Rule 5 Decisions: Victor Bericoto

The youngster went ka-boom!

Photo Credit: KA Fullmore | Richmond Flying Squirrels

A low-key fascinating subplot of the Giants’ farm in 2023 is that it was a really good year for Señor Velasquez. The elder Velasquez was the amateur trainer for arguably the two biggest breakout bats of the year, his son Diego, and an older kid from the down the street who at one point lived with the family — Victor Bericoto. Between the two of them, they provided plenty of marketing material for Mr. Velasquez to recruit future trainees down in Venezuela.

When I was working on this series a year ago, one of the players I chose to highlight was Jairo Pomares, who received the second highest signing bonus of the 2018 IFA class. Bericoto, who was a low five-figure signing in the same class, didn’t receive even a slight consideration from me. That was as it should be at the time, but what a difference a year makes! This time around, it’s Bericoto who deserves his own post, while Pomares is consigned to the “and the rest….” folder. Fates change.

Indeed, it’s not too hard to look at this pair and wonder if they exchanged talents in a Freaky Friday exchange somewhere during spring training. Surely if we were making predictions about who would lead the organization in home runs back in March, it would have been Pomares, not Bericoto, whose name would have sprung to mind. But, as it turned out, it was Bericoto, not Pomares, whose bat emerged as a force this year. And in his second winter of being a Rule 5 eligible player, we must now ask if the 21-year-old slugger needs to be added to the roster.