The San Francisco Giants and Texas Rangers played their Spring Breakout game Saturday night, and despite the 5-5 score, the story of the game was the pitching. If you like velocity, this was the matchup for you. If you don’t like velocity, well, I’m sorry to report that velocity is king right now. We are all mere slaves to it. We are chained to the mirror and the radar gun.
The Giants started lefty Carson Whisenhunt, who was 91-94, and that was the lowest velocity any pitcher showed on either side. He still has a plus changeup that hitters do not pick up — he could signal them before each pitch, and I’m still not sure they’d hit it — and his breaking ball was a little better than it’s been in my other looks at him. He walked two in three innings, which is about on par with my previous times seeing him pitch, and there’s still some cross-body action to the delivery that I think is part of the problem with his control. It’s a starter arsenal with command that will probably always have him pitching below where you think he should be.
Texas started right-hander Winston Santos, who understood the assignment: He threw three perfect innings, punching out six and allowing just one hard-hit ball. These games can get out of hand quickly — and this one did — so any pitcher who wants to throw strikes in a Breakout game is my new best friend. Santos was 95-98, and hitters were whiffing on it, and he showed feel for his changeup and moved it around the zone well. The slider was hard at 85-88, and he tried to backdoor it to several left-handed hitters with mixed results; it’s effective because there’s some power to it, but it’s probably not quite an average pitch. The fastball/changeup combo was more than enough to rip through a good lineup once, though. After Winston was done, I needed a cigarette.
The second-“worst” fastball of the day belonged to Giants lefty Joe Whitman, who was only 92-94 with his four-seamer and threw some two-seamers at 88-90, along with an above-average slider. He’s very online to the plate, starting on the third-base side of the rubber, and tried to go right after hitters, but the defense behind and in front of him was sloppy and he gave up three runs in two innings. His command was spotty, but he deserved a better fate than the defense gave him.
Texas right-hander Josh Stephan was my prospect sleeper for the Rangers going into 2024, but a UCL sprain cost him a big chunk of the season and he didn’t pitch well when he was able. He was 92-95 — technically 95.5, so you could say 96 if you believe in rounding up and other such wizardry — with a slider at 85-89 and a changeup at 88-89 that had some real boring action (the good kind), all of which is as hard as he’s ever thrown. There’s some effort there, and it was more control than command, but it’s three pitches and enough strikes to hope he can be a starter if he’s healthy.
Everyone else who pitched threw hard or harder; the Giants’ Gerelmi Maldonado, who missed 2024 due to injury, was 99-101 with a fringy slider, and righty Liam Simon, who walked 19 men in 10 innings last year while rehabbing, was 97-99 with a fringy slider. Texas right-hander Caden Scarborough was fair, working 95-97 with — wait for it — a fringy slider and below-average command.
The #SFGiants Prospects having fun signing autographs before the Spring Breakout game!#SpringTraininghttps://t.co/Pf5tKeEynh
— Giant Futures (@sfgiantfutures) March 15, 2025
On to the hitters. The Giants’ first-round pick from 2024, James Tibbs III, had a couple of hard-hit balls, including a single he smoked to center off a 95 mph fastball and the only hard-hit ball against Santos for a groundout to shortstop. He also ran way better than I expected, no worse than average when his reputation out of college was that he was below-average at best. Tibbs had a miserable pro debut last year, so I’m especially keen to see him hit good pitching this spring.
Texas had its top prospect and the No. 3 overall prospect, shortstop Sebastian Walcott, who was 2-for-4 with two softly hit singles, one of which was almost certainly misplayed by the centerfielder. He also made a great play at shortstop on a bullet hit just to his right, turning to snag it and throw a strike to first for an out.
Rangers catcher Matt Moore, their first-round pick last year, reached base twice, drawing a walk off Whisenhunt and hitting a double off another left-hander’s slider — and Moore’s a left-handed hitter, so he was on the wrong end of the platoon stick in every at-bat. He struck out against Whisenhunt the second time he faced him, entirely on breaking balls.
Giants infielder Diego Velazquez had a pair of singles and didn’t have any trouble catching up with big velocity, with one single off a 99 mph fastball. He’s not very strong or physical, though, and I don’t know that it’s going to be a lot of impact with the bat. In a similar vein, Jhonny Level, who DH’d for the Giants and went 0-for-2, is listed at 5 feet 10, 154 pounds, but there is no way that guy is 4 inches taller than I am, and he’s going to have to show he can turn on good velocity; he was badly fooled on a backfoot slider from a righty and then lined out to shortstop on a 92 mph fastball.
Before that game, I went to the Colorado Rockies’ back fields and saw a few of their A-ball players. Robert Calaz was No. 6 on my Rockies ranking, and I called him an average or slightly above-average runner, but that was wrong. He’s a below-average runner with a bad gait, and that is a mature body for 19. He wraps the bat slightly, and it’s a long path to the ball for him. There’s power there, though, and he might hit for a high average in Low A this year.
Shortstop Andy Perez spent most of 2024 with the Rockies’ Low-A affiliate, and he was the standout in their A-ball game last Sunday, running above average, playing strong defense at short and showing some projection to the body. The Cuban infielder turns 21 in June and should start in High A, and if he can get on base a little more, he could be a regular. He doesn’t punch out (13.5 percent last year in Low A) or walk (5.0 percent); he finished 2024 with 66 plate appearances in High A and didn’t draw a single unintentional walk.
Here’s a deep cut for Los Angeles Angels fans: Ubaldo Soto is an 18-year-old right-hander who hasn’t pitched outside the Dominican summer league yet. He was 91-95 with a very good delivery, spinning a decent slider at 78-79. He had a 1.44 ERA in two years in the Dominican in 100 innings. I’m not even calling him a prospect yet, but he’s interesting.
(Photo of Carson Whisenhunt: Norm Hall / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
