MILWAUKEE -- Giants general manager Zack Minasian cut his teeth in scouting and player development right here in Milwaukee under Doug Melvin, and learned long ago the unsettling feeling when you trade a prospect. But to get something, you have to give something, as they say, and the Giants had to give up left-hander Kyle Harrison in the package it took to land Rafael Devers from the Red Sox last June.
A year later, look what Harrison has become. After going 9-9 with a 4.39 ERA over parts of three seasons with the Giants and Red Sox, bouncing between starter and reliever, he’s 7-1 with a 1.57 ERA through his first 11 starts with the Brewers, including the 5 2/3 innings he delivered Tuesday against the team that drafted him and brought him to the big leagues in an 8-3 Milwaukee win over San Francisco at American Family Field.
Jake Bauers hit a three-run homer with two outs in the first inning off San Francisco starter Trevor McDonald, and Harrison and three Brewers relievers never relinquished that lead. Harrison reached double-digit strikeouts by the fourth inning and matched his career high with 12 strikeouts by the sixth, when Willy Adames’ solo homer finally snapped Harrison’s scoreless streak at 23 innings, and the Giants knocked him out of the game.
“He's been great, huge credit to him,” said Minasian, who climbed the ladder from Brewers intern to pro scouting director over 14 years in Milwaukee before moving to the Giants’ front office in 2019. “A lot of people in player development worked really hard -- [senior director of amateur scouting] Michael Holmes and his group -- at identifying Kyle as the talent that he is. It's nice for him to see these things come to fruition for him. Sometimes with certain guys, it's just a matter of time.”
The Giants had their reasons. It’s not often that a bona fide star becomes available in a trade, and the Red Sox had one in Devers. The Giants were relatively well-stocked in young pitching back then, with Hayden Birdsong, Landen Roupp and Carson Whisenhunt expected to develop into long-term options for the rotation. Giving up Harrison -- who grew up in Danville, Calif., and starred at De La Salle High School before being taken in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft -- wasn’t easy, but the Giants felt it was the price of doing business at the time.
Still, watching Harrison blossom elsewhere has to sting for the Giants, especially considering their grim 23-38 record this year. Devers has turned it around following a slow start to the season, but he’s owed more than $220 million over the remainder of his contract, which runs through 2033, and has made it more challenging for the Giants to find regular playing time at first base for top prospect Bryce Eldridge.
San Francisco’s rotation, meanwhile, ranks 29th in the Majors with a 4.93 ERA. Roupp has established himself as a big league contributor, but Birdsong underwent season-ending Tommy John surgery in March and Whisenhunt has yet to receive a callup from Triple-A Sacramento this year.
And to be fair, the Giants are not the only team that would love to have this version of Harrison. After absorbing both on-field and public-relations hits from trading Devers, the Red Sox aren’t exactly celebrating the return from the six-player trade that sent Harrison, infielder David Hamilton and left-hander Shane Drohan to Milwaukee. All three are on the Brewers’ active roster right now.
“I think some of the things that we've seen [from Harrison] is I know he's moved his position on the rubber and his [arm] angle is a little higher,” Minasian said. “I think the fastball has always been pretty dominant, and those two things in particular [have made it play up].
“And then I think the other part, too -- and this happens to young pitchers in the Major Leagues -- it's not the easiest place to just step in and get outs right away. Sometimes it takes time for their confidence to grow.”
It was while Harrison was pitching with the Giants that he caught Brewers manager Pat Murphy’s eye. Harrison had seven strikeouts and was one out away from a fifth scoreless inning on Aug. 28, 2024, in Milwaukee when the Brewers came alive with a five-run rally and knocked him from the game in the process.
Despite how that outing ended, Murphy liked what he saw in the left-hander. And he was surprised to hear the Red Sox were willing to part with him so quickly.
“At first I thought to myself, ‘Why has the guy been traded twice?’” Murphy said. “That’s your first thought. When a young player has been traded twice, there’s something. Obviously, he was establishing offspeed consistently. And if you’ve been traded twice, confidence might be an issue.
“I think he’s cleared up both. It’s a long journey, and he’s just starting out. There’s one out in the inning, so to speak, and we’ve got two more outs. Let’s use them wisely. The kid’s been great.”