It\u2019s the most exciting time of the year. The grass is cut. The sun is shining. The bats are cracking. The gloves are popping. You can talk yourself into any prospect being the breakout star to come. You can convince yourself that (almost) any player is in the best shape of their life. Hope is in the air. More importantly, baseball is in the air.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also, if we\u2019re being honest, kind of the most boring time of the year. Baseball is back, but it\u2019s not really back. The games are rarely televised, and when they are, they\u2019re half-filled with players you won\u2019t actually watch at any point during the regular season. Every bad performance feels like a warning sign, while every good performance smacks you over the head with a Looney Tunes anvil that reads, it\u2019s just Spring Training, it doesn\u2019t mean anything.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the case for everyone. For you, for me, for every San Francisco Giants fan, and every fan of the other 29 teams in the Majors. We\u2019re all loving that baseball is back, but frustrated that it\u2019s not more back. We\u2019re all hanging on every pitch and every swing, while also wondering what \u2014 if anything \u2014 we can learn from those pitches and swings.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s take a brief break from Giants baseball. After all, that\u2019s what they\u2019re doing today \u2014 taking their last off day until \u2026 uhh \u2026 the day after Opening Night. Let\u2019s look at some players on other teams, and see how they\u2019re doing this spring. After all, their fans are watching them just as closely as you\u2019re watching Carson Whisenhunt and Parks Harber and Luis Arr\u00e1ez. Let\u2019s see what they\u2019re seeing.<\/p>\n
5 games, 6.2 innings, 8 hits, 1 home run, 5 walks, 9 strikeouts, 4.05 ERA, 5.20 FIP<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the old friend who might soon be a new friend. Miles was poached by the Toronto Blue Jays in the Rule 5 Draft, which means that, if he doesn\u2019t make the Opening Day roster, he\u2019ll be returned to the Giants in time for Minor League Opening Day (assuming he clears waivers).<\/p>\n
Right now, it\u2019s looking like that will happen. Miles sticking with Toronto was always a long shot: he\u2019s basically never played above rookie ball, appearing in just two Low-A games in his draft year in 2022. The walks and the subsequent 1.95 WHIP paint the picture of someone who probably needs more Minor League seasoning \u2014 not really a shock, given that he\u2019s pitched just 14.2 innings in his Minor League career. His fastball velocity also hasn\u2019t been quite as strong as some might have expected after his Arizona Fall League showing a few months ago.<\/p>\n
But the strikeouts offer a strong reminder as to what a tantalizing talent Miles is, and how good he can be if he stays healthy. Really, his Spring Training has been perfect for the Giants. He probably hasn\u2019t pitched well enough to be rostered, especially for a team with World Series aspirations that made significant bullpen additions after the Rule 5 Draft \u2026 including the signing of Tyler Rogers. But he\u2019s stayed healthy and pitched well \u2026 things that bode well for his (likely) future with the Giants.<\/p>\n
14 games, 1-25, 5 walks, 10 strikeouts, .240 OPS, -21 wRC+<\/p>\n
You\u2019ve got to feel for Luciano. His 2025 was brutal \u2014 despite being the unanimous top prospect in the Giants organization for multiple years, he spent his final option year in AAA, never once getting called up to join a decidedly mediocre San Francisco squad. He started his offseason by getting unceremoniously waived early in the offseason, and not even because the Giants needed to clear a space to sign a player (though they did open up a space for the Rule 5 Draft). And then he entered the distinct cycle that unproven former top prospects who are out of options go through: his talent was intriguing enough that everyone wanted him, but far enough away that nobody wanted him on their Major League roster. So Luciano was claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates and waived. And then he was claimed by the Baltimore Orioles and waived. And then he was claimed by the New York Yankees and waived. Finally, he cleared waivers, and was outrighted to New York\u2019s AAA affiliate.<\/p>\n
So far, his spring has been exceedingly ugly. After ending his 2025 in a 2-45 slump, Luciano started his spring by going 0-23 in his first 13 games, before mercifully picking up a hit \u2014 a 65-mph single \u2014 in his most recent game. All while running a 33.3% strikeout rate.<\/p>\n
Something clearly happened to Luciano over the past few years. Perhaps it\u2019s a confidence issue. Perhaps the back injury he suffered has messed up his swing. Likely it\u2019s some combination of the two, and probably some other things as well. But it\u2019s sad to see, and I\u2019m certainly rooting for him to figure things out this year with Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre. He\u2019s been used strictly as a left fielder and designated hitter this spring.<\/p>\n
2 games, 7 innings, 8 hits, 2 home runs, 3 walks, 12 strikeouts, 9.00 ERA, 5.27 FIP<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll admit it: I was very sad when the Giants traded Harrison, even though the Rafael Devers trade was emphatically a win for the Giants. And I was quite happy when the Boston Red Sox turned around and traded him to the Milwaukee Brewers this offseason. The Brewers are where young pitchers go to maximize their potential, and if Harrison does that \u2026 well \u2026 the Giants won\u2019t have any regrets, but they\u2019ll certainly wish that Boston had asked for one of their other young starters instead.<\/p>\n
Harrison was dynamic in his first outing, recording eight of his nine outs with strikes. He got roughed up in his second outing but, you know \u2026 it\u2019s spring. He\u2019s talked excitedly about the changes that the Brewers have made with him, and his fastball looks quite lively. The 12 strikeouts in seven innings is reminiscent of the top prospect who once tore through the Giants system while setting records with his strikeouts.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s got a great chance to break camp in Milwaukee\u2019s rotation, and I can\u2019t wait to see what he does with that opportunity.<\/p>\n
6 games, 8 innings, 5 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts, 0.00 ERA, 2.82 FIP<\/p>\n
Black ended up with the Kansas City Royals after the Giants designated him for assignment early in the offseason. He\u2019s working strictly as a reliever for the Giants\u2019 2014 World Series foe, and so far the results have been splendid. He\u2019s yet to allow a run, and he\u2019s ceding just a baserunner per inning. His stuff still isn\u2019t quite dynamic enough to make the Giants regret letting him go, but he looks to have a decent shot at making Kansas City\u2019s Opening Day roster as a part of the bullpen; and he still has an option year remaining, if not. I\u2019m not going to put the cart in front of the horse, but if Black ends up having a quality year in the Majors, the Giants might have to think about re-evaluating what they\u2019re doing with pitchers.<\/p>\n
4 games, 8.1 innings, 3 hits, 2 home runs, 6 walks, 6 strikeouts, 3.12 ERA, 7.74 FIP<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve made no attempts to hide my belief that Teng can be a very good MLB pitcher. It hasn\u2019t really been on display for the Houston Astros, though, as he\u2019s back to struggling with walks. The Astros are using Teng as a swing man \u2014 he pitched three innings his last time out \u2014 and he\u2019ll certainly factor into their Major League plans at some point this year. But if his spring performance is any indication, he\u2019ll probably work on some things in AAA before making his Houston debut.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s your old friends update. There are other old friends of course \u2014 Mike Yastrzemski, notably, is hitting .429\/.543\/.964 for the Atlanta Braves \u2014 but it seemed best to keep our focus on the unproven youngsters that left the Giants this offseason.<\/p>\n
Maybe one of them will come back. Hopefully all of them will do well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the most exciting time of the year. The grass is cut. The sun is shining. The bats…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,162,4,169,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342],"class_list":{"0":"post-629408","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-mlb","11":"tag-news","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\/116248259929748230","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629408","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=629408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}