We’re still waiting for the San Francisco Giants to sign their first free agent of the offseason, but that doesn’t stop us from having fun things to talk about, because the 2026 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List marches on, as we move closer and closer to ranking the top 44 prospects in the Giants organization.
The Giants are in need of pitching this year, and it took us until the eighth chapter of the CPL to find someone who can potentially provide that help. But find him we did, as our first pitcher has finally come off the board: lefty Carson Whisenhunt, who has been voted as the No. 8 prospect in the system. It’s a fall of six spots for Whisenhunt, after he was the runner-up to Bryce Eldridge in last year’s CPL.
On the surface, Whisenhunt — the team’s second-round pick in 2022 out of East Carolina — had a pretty good year. He made 21 starts for AAA Sacramento, finishing with a 4.43 ERA and a 4.77 FIP, stats that were 25th and 24th, respectively, out of the 92 Pacific Coast League pitchers who threw at least 50 innings. That, combined with his large workload — he was 13th in the league in innings pitched (107.2), with many of the names ahead of him being journeymen with prior MLB experience — resulted in him being named the Pitcher of the Year in the league. And most importantly, Whisenhunt made his MLB debut with five starts for the Giants, during which time he had a 5.01 ERA and a 6.91 FIP.
But there were some concerns below the surface for Whisenhunt, as reflected by him populating the bottom portion of the top 10 this year, instead of the top. Those AAA numbers were quite fine in a vacuum, but a little less fine when seen through the lens of repeating the level … he made 25 starts for Sacramento in 2024. Furthermore, the improvement was minimal: while he made large AAA year-over-year improvements in ERA (5.42 down to 4.43) and walks allowed per nine innings (4.56 down to 2.93), he got mildly worse in the FIP department (4.66 up to 4.77), and dramatically worse in his strikeouts per nine innings (11.61 down to 7.94). It’s a small sample size, but all of Whisenhunt’s pitches graded out as well below-average in his MLB debut, and there are plenty of questions about whether his fastball can perform at the Major League level.
He remains an extremely talented prospect and, in the eyes of our community, the best pitching prospect in the system. And the recently-turned 25-year old will certainly have every opportunity to prove that he should be a key part of the rotation this year. But there’s also a decent chance that he’s headed back for a third year fronting a AAA rotation. It will be a critical year for the southpaw, who could end 2026 as a staple of the Major League rotation, or as someone whose spot on the 40-man roster is in peril.
Now let’s add to the list, and we’ve got some new names to vote on!
The list so far
Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.
No. 9 prospect nominees
Jacob Bresnahan — 20.4-year old LHP — 2.61 ERA/3.00 FIP in Low-A (93 IP)
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)
Luis De La Torre — 22.2-year old LHP — 1.77 ERA/2.46 FIP in Low-A (35.2 IP); 3.72 ERA/3.36 FIP in ACL (38.2 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)
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)
Trevor McDonald — 24.8-year old RHP — 1.80 ERA/2.54 FIP in MLB (15 IP); 5.31 ERA/5.53 FIP in AAA (142.1 IP)
Blade Tidwell — 24.5-year old RHP — 9.00 ERA/7.47 FIP in MLB (15 IP); 3.62 ERA/3.63 FIP in AAA (97 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.
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