The 2026 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List keeps chugging along, as we seek to rank the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization. And after Wednesday’s chapter, we officially have a top five!

Winning the election with roughly 40% of the vote was center fielder Dakota Jordan, who has been ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Giants system. That’s a rise of three spots for Jordan, who debuted at No. 8 in last year’s CPL.

It was a dream season for Jordan, save for one small detail. The 2024 fourth-round pick (who received a bonus commensurate with a high second-round pick) was essentially making his debut this year, after having just seven plate appearances in his draft year. He entered the year with a compelling but cautionary profile: he had plus-plus power, but about as big of a strikeout issue as you’ll ever see from a college player who gets drafted, and he had plus-plus speed, but no track record of stealing bases or playing center field.

He showed the impact tools that got him drafted, and started addressing the concerns that kept him out of the first round. The 22-year old right-handed hitter spent the entire season with Low-A San Jose, where he hit .311/.377/.497 for an .875 OPS and a 137 wRC+, with 14 home runs in 416 plate appearances. He tied with teammate Jean Carlos Sio for the best batting average in the Cal League, was fifth in on-base percentage, second in slugging percentage, and fourth in isolated slugging (.186). Despite being 22nd in the league in plate appearances, he was tied for the league lead in home runs, while finishing second in RBI (82) just one off the leader, who had 144 more plate appearances.

But most impressive was the way he started to address the question marks. Jordan was the rare prospect who cut his strikeout rate upon making the pros, going from a terrifying 29.0% mark with Mississippi State in 2024 to a 22.8% rate with San Jose in 2025. He played exclusively in center field, where he made highlight play after highlight play, and looked like he could stick. And after stealing just seven bases across his two years of college ball, Jordan put his speed to work by swiping 27 bags.

It’s not all roses and cocktails, though. Despite the improvements, Jordan still has a large swing-and-miss game, and sported a 13.7% swinging strike rate, which ranked 64th out of the 89 Cal League hitters with at least 200 plate appearances. That number is exacerbated by the fact that Jordan was slightly older than his peers at the level, and came from the ultra-competitive SEC. He made strides in that area, but he’ll need to make further strides to have success at higher levels. Which brings us to the lone negative in what was otherwise one of the best seasons on the farm: Jordan hurt his oblique and, upon returning from that injury, hurt it again, even worse. That not only cost him plenty of playing time (he only played in 88 of San Jose’s 136 games), but, combined with the swing-and-miss concerns, kept the Giants from testing him against High-A talent. We’ll have to wait until 2026, when he’ll presumably be the every day center fielder for Eugene, to see how he does in the Northwest League.

The sky is the absolute limit for Jordan, who is very arguably the best athlete in the system, but there’s a lot of work to do to get to that sky. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he were the consensus No. 1 prospect when we reconvene for this exercise in a year, and it also wouldn’t surprise me if he’s nowhere near the top 10. And that makes him, for the second year running, one of the most must-follow prospects in the organization.

Now let’s add to the list. I’ve talked enough!

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

Argenis Cayama — 19.1-year old RHP — 8.16 ERA/6.93 FIP in Low-A (14.1 IP); 2.25 ERA/3.58 FIP in ACL (48 IP)

Parks Harber — 24.1-year old 3B — .969 OPS/174 wRC+ in High-A (260 PA); .972 OPS/169 wRC+ in Low-A (83 PA)

Luis Hernandez — 16.10-year old SS — has not debuted

Gavin Kilen — 21.6-year old SS — .561 OPS/59 wRC+ in Low-A (43 PA)

Keyner Martinez — 21.2-year old RHP — 2.86 ERA/3.96 FIP in Low-A (22 IP); 1.90 ERA/2.70 FIP in ACL (47.1 IP)

Carson Whisenhunt — 25.0-year old LHP — 5.01 ERA/6.91 FIP in MLB (23.1 IP); 4.43 ERA/4.77 FIP in AAA (107.2 IP)

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2025 season.