Way Too Early Roster Previews 2024: San Jose Giants

My annual experiment in time traveling

Photo Credit: SFG Prospect Twitter Account

I love to start the “Way Too Early Roster Preview” series with San Jose, not just because the exercise necessitates building up gradually from the bottom. Rather, San Jose provides such a gentle entrance to the series. For the most part, the Giants have adopted an approach to their Player Development system that essentially provides fans in San Jose with a sneak preview of next year’s model at the end of every season. As the weeks or days tick down, a giant group (literally!) will move en masse from the Arizona complex up to San Jose, and that group will form more or less the core of the following year’s team.

All that’s left is to successfully tab the players who will be asked to repeat the level, and then build a little around the edges of the roster. There’s a reason why I’ve been much more successful at the San Jose previews than higher levels! Last year, for instance, I managed to include 19 of the 29 players named to San Jose’s opening day roster in my preview — a success rate I’ll surely take!

2023 Way Too Early Roster Previews: San Jose Giants

Even better, of the players I missed on, the majority were injury related omissions. I had, for instance, Spencer Miles, Mikell Manzano, Sam Bower, and Roberto Monegro on the pitching staff, P.J. Hilson in the outfield, and Justin Bench on the….well…bench. All of those players opened the year on the IL, and some remained there for the duration (indeed, we’re still awaiting Bower’s pro debut more than a year and a half after he signed). Of the players I tabbed a year ago as heading to San Jose, only two ended up on a different OD roster — the shooting star Wade Meckler and LHP Joe Kemlage both were assigned to Eugene instead (Kemlage would be released two months later).

In other words….it’s not gonna get better from here, folks, so let’s hope that I nail a few of these today!