Here's the Giants' Spring Breakout roster
Maria Guardado
@mi_guardadoSCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Giants have been easing their stable of young pitching prospects into Cactus League action this year, but several of those promising hurlers figure to take center stage during MLB’s inaugural Spring Breakout weekend.
Created to showcase baseball’s future stars from each Major League organization, the new Spring Training initiative will pit a team of top prospects from one club against a team of top prospects from another in a series of 16 exhibition games from March 14-17.
The Giants’ prospect team will take on A’s prospects at 4:05 p.m. PT on March 15 at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Ariz., with the two big league squads facing off beforehand as part of an in-stadium doubleheader.
Hayden Birdsong (No. 7), Joe Whitman (No. 11), Trevor McDonald (No. 14) and Carson Seymour (No. 19) will headline the crop of arms on San Francisco’s roster, highlighting the groundswell of pitching that’s coming up through the Giants organization.
“We’re deep,” Birdsong said. “People should be scared, let’s put it that way. It should be fun. There’s a lot of dudes in here.”
Birdsong, 22, is in the midst of his first big league camp with the Giants, but he’s found himself in familiar company, as he’s part of a cluster of young pitching prospects who are now occupying a row of lockers in the Scottsdale Stadium clubhouse.
Birdsong and one of his locker neighbors, Carson Whisenhunt, were part of the Giants’ pitcher-heavy Draft class in 2022, and each reached Double-A Richmond last year. Birdsong, a sixth-round pick out of Eastern Illinois, said he found it beneficial to begin his pro career alongside a big group of pitchers because they’ve all been able to lean on each other from the start.
“I would say it’s helped a lot, especially because I’ve grown close to my Draft class,” Birdsong said. “We were in Arizona for a month, and it was just us. It was us and some of the younger Latin kids. We got really close and learned about each other and learned each other’s pitches and all that stuff. We’ve all moved pretty similarly together. Everybody was in [Single-A] San Jose at the same time. We played really well. We all got really close.”
Birdsong recorded a 3.31 ERA over 28 appearances (25 starts) between Single-A San Jose, High-A Eugene and Double-A Richmond in 2023, so his goal is to break into the Giants’ starting rotation at some point this year. He fired a scoreless inning in his Cactus League debut against the Cubs, though he stumbled a bit in his next outing against the Rangers, yielding two runs on four hits over 1 2/3 innings.
Birdsong’s mid-90s fastball and sharp breaking ball are already considered plus pitches, but he said he's still working on developing a good feel for his changeup this spring.
“I’m trying to figure out my changeup, try to get that thing in the zone as much as I can,” Birdsong said. “It’s not going to be my [No. 1] or [No. 2] pitch in my repertoire, but I want it to where I can throw it at least 10 to 15 percent of the time and be in the zone and basically use it. Last year, I never used it, so this year I want it to be where I can use it all the time and keep people off balance.”
What is Spring Breakout? MLB Spring Breakout is a four-day event showcasing baseball’s future: the current stars of Minor League Baseball. The inaugural edition will be held from March 14-17 at Grapefruit and Cactus league stadiums during Spring Training. A series of 16 exhibition games will be played between teams comprised of each MLB organization’s top prospects, creating a new touchpoint on the baseball calendar that celebrates our sport’s budding talent.
Here's the Giants' Spring Breakout roster with MLB Pipeline's rankings: