2022 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List No. 29

The latest chapter of the 2022 Willie McCovey Memorial Community Prospect List featured a player who stole the hearts of San Francisco Giants prospect fans in 2021: utility player Brett Auerbach, who has been voted the No. 28 prospect in the organization, and makes his CPL debut.

Auerbach, a 23-year old who was a free agent signing after going undrafted during the pandemic-truncated 2020 MLB Draft, made fans left and right for a variety of reasons. His somewhat-diminutive frame — he’s listed at 5’9”, which feels generous — and drop-to-a-knee swing gave off some Jose Altuve pre-Houston Astros scandal vibes. His ability to be the ultimate Farhan Zaidi player — he spent time at catcher, second base, third base, and all three outfield positions — was both loads of fun and gave fans reason to dream about his Major League playability.

But most important was his performance. Auerbach made his professional debut at Low-A San Jose, where he slashed .342/.448/.521, good for a wRC+ of 156. That earned him a promotion to High-A Eugene, where his contact struggled a bit more but his power took off — after just two home runs in 145 plate appearances in San Jose, Auerbach popped 15 balls over the fence in 223 plate appearances in Eugene, finishing with a .256/.333/.533 slash line, good for a wRC+ of 126.

He’ll definitely be a fun one to monitor in 2022.

As a reminder, we are now doing voting in the comments, so click the “rec” button on the player you’re voting for. I’ll drop them all in a list in the comments.

The list so far

1. Marco Luciano
2. Joey Bart
3. Luis Matos
4. Heliot Ramos
5. Kyle Harrison
6. Camilo Doval
7. Jairo Pomares
8. Will Bednar
9. Patrick Bailey
10. Hunter Bishop
11. Ryan Reckley
12. Aeverson Arteaga
13. Ryan Murphy
14. Matt Mikulski
15. Diego Rincones
16. R.J. Dabovich
17. Nick Swiney
18. Will Wilson
19. David Villar
20. Ricardo Genovés
21. Sammy Long
22. Randy Rodriguez
23. Manuel Mercedes
24. Casey Schmitt
25. Ismael Munguia
26. Kervin Castro
27. Adrian Sugastey
28. Brett Auerbach

Note: Clicking on the above names will link to the CPL where they were voted onto the list.

On to No. 29!

No. 29 prospect nominees

Seth Corry — 23.3 years, 5.25 FIP in High-A (67.2 innings)
Sean Hjelle — 24.9 years, 5.77 FIP in AAA (53.1 innings), 4.00 FIP in AA (65.2 innings)
Carson Ragsdale — 23.8 years, 4.12 FIP in Low-A (113.2 innings)
Gregory Santos — 22.5 years, 22.67 FIP in MLB (2 innings), 5.15 FIP in AAA (15.2 innings)
Chris Wright — 23.4 years, 2.87 FIP in High-A (37 innings), 1.11 FIP in Low-A (8 innings)

Note: Each player’s first name links to their Baseball-Reference page, and their last name links to their Fangraphs page.