{"id":4248,"date":"2026-07-11T07:37:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:37:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4248"},"modified":"2026-07-11T07:37:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T07:37:02","slug":"who-could-sf-giants-take-with-fourth-pick-in-2026-mlb-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4248","title":{"rendered":"Who could SF Giants take with fourth pick in 2026 MLB draft?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 In a season that\u2019s been so bleak, the Giants have an opportunity this weekend to hope for the future.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4246\">Peninsula man charged with pair of burglaries and sexual assaults<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Thanks to luck during the draft lottery, San Francisco will have the fourth overall pick in the 2026 MLB draft. Thanks to the Patrick Bailey trade, the Giants will also have the 29th overall pick \u2014 and the extra pool money that comes with it. Overall, the team\u2019s bonus pool of $17,350,600 is the fourth-highest in the draft.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants\u2019 farm system, headlined by teenage shortstops Josuar Gonzalez and Luis Hernandez, currently ranks 10th in the majors per Baseball America, moving up from No. 14 in the preseason rankings. By weekend\u2019s end, the team\u2019s talent pool stands to grow even stronger.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our strategy is to be in a position to take the best player available, and I think our group, our scouts, everybody in the room\u2019s done a really good job of trying to get our board lined up into a good place,\u201d said senior director of amateur scouting Michael Holmes. \u201cOur process has been really strong so far up to this point. Just really excited to have two opportunities at four and 29, then even further down the draft to be able to bring some talent to the organization.<\/p>\n<p>This will mark the sixth time in franchise history that San Francisco has a top-five pick, and three of those selections turned into true franchise pillars. In 2008, they took Buster Posey with the fifth overall pick. They drafted Will Clark with the second pick in 1985, then Matt Williams with the third pick the following year. There have also been some duds, as seen with Joey Bart (No. 2) in 2018 and Jason Grilli (No. 4) in 1997.<\/p>\n<p>The consensus top-three picks in this year\u2019s draft are UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, Georgia Tech catcher Vahn Lackey and prep shortstop Grady Emerson. Cholowsky, who grew up a fan of former Giant Brandon Crawford, was long considered the favorite to be selected with the first overall pick, but the Chicago White Sox may opt for Emerson.<\/p>\n<p>San Francisco\u2019s brass would be ecstatic if any of Cholowsky, Lackey or Emerson dropped out of the top three, but the Giants are unlikely to select any of that trio when their time on the clock begins. Still, there shouldn\u2019t be a lack of alluring options available.<\/p>\n<p>The Giants have often been linked to UC Santa Barbara\u2019s right-hander Jackson Flora, who\u2019s widely considered the best pitcher in this year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Flora, who had a 1.06 ERA over 16 starts this past season, makes sense as a fit given San Francisco\u2019s lack of high-end pitching depth aside from lefty Jacob Bresnahan and righties Keyner Martinez and Argenis Cayama. There\u2019s also a very strong local connection with Flora, given he grew up a Giants fan and attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, the same high school as Crawford.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4244\">SF Giants\u2019 bullpen falters at finish line, blows lead in ninth to Rockies<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While San Francisco is in need of pitching, general manager Zack Minasian said on KNBR 680 last week that the team will \u201clean best player available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember hearing this line about need being the worst evaluator,\u201d Minasian said. \u201cThe draft is very difficult, so if you\u2019re going to limit your talent pool, you\u2019re just going to make it harder on yourself. So, we want to go into it with a completely open mind and then go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Along with Flora, two other names connected with the Giants are prep shortstop Jacob Lombard (Gulliver Prep HS) and prep outfielder Eric Booth Jr. (Oak Grove HS), both of whom come from athletic backgrounds.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lombard is the son of former major leaguer George Lombard and brother of Yankees prospect George Lombard. Booth\u2019s father, Eric Booth Sr., was a 34th-round selection by the Toronto Blue Jays but opted to play football at Southern Mississippi, where he played running back and became a record-setting kick returner.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s in the infield or outfield, the Giants aren\u2019t lacking up-the-middle talent. In the infield, there\u2019s Gonzalez, Hernandez, Jhonny Level and Gavin Kilen. In center field, there\u2019s Bo Davidson and Dakota Jordan. San Francisco\u2019s existing talent, however, shouldn\u2019t prevent the team from drafting more shortstops or more center fielders. And if the Giants create enough depth, that depth can be used for future trades.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our goal is just to bring in the most talent we can across the entire organization \u2014 international, amateur, trades,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve done a real nice job of bringing in a lot of middle-of-the-diamond players and guys that could help all over the field. You try not to get caught up in the moment and see what you have and what you don\u2019t have, because in this game, it can change on a dime.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the 29th overall pick, one local player who could be available is shortstop Archer Horn, a product of St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco who is currently committed to Stanford. There\u2019s also shortstop Tyler Spangler, who missed his senior year at De La Salle and is also committed to Stanford.<\/p>\n<p>Along with the first-round talent, one name worth monitoring for Giants fans is Peyton Bonds. As the last name suggests, Bonds is the grandson of Bobby Bonds and the nephew of Barry Bonds. Peyton Bonds also played alongside Trevor Cohen, San Francisco\u2019s third-round selection in last year\u2019s draft.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4242\">Paraglider rescued after crashing into Daly City cliff<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Giants will have a top-five pick for the sixth time in franchise history<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Who could SF Giants take with fourth pick in 2026 MLB draft? - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=4248\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who could SF Giants take with fourth pick in 2026 MLB draft? 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