 1 out in the 5th and a runner on 3rd, but the inherited runner scored when LHP Jack Choate (No. 37 CPL) proceeded to walk the 1st 3 batters that he faced. After a decent stretch, Choate has really been roughed up in his last 2 outings, and has a 4.47 ERA and a 4.20 FIP on the year, in his 3rd pass through the level.
Then all hell broke lose. RHP Manuel Mercedes gave up 6 baserunners and 5 runs while recording just 2 outs, before handing things off to RHP Marty Gair, the flame-throwing reliever the Giants acquired in the Luis Arráez deal. Gair was making his AA debut and was dealt a tough lesson in the quality of the Eastern League offense, as he ceded 4 hits, a walk, and 4 runs in an inning of work.
Funnily enough, with the game out of hand, the Squirrels handed the 8th and final inning to catcher Onil Perez, who had just been brought up from High-A Eugene, and hadn’t yet had a chance to play his actual position.
The offense, meanwhile, did very little. The lone bright spot was designated hitter Sabin Ceballos (No. 43 CPL), who went 2-4 and smacked a 2-run home run.
If you read this space regularly, you’re probably aware of Ceballos’ deal. A year after hitting just 6 home runs while spending the whole year in AA, Ceballos — who turned 24 a few weeks ago — is up to 17 in his repeat of the level. But, despite striking out just 18.0% of the time, Ceballos is still running a miserable .227 batting average, which has led to a mediocre .750 OPS and 106 wRC+, despite the power and the 14.0% walk rate.
High-A Eugene (76-51)
Eugene Emeralds lost to the Hillsboro Hops (D-Backs) 5-2
Box score
It’s the time of the Minor League season where there are a lot of kind of funny assignments and rosters, as teams need to fill holes that are being left late in the year. That was certainly on display in this game. One of Eugene’s primary catchers, Onil Perez, has been promoted to AA to patch a catching hole there, but the result was a catching hole in High-A. So the Giants signed 24-year old right-handed hitting catcher Charlie Muniz from the Pioneer League and assigned him to Eugene.
Muniz made his professional debut on Wednesday and, unfortunately, learned the hard way that High-A ball is a different beast than the indy league where he had posted a .361/.470/.656 line over 85 games. Muniz’s introduction to affiliated ball was rough, as he struck out in all 4 of his at-bats, while also committing an error and allowing a passed ball.
Can only go up from there, Charlie! And now you can call yourself a pro baseball player, and that’s pretty awesome.
It wasn’t a very interesting game save for that tidbit. Left fielder Jose Ramos continued his somewhat funny destruction of the Northwest League, as he went 1-2 with a solo home run, 2 walks, a stolen base, and a strikeout. On the one hand, Ramos, a 23-year old right-handed hitter who signed in 2019 from Colombia, is running through the league, with an .865 OPS and a 139 wRC+ through 29 games. On the other hand, much of it is due to a comical 20.3% walk rate, and he had a .592 OPS and a 52 wRC+ through his 13-game stint in Low-A this year, which adds some cold water context to his current heater. But hopefully he keeps this up!
Center fielder Jose Ortiz has really been struggling since returning from the IL and getting placed in High-A for the first time, but he had a solid game in this one, going 2-4 with a strikeout, though he was caught stealing. Shortstop Jhonny Level (No. 3 CPL) wasn’t electric, but he did reach base twice, hitting 1-4 with a walk and a stolen base, though he struck out twice and was caught stealing. He just keeps chugging along, and now has an .849 OPS and a 122 wRC+ through 66 High-A games. Not bad for a 19-year old switch-hitting middle infielder!
The Emeralds rotation is missing some key pieces, as in the last week they lost LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 11 CPL) to a promotion and RHP Ramon Marquez to injury. And so Eugene turned to RHP Ubert Mejias for this one, with Mejias making his first start of the season. That wasn’t too tall of a task for the 25-year old Cuban, as Mejias has largely been working in bulk innings (he’s tossed 76.1 innings in 28 appearances this year).
He handled the assignment well, ceding 3 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in 3.2 innings, while striking out 2 batters. It’s been an odd year for Mejias. He has done a decent job getting strikeouts and a great job limiting walks, but he’s just far too hittable. Between Low-A and High-A he has 77 strikeouts to just 15 walks in 76.1 innings … but has allowed 84 hits, including 12 home runs. He’s particularly struggled with Eugene, where he has a 7.00 ERA and a 5.08 FIP in 15 appearances.
Nothing really notable from the bullpen. LHP Hayden Wynja continues to try to work his way back into form, after about 1.5 years on the sidelines with injury. The 27-year old gave up a hit, a walk, and an unearned run in 2 innings of work.
Low-A San Jose (76-52)
San Jose Giants lost to the Fresno Grizzlies (Rockies) 6-2
Box score
This was a brutal offensive game, but apparently that memo didn’t make its way to center fielder Andy Polanco. The 21-year old speedster, who was taken in the 11th round of the 2024 draft, collected singles in all of his at-bats, finishing the game 4-4 with a stolen base, though he was also caught stealing once.
4-4 is a great day to begin with, but it looks even more impressive when you compare it to what his 8 teammates in the lineup did: 3-29 with 1 walk and 9 strikeouts.
Polanco’s numbers aren’t very good in his first year of full season ball, as he has a .729 OPS and an 83 wRC+. Even his biggest statistical strength, his 37 stolen bases, is negated a little bit by the fact that he’s been thrown out on 13 different occasions. But Polanco, who is an excellent defensive player, has found some rhythm late in the year, as he posted a 1.049 OPS in August. In his last 18 games, he’s hit 30-70 with 8 extra-base hits, 3 walks, and just 13 strikeouts.
No one else to talk about on offense. A quiet day from the notable prospects, as neither shortstop Luis Hernández (No. 6 CPL) nor outfielder Peyton Bonds has returned to the team, while shortstop Josuar González (No. 2 CPL) had an extremely rare bad day, going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.
Unfortunately, González wasn’t the only big-name prospect to struggle, as RHP Argenis Cayama (No. 13 CPL) had arguably his worst game of the year. Cayama set down the side in order to open the game, and needed just 8 pitches to do so. But the 2nd inning proved to be a very forgettable one. Here’s how it went for poor Cayama:
Single
Single
Walk
Triple
Sacrifice fly
Home run
Strikeout
Single
Single
With that, Cayama’s day was done. 1.2 innings pitched, with 7 baserunners, 5 runs, and just 1 strikeout. It’s unfortunate because that is his final start of the regular season, as San Jose wraps things up on Sunday. But he’ll certainly be a part of the Baby Giants’ postseason rotation, so he’ll get a chance to end the year on a high note, even if his season stats are set: 4.87 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 11.5 strikeouts per 9 innings, and 2.7 walks per 9. Odd year.
LHP Ricardo Estrada saved the day though, as he took down the middle chunk of the game easily. The 24-year old handled 4.1 innings while allowing just 1 hit, 1 walk, and 0 runs, and striking out 4 batters. It was a remarkably efficient outing, as Estrada threw 42 of 59 pitches for strikes. He has just a 4.12 ERA and a 5.79 FIP, but has impressed at times.
Home run tracker
17 — Sabin Ceballos — [AA]
15 — Charlie Szykowny — [1 in AAA; 14 in AA]
3 — Jose Ramos — [2 in High-A, 1 in Low-A]
Thursday schedule
Sacramento: 6:45 p.m. PT vs. Salt Lake (SP: Seth Lonsway)
Richmond: 3:35 p.m. PT at Akron (SP: Niko Mazza)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Hillsboro (SP: TBD)
San Jose: 6:50 p.m. PT at Fresno (SP: TBD)
Reminder that almost all MiLB games can be viewed on MLB TV
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