The Winter Meetings start this weekend, and there’s one topic on the mind of Buster Posey and every other executive gathered in Orlando: the 2026 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List. Our communal ranking of the top 44 prospects in the San Francisco Giants organization is obviously the most critical thing that happens in the baseball world every offseason, so we might as well continue along with it.

With the last chapter, a funny trend has been solidified: after the first seven prospects were all hitters, the next seven were all pitchers. We’ll now take a turn back to position players, as no pitchers are on the ballot today.

That’s because the winner of Wednesday’s election was left-handed pitcher Luis De La Torre, who makes his CPL debut as the No. 14 prospect in the system. De La Torre had one of the best years of any prospect in the Giants system in 2025, in his first year stateside … well, his first year stateside as a professional.

That caveat is necessary because De La Torre is something very rare: an international free agent who was born in the USA. The southpaw, who just turned 22, was born in Arizona but raised in Mexico until high school, which he spent in Utah. Rather than play collegiately, De La Torre played in the Dominican Republic after graduating high school, and the Giants signed him in 2023 for a modest bonus, nearly half a year after the international signing period had opened. His 2023 in the Dominican Summer League was short and not noteworthy, but his 2024 was solid. But it was his 2025 that opened eyes, as De La Torre emerged as one of the top strikeout artists in the system. He pitched 10 games in the Arizona Complex League (with seven starts), and had a 3.72 ERA and a 3.36 FIP, with a staggering 62 strikeouts in 38.2 innings, against just 16 walks. That earned him a promotion to Low-A San Jose, where his strikeout rate dropped a tad, but everything else got even better: in eight starts with the Baby Giants, De La Torre sported a glistening 1.77 ERA and a 2.46 FIP, with 47 strikeouts against just 11 walks in 35.2 innings. Highly impressive stuff!

Across the two levels, De La Torre finished the year with 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings, a mark that ranked fifth among the 691 Minor League pitchers with at least 70 innings thrown. The four names ahead of him? Griff McGarry, a 26-year old in AA, Thomas White, a consensus top-25 prospect, and phenoms Jonah Tong and Trey Yesavage. Pretty good company to hold!

De La Torre looked the part of an excellent pitching prospect, with phenomenal control of a mid-high 90s fastball and a deadly slider. He also has a changeup, though it’s easily the weakest of his three pitches.

One of the interesting questions for when Minor League assignments roll out in a few months, is where De La Torre will be placed. He doesn’t have a lot of experience in A-Ball, but given how easily he handled the California League, and the fact that he’s not the youngest prospect in the world, my money is on a promotion to High-A Eugene to start the year.

Now let’s pivot back to position players, and add another name to the list! As a reminder, voting now takes place in the comment section, so head there and look for my comment with the names to vote on.

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

Drew Cavanaugh — 23.10-year old C — .511 OPS/34 wRC+ in AAA (53 PA); .677 OPS/116 wRC+ in AA (56 PA); .904 OPS/149 wRC+ in High-A (162 PA); 1.006 OPS/170 wRC+ in Low-A (131 PA)

Trevor Cohen — 22.1-year old OF — .840 OPS/139 wRC+ in Low-A (130 PA)

Carlos Gutierrez — 21.3-year old OF — .896 OPS/150 wRC+ in Low-A (293 PA)

Parks Harber — 24.2-year old 3B — .969 OPS/174 wRC+ in High-A (260 PA); .972 OPS/169 wRC+ in Low-A (83 PA)

Jesús Rodríguez — 23.7-year old C — .826 OPS/125 wRC+ in AAA (535 PA); .274 OPS/-12 wRC+ in AA (30 PA)

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.