Outfield Prospect Named 2024's Biggest Minor League Surprise for San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants saw some key prospects take steps in their development this year, but none surprised like one outfielder.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The San Francisco Giants were less than thrilled by the product that they put on the field in the 2024 season.

Finishing the year with an 80-82 record, they ended the 2024 campaign in fourth place in the National League West, 18 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers who won the division and put up the best record in MLB.

As the postseason continues to take place, the Giants can do nothing more than look back at the year that was and think about what went wrong, and try to find a silver lining in one of the many dark clouds that surround their year.

As far as their farm system is concerned, San Francisco need only look to their 25th-ranked prospect (per MLB Pipeline) to find who Jeff Young of FanSided named as the most surprising prospect.

"For the SF Giants, they had quite a few surprise performances in 2024," writes Young, "but it would be hard to argue that anyone but outfield prospect Bo Davidson was more of a pleasant surprise this year."

Davidson, 22, went undrafted in the 2023 MLB Draft, but the Giants signed the outfielder for $50 thousand out of the Coastal Plain League.

In 16 games of rookie ball after signing, Davis hit .286/.397/.469 with six extra-base hits and nine walks to only 11 strikeouts across 58 plate appearances.

This year, the young outfielder has been even better, though injuries have limited his time on the field.

Starting the 2024 campaign in rookie ball, Davidson quickly proved that he was ready to move to Single-A, and San Francisco obliged and promoted the lefty to the Single-A San Jose Giants.

Through 53 games since being promoted, Davidson batted .328/.438/.608 with 28 extra-base hits, six stolen bases, and 32 walks to 54 strikeouts in 226 plate appearances.

When you add the 10 games of rookie ball before the promotion, Davidson's whole year saw him bat .327/.437/.605 with 32 extra-base hits, seven stolen bases, and 38 walks to 65 strikeouts in 263 plate appearances.

Davidson's 14.4 percent walk rate would put him in second place on the Giants' Major League club for that metric behind only veteran LaMonte Wade Jr., though his 24.7 percent strikeout rate could use some improvement.

Davidson is still working on tapping into his plus-power potential, trying to pull more pitches and drive the ball in the air more often.

12 of his 38 professional extra-base hits so far have been home runs, and that number only looks to grow as he taps into his power swing more aggressively and approaches his prime.

While the Major League team may not have had the best season in 2024, Bo Davidson took a massive step forward in his development, and San Francisco is hopeful that he can do it again in 2025, making his Major League debut come that much sooner.