It\u2019s officially Spring Training eve. Fans, reporters, coaches, and most importantly, players have arrived in Scottsdale, Arizona. And after one more sleep, they\u2019ll get to work.<\/p>\n
Last week, the San Francisco Giants announced their list of 19 non-roster invitees<\/a> to Spring Training. As a refresher, NRIs are players who are in the system but not on the 40-man roster \u2026 prospects and Minor League free agents. Although there\u2019s plenty of crossover between the NRIs and the players who aren\u2019t in Major League camp \u2014 they\u2019re all working out at Papago, and the players at the Minor League camp next door are frequently called into action in preseason games \u2014 there is importance in being named an NRI.<\/p>\n Most players who are NRIs are either given a chance to make the Opening Day roster, or are getting some seasoning because the organization is high on their ability to contribute at some point during the year. And that\u2019s important, both for development and for the message that it sends to those players.<\/p>\n The beauty of Spring Training is that it gives players a chance to change their story. If I had written the following article last year, for instance, I would have had Christian Koss quite low \u2026 but we all saw how that played out.<\/p>\n So what follows is a list of all 19 NRIs, ranked in order of their excitement right now. It\u2019s not a ranking of how good the players are, and it\u2019s definitely not a ranking of how likely they are to break camp on the roster. And, critically, it\u2019s fluid \u2026 though don\u2019t come back to this article in a few weeks expecting me to have updated it.<\/p>\n Enough rambling. Here are the 19, from most exciting to least exciting.<\/p>\n The Giants only selected three outfielders for their list of NRIs this year, but that\u2019s three more than last year. And with Marco Luciano and Wade Meckler gone, Luis Matos placing one foot out the door, and Grant McCray lacing up his shoes, Davidson represents the next wave of talent that the Giants are hoping graces the outfield.<\/p>\n Heliot Ramos broke the long-standing homegrown All-Star outfielder curse, and in about six weeks he should break the left field Opening Day curse. Jung Hoo Lee is firmly entrenched in right field. And Harrison Bader was brought in on a multi-year free agency deal to man center. The Giants have the most set outfield in recent memory, and yet \u2026 you can forgive us for dreaming of a little more.<\/p>\n Davidson could be that more. He burst on the scene, remarkably rising from undrafted free agent to a member of the Baseball America top 100 in two years. As a Junior College athlete, Davidson hasn\u2019t faced the advanced level of competition that his peers in AA have, and that\u2019s the cause for both excitement and caution. Arguably the two largest questions facing Davidson are how well he can handle advanced spin and velocity, and if he can stay in center fielder as he rises the ranks.<\/p>\n Spring Training gives us our first chance to get some answers to those questions, and our first opportunity to see how dynamic his athleticism looks when standing across from Major Leaguers, instead of single and double-A ballers.<\/p>\n 2. Parks Harber \u2014 3B\/1B\/OF<\/p>\n One of the fun things about NRIs is that you can get a glimpse into how the organization views certain players. The most shining example? Harber. To illustrate that, let\u2019s look back at the 2025 NRIs, of which there were six position players. Those six, in alphabetical order:<\/p>\n Sergio Alcantara \u2014 Had more than 500 Major League plate appearances That\u2019s roughly what you can expect with most NRIs, especially on the position player front. So it was noteworthy that Davidson, who hasn\u2019t yet played in AAA, was on the list. And it was extremely noteworthy that Harber, who hasn\u2019t yet played in AA, was on the list.<\/p>\n Harber probably belongs in the \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter how well you play, you can\u2019t make the Opening Day roster\u201d bucket, but his inclusion on this list means we can start turning the hands of his clock faster than in a time capsule sequence in a movie.<\/p>\n He was an afterthought by the industry when he was included in the Camilo Doval trade this summer, yet it quickly became clear he could hit the snot out of the ball. His data at the Arizona Fall League emphasized that, and now it\u2019s clear the Giants view him highly. They want to see how his swing fares against more advanced pitchers. They want to see him get comfortable in the outfield after primarily being an infielder. Like Davidson, they want to get a glimpse into whether or not Harber might be able to help the team as early as later this year.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been following the news this weekend, and I don\u2019t blame you if you haven\u2019t been, then some atrocious excuses for \u201ccountry music\u201d have probably come across your airwaves. I\u2019d like to cleanse your palate, with a line from an honest-to-goodness, authentic, extremely worth listening to country artist, Tyler Childers:<\/p>\n Well I used to ride a Mustang That, I\u2019d say, adequately sums up the Giants relationship with their bullpen. At the deadline they traded respected veterans Camilo Doval and Tyler Rogers. New closer Randy Rodr\u00edguez then suffered an elbow injury that will cost him the 2026 season.<\/p>\n Then the offseason came, and the media masses who always think the Giants will spend money even though they won\u2019t linked the team to Edwin D\u00edaz and Devin Williams even though that obviously was never going to happen. And we all thought they\u2019d reunite with Rogers, but they didn\u2019t even sniff in that direction.<\/p>\n Instead, they signed Sam Hentges for $1.4 million, signed Jason Foley to rehab an injury and hopefully debut late in the summer, and added a bunch of Minor Leaguers. And I\u2019m not even sure that I disagree with the approach.<\/p>\n But in order for it to work, some players are going to need to pop, and S\u00e1nchez is a prime candidate. The southpaw, who signed with the Giants a whopping nine years ago but only just turned 25, was an NRI two years ago and nearly broke camp with the team. He was narrowly beat out by Erik Miller \u2014 possibly only because Miller was already rostered \u2014 and then his elbow gave out and he not only didn\u2019t debut, but missed all of 2025, too.<\/p>\n Now he\u2019s back, and healthy. He pitched in the Arizona Fall League and, if he can repeat his Scottsdale performance from 2024, could not only make the team, but become a critical part of a (hopefully) successful bullpen.<\/p>\n Hey, here\u2019s another youngish arm that the organization was once quite high on who could ultimately prove to be a big part of the bullpen. Bednar spent a few years failing to live up to his first-round draft status, but in 2025 reinvented himself as a high-electricity reliever, and cranked up his velocity to where it flirted with 100. With Doval in the Bronx and Rodr\u00edguez injured, the Giants don\u2019t have a lot of those players, which gives Bednar a good path to the Majors.<\/p>\n Really, the excitement in seeing Bednar is the same excitement we\u2019ll have when he presumably opens the year in AAA: seeing how his stuff plays against more advanced hitters. He has command issues (though they got better in the second half last year), but in 2025 struck out 84 AA batters in just 50.2 innings. Will that play against better hitters? I, for one, am very excited to see.<\/p>\n 5. Gregory Santos \u2014 RHP<\/p>\n I expect that Bader will be the signing this year who (positively) impacts the win total the most, but Santos is my favorite move the Giants made this winter. Once a top-10 prospect in the system, Santos was DFA\u2019d by the Giants three years ago due to a roster crunch. That decision immediately looked awful: in his first year with his new team, the Chicago White Sox, Santos became one of the best relievers in baseball, with a 3.39 ERA, a 2.65 FIP, and a 1.5 fWAR mark that ranked 15th among all bullpen arms.<\/p>\n But he\u2019s struggled with injuries since then, and has pitched just 14.1 innings over the last two years, and just 28.2 if you include Minor League assignments.<\/p>\n When right, Santos has a truly special mix of fire and control: in 2023, he was 98th percentile in fastball velocity, and 85th percentile in walk rate. If he\u2019s healthy this spring, he just might look like that player again (he\u2019s only 26, after all). And if he looks like that player again, he just might be one of the best offseason signings in all of baseball.<\/p>\n 6. Victor Bericoto \u2014 OF\/1B<\/p>\n Developmental paths \u2014 and the logistics forced by 40-man roster decisions \u2014 are funny. Bericoto was part of the same international signing class as Luciano and Matos. And while Matos is still clinging to a spot on the roster, if I had to guess which of those three will play the biggest role for the Giants this year, it would be Bericoto.<\/p>\n As with Davidson and Harber, Bericoto\u2019s inclusion is likely a sign of how the Giants feel about him, especially since he only played 11 games in AAA last year (before suffering an injury, and then heading back to AA). In many ways, Bericoto mirrors what the Giants hope Jerar Encarnaci\u00f3n brings to the table, except instead of being a Major Leaguer who is out of options, Bericoto, who just turned 24, is still in the Minors. He\u2019s a powerful right-handed bat who plays a quality corner outfield and can also man first base. What\u2019s not to like?<\/p>\n It seemed over the summer that his time with the organization was running out, but now he feels like a player who could quickly become part of the outfield plans. We haven\u2019t gotten to see him face advanced pitchers yet, and now we\u2019ll get to see just how close he is.<\/p>\n 7. Michael Fulmer \u2014 RHP<\/p>\n There are always position player NRIs who don\u2019t really have a shot at making the roster. But thanks to the volatile nature of pitchers, the sheer number of spots available in the bullpen, and the inevitability of injuries, that\u2019s not really the case with pitchers. They can all make the Opening Day roster. Especially the ones that Buster Posey has faced before.<\/p>\n On the surface, Fulmer is extremely un-exciting. He\u2019s a 32-year old veteran trying to find his way back to the Majors. We see tons of those every year, and they rarely work out. But pull back the curtain a little bit, and it\u2019s a different story. Fulmer was mediocre in 2023, lost all of 2024 due to injury, and spent almost all of his 2025 in the Minors trying to rebuild his value. But he was very good in 2022 and he was excellent in 2021 and really, those years aren\u2019t far away when you account for the lost year and the rehab year. He\u2019s the perfect candidate to give to a coaching staff and see what happens. There could be something special there.<\/p>\n Davidson, Harber, and Harris \u2026 it really is impressive that the Giants have three such highly-regarded undrafted prospects!<\/p>\n
Bryce Eldridge \u2014 The top prospect in the organization, who had some AAA experience
Christian Koss \u2014 Had more than 300 AAA plate appearances
Jake Lamb \u2014 Had a 10-year MLB career
Logan Porter \u2014 Had made his MLB debut and spent three years in AAA
Max Stassi \u2014 Had a 10-year MLB career<\/p>\n
And I\u2019d run that thing on high hopes
\u2018Til they raised the price of dreams so high I couldn\u2019t pay <\/p>\n