The past few years have been an era of transition for the Giants. Gone are the likes of Brandon Belt and Buster Posey and in are talents like Ryan Walker, Heliot Ramos, and Logan Webb. All of those names, it should be noted, were drafted by San Francisco. Here’s a look at the Giants’ best and worst MLB Draft picks of the last decade.
Best Giants Draft Picks Over Last 10 Seasons
| Name | Position | Year Drafted | Round | Career bWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Logan Webb | P | 2014 | 4 | 17.8 |
| Austin Slater | OF | 2014 | 8 | 4.5 |
| Steven Duggar | OF | 2015 | 6 | 2.1 |
| Bryan Reynolds | OF | 2016 | 2 | 19.6 |
| Heliot Ramos | OF | 2017 | 1 | 1.5 |
| Joey Bart | C | 2018 | 1 | 2.9 |
| Ryan Walker | P | 2018 | 31 | 3.7 |
| Tyler Fitzgerald | SS | 2019 | 4 | 2.9 |
| Patrick Bailey | C | 2020 | 1 | 2.6 |
Much like the Padres, arguably the best Giants draft pick over the last decade never played a game with the team that drafted him in the Majors.
Outfielder Bryan Reynolds was a talented hitter with good all-around tools. Reynolds hit .330/.461/.603 with 13 home runs and 32 extra-base hits in his junior season and fell to the Giants in the second round.
However, the Giants traded him a little over a year later for Andrew McCutchen, benefitting the Pirates. Reynolds recorded four 20+ home run seasons from 2021-24 and became a two-time All-Star.
The Giants have received serious contributions from Logan Webb, the 2023 NL Cy Young Award runner-up.
Webb was a 2014 fourth-round pick out of high school in Rocklin, California. He got knocked around in 2015-16 in the Minors but rebounded in 2018 when he posted a 2.41 ERA across two levels. From there, Webb served an 80-game PED suspension in 2019, then was hit hard in his first two MLB seasons, owning ERAs north of 5.00 in 2019 and 2020.
His career turned around after he began to lean heavily on his sinker. Webb became one of the game’s premier innings-eaters. He threw at least 190 innings in every year between 2022-24.
Aside from Webb, other Giants currently on the roster who were drafted by San Francisco were defensive wizard Patrick Bailey, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Ryan Walker.
Walker, a 31st-round pick in 2018, stymied hitters with his low arm slot and devastating sinker/slider combo. The Giants reliever struck out 99 over 80 frames in 2024 and moved into the closer’s role.
Fitzgerald, meanwhile, posted a .831 OPS and hit 15 home runs for the Giants in 2024 in a breakout season.
Two names who wouldn’t have been on this list, though, before 2024 were Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos.
Bart appeared to be a bust before the 2024 season. The former Georgia Tech standout hit .219/.288/.335 (.623 OPS) from 2020-23 before the Giants DFA’d him. Pittsburgh picked Bart up and he thrived there, as he hit 13 home runs and a .799 OPS over 80 games.
Ramos, meanwhile, hit 22 home runs and was a NL All-Star for the Giants in 2024. The breakout campaign was unexpected for Ramos, who struggled in Triple-A two years earlier and hit .158/.220/.250 over his first 34 MLB games.
Worst Giants Draft Picks Over Last 10 Seasons
| Name | Position | Year Drafted | Round | Career bWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler Beede | P | 2014 | 1 | -1.2 |
| Aramis Garcia | C | 2014 | 2 | -1.4 |
| Chris Shaw | 1B/OF | 2015 | 1 | -0.9 |
| Jalen Miller | INF | 2015 | 3 | Never played in MLB |
| Jacob Gonzalez | INF | 2017 | 2 | Never played in MLB |
| Seth Corry | P | 2017 | 3 | Never played in MLB |
| Hunter Bishop | OF | 2019 | 1 | Never played in MLB |
| Logan Wyatt | 1B | 2019 | 2 | Never played in MLB |
The Giants drafted Tyler Beede with their top pick in 2014, three years after he didn’t sign as a first-round pick out of high school. Beede showed promise in 2019, as he struck out 113 over 117 innings despite giving up 22 home runs in a season infamous for gaudy home run totals.
Things derailed for Beede after that year. He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2020 and attempted to become a different pitcher afterwards, leaning heavily on a splitter/changeup. Beede struggled in a relief role with the Guardians before Cleveland DFA’d him in May 2024.
Chris Shaw was a slugging prospect drafted out of Boston College in 2015. However, he struggled with swing-and-miss in the upper Minors, as he struck out 30.9% in Triple-A. Shaw received just 82 Major League plate appearances.
Arguably the biggest whiff over the last decade was Hunter Bishop. Bishop was poised to be a centerpiece of Farhan Zaidi’s rebuild. The former ASU star blasted 22 home runs as a junior with the Sun Devils and San Francisco picked him 10th overall in 2019.
Bishop never showed that kind of power again and like Shaw, has dealt with significant strikeout problems. He struck out 146 times over 518 plate appearances between Double and Triple-A in 2024.
There are other names, like Phil Bickford (1st, 2015) and Andrew Suarez (2nd, 2015), who could have made this list. However, neither did, as both did develop into Major League contributors, even though neither lived up to expectations.
Andrew Suarez had a decent rookie season in 2018, as he logged 160.1 IP and posted a 4.30 FIP. He never re-produced those numbers but he accomplished more than a healthy chunk of second-rounders. Bickford, meanwhile, spent the last five seasons as a Major League reliever.
Draft picks who did not sign are included in these lists. bWAR figures as of October 2024. Check out how other NL West teams, including the Dodgers and Rockies, have done recently in the MLB Draft.