There R Giants #30: Adrian Sugastey

Photo Credit: Adrian Sugastey’s Instagram Feed

We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the winter months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to the much-needed spring. Our list of previously covered players is getting a little long, so from here on out I’m moving the links for the full list down the bottom of the post.

Just a few days from now, we’ll be getting some brand new Giants’ prospects coming into the organization, as the newest class of international signees will officially ink their contracts on Jan. 15. I’ll have more to say about the newest Giants next week (expect a big signing!), but the date gives us a good opportunity to pause and take a moment to appreciate the turnaround that has taken place in the Giants’ international scouting and development program the last few years. After the signing of young Pablo Sandoval way back in May of 2003, the talent coming in from the international group really dried up for most of the next decade. It wasn’t completely destitute — there were pitchers used in some minor trades like Adalberto Mejia and Keury Mella, and Hector Sanchez provided several years of backup catching — but, overall, the international pipeline just wasn’t pulling hard enough on its end of the rope through the 00s and early 10s to help keep fresh talent pushing upwards through the system.

Over the last half decade under the leadership of International Scouting Director Joe Salermo, that trend has swung heavily in the opposite direction. Even under a bonus restriction penalty (no signing greater than $300,000), the 2015 class has produced five players in this year’s Top 50, including two guys who have already made the Giants: relievers Camilo Doval and Kervin Castro. The 2017 class equally saw some lower dollar signings turn into valuable players, like recent 40-man addition Randy Rodriguez, and the 2018 class was a bonanza of elite talent, led by Marco Luciano and Luis Matos.

Last summer, we also got to see the pro debuts of the 2019 and 2020 classes, and while lacking the Luciano-level star power, these look to be deep, rich groups of talent that should become well known to prospect followers in the next couple of years. We’ve met a few members of the 2019 class already in this list, and today we come to the player who might well be the best hitter of that class, the young Panamanian catcher, Adrian Sugastey. Let’s get to know him now, so you can impress all your “johnny come lately” friends who start to love him next year when he’s blowing up big time!