Don\u2019t look now, but pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training is really and truly right around the corner. In less than three weeks, San Francisco Giants will be descending upon Scottsdale, ready for a new season and all the hopes, dreams, and platitudes that come with it. We won\u2019t be done with our Community Prospect List by then, but we\u2019ll be getting fairly close.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re into the 30s now, and the next name on the list is someone who is likely in consideration to be a non-roster invitee next month: it\u2019s second baseman Diego Velasquez, who has been named the No. 31 prospect in the system. That\u2019s a drop of 15 spots for Velasquez, who was No. 16 in last year\u2019s CPL.<\/p>\n
Velasquez\u2019s fall is less about his 2025 performance, and more about the increasing strength of the system \u2026 after all, a full third of the 30 names above him are new to the organization, while a sizable handful are players who weren\u2019t even in consideration for last year\u2019s CPL before breakout campaigns. While the Giants handled those breakouts and welcomed in those newcomers, Velasquez simply held serve with a full season at AA Richmond.<\/p>\n
A switch-hitter who was signed out of Venezuela in 2021, Velasquez showed off his outstanding contact skills and control of the zone in 2025 with the Flying Squirrels, as he struck out just 14.3% of the time, while sporting a 12.4% walk rate (for context, those rates were ninth and 24th, respectively, out of the 58 Giants prospects with at least 200 plate appearances last year). Despite the strong contact skills, Velasquez\u2019s batting average took quite a tumble in 2025, which he can\u2019t really afford given his lack of power. He ended the year with a .256\/.362\/.315 line, for a .677 OPS and a 107 wRC+, while hitting two home runs and stealing 19 bases in 128 games.<\/p>\n
It was a bit concerning seeing Velasquez move in the wrong direction statistically, after he ended 2024 with a late season promotion, and posted a .763 OPS and a 127 wRC+ in 42 games with Richmond. But adjustment periods have funny trajectories, and the positive side is that Velasquez remains on the young side. He turned 22 after the season ended, and spent the season playing in the Eastern League, where he was two-and-a-half years younger than his average peer.<\/p>\n
One of the notable things about Velasquez\u2019s season was that the Giants finally committed to him having a spot on one side of the bag only. Velasquez had spent most of his prospect career splitting time between second base and shortstop, with evaluators pegging him strictly as a second baseman. Perhaps the Giants took until 2025 to agree, or perhaps it was a logistical matter (Velasquez had a natural shortstop partner in Richmond in Aeverson Arteaga), but he played just one game at the six last year, while manning second base 123 times.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a decent enough defender at second that a path exists for him to make the Majors \u2026 albeit a slim path, given his lack of positional versatility and, more damning, his almost complete lack of power. If his profile remains as an all-contact, no-power player, he\u2019ll need everything to go right to have a sustained MLB career. But he is young, so maybe there\u2019s a little extra power hiding in there somewhere.<\/p>\n
Given his so-so season, and that the Giants should have Tyler Fitzgerald and Osleivis Basabe manning the middle of the diamond in Sacramento, I\u2019d guess that Velasquez is slated for a return to Richmond in 2026, though a promotion isn\u2019t out of the question. It could prove to be a critical year for him.<\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s add to the list! As a reminder, voting now takes place in the comment section.<\/p>\n
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.<\/p>\n
Maui<\/a> Ahuna<\/a> \u2014 23.10-year old SS \u2014 .871 OPS\/144 wRC+ in High-A (52 PA); .802 OPS\/122 wRC+ in Low-A (168 PA); .842 OPS\/108 wRC+ in ACL (54 PA)<\/p>\n Rayner<\/a> Arias<\/a> \u2014 19.8-year old OF \u2014 .173 OPS\/-42 wRC+ in Low-A (30 PA); .699 OPS\/87 wRC+ in ACL (178 PA)<\/p>\n Reggie<\/a> Crawford<\/a> \u2014 25.1-year old LHP \u2014 did not pitch in 2025; 1.04 ERA\/4.07 FIP in AAA in 2024 (8.2 IP); 4.66 ERA\/4.93 FIP in AA in 2024 (9.2 IP)<\/p>\n Lisbel<\/a> Diaz<\/a> \u2014 20.6-year old OF \u2014 .725 OPS\/96 wRC+ in Low-A (561 PA)<\/p>\n Cam<\/a> Maldonado<\/a> \u2014 22.2-year old OF \u2014 .691 OPS\/92 wRC+ in Low-A (71 PA)<\/p>\n Reid<\/a> Worley<\/a> \u2014 19.6-year old RHP \u2014 yet to debut<\/p>\n Note: Each player\u2019s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page. All stats are from the 2025 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t look now, but pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training is really and truly right around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,38978,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-534984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-giants","10":"tag-minor-leagues-prospects","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115946316375738617","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}