Giants added premium talent early in MLB Draft, despite losing 2 picks

The San Francisco Giants scouting department had a tortuously long wait between the moment it took James Tibbs with its first pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and when the opportunity came to call another name in Round 4.

The draft took several twists and turns from pick 13 to pick 116, but when the dust settled, the Giants wound up with a player — Mississippi State outfielder Dakota Jordan — they would have been happy to take 70 picks earlier. And so it was that the Giants came away with at least two first-round caliber talents in a draft in which they had only eight picks in the first 10 rounds.

“We were really excited with the opportunity to take Dakota in the fourth round and try to make the most of where we were at, not having a second- or third-round pick,” Giants scouting director Michael Holmes said. (The Giants forfeited their picks in the second and third rounds when they signed free agents Blake Snell and Matt Chapman during the offseason.)

Jordan played both baseball and football at Mississippi State and has the raw tools one would expect from a multi-sport athlete. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Jordan as the No. 49 prospect in the draft class, but the 6-foot, 220-pound right-handed hitter dropped into the fourth round in large part because of questions about his hitting.

Wrote Law: “He’s a big upside play for an organization that thinks they can work to improve both his swing and his pitch recognition … but that’s a lot to ask.”

𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐎𝐅𝐓𝐒!!! That ball has to pay rent!

📺 » https://t.co/KBVH7ZcvZf#HailState🐶 | @Kota_1k pic.twitter.com/RTZ4asCciz

— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) March 31, 2023

Despite slipping into the fourth round, Jordan will likely sign for a Day 1 bonus, with the Giants saving money going under-slot at different parts of the draft. Holmes said the organization has a long history of scouting Jordan and believes his tools will translate into success at the professional level.

“He’s a guy that’s extremely talented, has five tools — can really run, throw, hit and hit for power and his athleticism alone, his physicality kind of sets him apart,” Holmes said. “We’re real excited about the upside he has moving forward.”

The Giants stayed in the outfield with their fifth-round pick, taking University of San Diego’s Jakob Christian. The 6-5, 220-pound right-handed hitter has big power. He hit 41 home runs in two junior college seasons at Point Loma Nazarene before hitting 26 homers in his one season at USD. Christian is limited to a corner and may eventually be a first baseman, though Holmes said Christian is deceptively athletic.

“I think he gets underestimated for how athletic he is just because of how big he is, but he’s a really good mover, really twitchy player,” he said.

The Giants’ sixth-round pick Robert Hipwell got to realize a lifelong dream when his name was called by his favorite team. The Santa Clara University third baseman is coming off a trying season that began with him serving a suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. Holmes said he and the scouting staff got a chance to get to know Hipwell at the MLB Draft Combine and came away impressed with him as a person.

“It’s important for us to draft talent, but we also want to put the right people in our organization, and we feel like Robert’s that type of person and player,” Holmes said.

The Scotts Valley, Calif., native is another well-built athlete with power potential. Hipwell was one of the most selective hitters in Division I the last two seasons, in terms of chase rate. He finished his collegiate career with 64 walks and 72 strikeouts in 76 games for the Broncos.

It was notable that after going heavy on pitchers early in the 2021 and 2022 drafts, the Giants focused on position players early for a second straight year, taking four hitters before selecting their first pitcher and finishing with five hitters among their first eight picks.

As a system, the Giants have lacked power in recent years, something that could be remedied with their first four selections, all of whom profile as power hitters. They didn’t set out to target power hitters, Holmes said, but were happy with how the draft unfolded early.

“We think all these guys have damage potential in the middle of the order,” he said of their first four selections.

The Giants finished Day 2 with three college arms and an infielder — University of Illinois-Chicago’s Zane Zielinski — who Holmes described as “a really good baseball player.”

“He’s a very instinctive player that plays with a high motor and can be a leader on the team,” Holmes said.

The Giants selected only one high school player, but he may be the sleeper of the draft class. Andy Polanco, who grew up in the Dominican Republic before enrolling in Central Pointe Christian Academy in Florida, was the team’s 11th-round pick. The 6-4 outfielder has big tools and has room to add strength and physicality to his frame, according to Holmes.

“He shows the ability to drive the baseball to all fields,” Holmes said. “There’s power, just a lot of upside to his potential and what he can become, so we’re really excited about him.”

The Giants added two more intriguing hitters in UC Santa Barbara third baseman Zander Darby (Round 12) and University of Maine first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins (Round 14). The left-handed hitting Darby is from Palo Alto, Calif. He didn’t hit for a lot of power at UCSB, though he’s shown power in batting practice, but he showed good plate discipline, especially last summer in the wood bat Cape Cod League, where he hit .292/.404/.407 in 35 games. He didn’t match those numbers this spring with UCSB but was hampered by injuries, which impacted his draft stock.

“I’m not sure we saw the best version of him this spring, but we really believe in what he can become both offensively and defensively once he gets healthy,” Holmes said.

Jenkins has had no issue getting to his raw power in games at Maine, where he hit 50 homers in 148 games, including 22 this season. The left-handed hitter and thrower is listed at 6-4, 240 — and he may be even bigger than that. His hitting mechanics are unusual, but he’s never had an issue making regular contact. Holmes said he’ll defer to the Giants’ hitting coordinators to determine whether any changes are needed.

“We really liked the way his bat works, the way his hands work and the way he controls the zone,” Holmes said. “He hits the ball really hard.”

The Giants finished Day 3 going heavy on pitching, taking hurlers with their picks in Rounds 15 to 19 before finishing the draft with Georgia catcher Fernando Gonzalez. They expect to sign the entire class, which was evenly divided between pitchers and position players.

“I’m extremely pleased with the outcome here, where we’ve landed, the players we’ve landed on,” Holmes said. “It was a unique situation not having picks in the second and third, but I think we navigated it in a really, really positive manner.”

(Photo of Dakota Jordan: Vasha Hunt / Associated Press)