Trevor McDonald is primed and ready to go

Also Minor League Camp Notes from Papago Park

Photo Credit: Bob Smith | Biloxi Sun Herald

Trevor McDonald has one word for summers in Arizona: “Hot!” In spring, the desert climate is livable, but as May starts to turn towards June, and the temperatures spiral up into the 110s “it can get pretty brutal down here.” That’s especially true when nearly three years have passed since you were originally drafted and long since hoped to be playing baseball somewhere else. “I plan on being out of Arizona [this year]” McDonald told me when I spoke with him this week, “that’s my big goal.”

As is so often the case with young pitchers, the Giants were particularly careful at easing McDonald into pro ball. After drafting him in the 11th round out of George County High School in Lucedale, Mississippi, the Giants development staff had McDonald throw just four innings in his pro debut. The plan was, no doubt, to have him ready to pitch his way up to Low A the following spring. But plans and 2020 didn’t go so well together.