2022 Willie McCovey Community Prospect List — Runoff!

It would seem that fans feel very similarly about the San Francisco Giants first-round pick in 2020 as they do about the team’s first-round pick in 2021. In the eighth iteration of the 2022 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List, fans were tasked with choosing between four different players for the coveted position of No. 8 prospect in the system.

467 votes were tallied, and when the dust settled, there were exactly 169 each for Patrick Bailey and Will Bednar.

And so we have a runoff.

In one corner it’s Bailey, a switch-hitting catcher taken with the No. 13 pick in 2020. Bailey struggled in High-A in his inaugural season, hitting .185/.290/.296 (63 wRC+) in 155 plate appearances before suffering an injury. When he got healthy he moved to Low-A (likely more due to where other catchers were placed than because of performance), and he excelled there, slashing .322/.415/.531 (148 wRC+) in 207 plate appearances. Awesome numbers, but at 22 years, 7 months, the Giants will certainly be hoping for Bailey to prove it at higher levels in 2022.

In the other corner it’s Bednar, a right-handed starting pitcher whom the Giants selected with the No. 14 pick in 2021. Bednar burst on the scene with a brilliant College World Series last year but was slow-played by the Giants, likely due to the heavy workload he had accrued while at Mississippi State. He only pitched 7 innings in his debut professional season: 2 no-hit innings in the Arizona Complex League (with 3 strikeouts and 1 walk), and 5 innings in Low-A, where he allowed 6 hits, 0 walks, and 1 earned run, while striking out 3. He is 21 years and 6 months old.

So who will it be, folks?