Giants notes: Prospect acquired in Camilo Doval trade opens eyes in Fall League

SAN FRANCISCO — When they finally pulled the trigger on a Camilo Doval trade, the Giants opted to take several shots at finding help instead of pushing for one higher-ranked prospect. At the time, catcher Jesus Rodriguez was the clear centerpiece of the four-player package, but in this year’s Arizona Fall League another player emerged as a potential contributor from that trade. Infielder Parks Harber didn’t garner much attention at the deadline, which wasn’t surprising. He was undrafted out of North Carolina, and while he put up good numbers in the New York Yankees farm system before the trade, he was a bit on the older side for A-ball. The Giants sent Harber to the Fall League to get some more reps, and he ended up representing them in the Fall Stars Game. In 17 AFL appearances, he had a .383/.513/.683 slash line with three homers, nine doubles and 14 walks. Harber’s 1.196 OPS was fourth in the league, which is filled with some of the game’s top prospects.“For him not maybe getting a lot of attention nationally or in the media, he surely got a lot of attention in our room,” general manager Zack Minasian said on the “Giants Talk” podcast. “It’s a credit to Hadi Raad, our pro [scouting] director, Josh Zimmerman, our director of player procurement, [VP of analytics] Paul Bien [and] a lot of our scouts who were on Parks. “I think what he has shown in the Fall League is just a continuation of what he did all last year in A-ball and High-A, and that’s just hit. He can hit, he impacts the baseball, he has shown decently at third base, maybe even better than what we expected. There’s maybe a chance to move him on the field and see where else he’s comfortable defensively, but I think the bat is real and it’s been fun to watch.”Harber primarily has played first and third in the minors, but those two spots might be spoken for at Oracle Park for the rest of the decade. He made four appearances in right field in the Fall League, and that figures to be part of the plan moving forward. Harber was injured at the time of the trade, but he hit the ground running as a member of the Giants organization. In 25 games with High-A Eugene, Harber hit .333 with a 1.097 OPS and seven homers. The Giants were slow in promoting prospects last year, but given Harber’s background — including four seasons at big colleges — the 24-year-old should see Double-A early in the 2026 season. He might not have been a well-known prospect when the Giants acquired him, but they’re thrilled that he was part of the deal. “Right-handed power in our ballpark seems to fit pretty well,” Minasian said. “It’s always going to be a welcome addition.”No ActionAn offseason deadline came and went Tuesday without any moves from the Giants. They elected not to add any minor leaguers to their 40-man roster to protect them from next month’s Rule 5 Draft, which wasn’t a huge surprise. The Giants had several potential relief pitching candidates, but none who had done enough to force the front office into removing someone else from the 40-man, which currently is full. Will Bednar, the organization’s first-round pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, was one potential option after his velocity ticked up in the bullpen this year. But he also had a 5.85 ERA in Double-A and Triple-A with 6.7 walks per nine innings. The Giants also elected not to protect 2022 first-rounder Reggie Crawford, betting that 29 other teams will pass on the left-handed reliever, who just had his second shoulder operation in as many years. Another club could draft Crawford and stash him on the 60-day IL, but he isn’t likely to be ready until the middle of next season at the earliest.The Rule 5 Draft will take place on the final day of the Winter Meetings next month in Orlando. To protect a player, the Giants would have had to DFA someone, and while there are several candidates for that on the 40-man at the moment, they’ll need those spots for offseason additions. Coaching TreeThe 2021 season will always be a remarkable outlier in a decade of otherwise mediocre Giants baseball, and years from now people will still be trying to figure out exactly how it happened. One thing the Giants knew at the time was that their coaching staff was firing on all cylinders, and it’s more apparent than ever that there was a lot of talent in that room. With Mark Hallberg departing to become bench coach for the Minnesota Twins, there are now three members of that staff who are MLB bench coaches. Kai Correa is No. 2 with the New York Mets and Donnie Ecker is the next man up to Craig Albernaz, who was hired as Baltimore Orioles manager a few years after he coached the catchers for Gabe Kapler. Kapler himself is now the general manager in Miami, and he certainly can brag about his coaching tree. There were 13 coaches on that young and inexperienced staff, and just about all of them are now in notable spots elsewhere. Dustin Lind, the director of hitting on that staff, is another one who got an offseason promotion; he’s now Albernaz’s hitting coach. Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Giants notes: Prospect acquired in Camilo Doval trade opens eyes in Fall League

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