How a bad break turned out to be the best break for Giants' prospect Cohen

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Giants outfield prospect Trevor Cohen was planning to play in the Cape Cod League following his sophomore season at Rutgers in 2024, but he was forced to scrap those plans following an unlucky break -- literally.

Cohen, 22, broke his ankle on a slide into second base toward the end of the year, which prevented him from heading to the collegiate summer wood bat league to showcase his talents ahead of the 2025 MLB Draft.

Cohen, though, took the setback in stride. He decided to stay at Rutgers for the summer and simply focus on improving his strength and conditioning heading into his junior season.

“That was a big thing for me,” said Cohen, who batted leadoff and started in right field in the Giants’ 10-1 Spring Breakout loss to the Reds at Scottsdale Stadium on Thursday. “I kind of sat down with our Rutgers coach, and he was like, ‘Look, just get stronger this offseason. The bat’s going to be there. We'll pick it up in August, but that's going to be your point of emphasis.’

“I did that, and that's helped so much with the extra-base hits, the way I hit the ball hard, and my exit velos and all that stuff.”

The left-handed-hitting Cohen always had good contact skills, but bulking up allowed him to take his game to another level in 2025, when he batted .387 with 24 doubles, one triple, two home runs and 19 steals over 57 games for Rutgers. He set a Big Ten record for most conference hits (56), struck out only 5.5% of the time and tied Rutgers’ single-season record for doubles after tripling the amount he hit the year prior.

“That might have been one of the best things that happened to him,” Rutgers head coach Steve Owens said of Cohen’s ankle injury. “He was able to commit the entire summer to strength and conditioning, and he got much stronger, much bigger. His junior year, he kind of went on a tear right from the beginning to the end. He was the best player on the field, one of the top players in the whole region and in the Big Ten.”

The Giants certainly took notice. Cohen wasn’t ranked among MLB Pipeline’s Top 250 Draft prospects last year, but he heard his name called in the third round after San Francisco selected him with the 85th overall pick.

“You dream about that moment,” Cohen said. “It was probably the best moment of my life, honestly.”

Cohen, the Giants’ No. 9 prospect per MLB Pipeline, didn’t expect to be taken as high as he was, but Owens said he wasn’t surprised.

“I think people finally paid attention to how well rounded the kid’s game was, and then what good character he had and how hard he plays,” Owens said. “Not only that, but just the projectability and the potential to keep going forward. Every time the kid gets challenged athletically, he steps up. … He's a competitor, and I think he stays the course. Some people are flashy, and I think Trevor's not flashy. He’s just really, really consistent at what he does every day.”

Area scout Carmen Carcone, who covers New York, New Jersey and New England for the Giants, said Cohen landed on his radar after he went 5-for-5 with two doubles in Rutgers’ 2025 season opener at Kennesaw State.

“He's a high-contact guy with speed and developing power,” Carcone said. “I knew his makeup from being around him all year and from the Coach Owens contact. Right off the bat, he was a target guy for us.”

Cohen is known as more of a line-drive hitter and slugged only four home runs over his three seasons at Rutgers, but the Giants believe he has the potential to elevate the ball more, especially after recording the fifth-highest average exit velocity (101.1 mph) on Day 2 of last year’s MLB Draft Combine.

“That was kind of another knock on him, that he didn't hit a lot of home runs,” Carcone said. “But he hit a ton of doubles, which I like. I think guys can mature into more power if they make enough contact. He's got raw power in there. I saw him at UConn hit some balls way up over the center-field fence, so I saw the raw power was in there. He just doesn't know how to get to it yet and get a little more loft in his swing. I think the raw juice is in there, so I project him to hit some more home runs as he matures.”

Cohen made his professional debut with Single-A San Jose last year and batted .438 during the playoffs to help the club win the California League championship. He plans to maintain that same hitting identity as he continues to ascend through the Giants’ system in 2026.

“I don't really like to change a ton,” Cohen said. “The offseason was just, for me, about sharpening my skills. At some point, I'll get stronger and I'll get bigger and I'll be able to put the balls out of the park more. But right now, it's just being the best version of myself.”