Giants have three Carsons knocking on door of big leagues originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SCOTTSDALE — The Giants’ front office made life a bit easier for the clubhouse staff this spring by limiting the number of non-roster invitees to big league camp, but Brad Grems and his crew had a little fun with veterans who planned to spend the first few days getting to know the small group of newcomers.
In the middle of the room, Carson Seymour and Carson Ragsdale are lockered side by side. One wears No. 78 and one is No. 77. Both are tall right-handers, and you can’t even differentiate them by service time. They were added to the 40-man roster on the same day this offseason.
How, then, should teammates tell them apart?
“He’s a little bit taller,” the 6-foot-6 Seymour said of the 6-foot-8 Ragsdale. “But I like to say I’m a little bit more handsome.”
To further complicate matters, there’s a third Carson, also a pitching prospect who spent last season in Triple-A. And like Seymour and Ragsdale, Carson Whisenhunt has a good shot at pitching this season at Oracle Park. He’s not on the 40-man roster, but he is considered the best prospect of the trio. Whisenhunt is also the only one who is truly homegrown.
After a few years in charge, Farhan Zaidi found that Bobby Evans’ group had left him some undervalued assets, and the new front office is hopeful that the same will one day be said of the Carsons. Whisenhunt was a second-round pick in 2022 and is considered by many in the industry to be a top 100 prospect in the game, but Seymour and Ragsdale were acquired in trades.
The New York Mets took Seymour in the sixth round in 2021, and a year later, he was thrown into the Darin Ruf-J.D. Davis swap, which was a heist for Zaidi regardless of what the Giants ended up getting out of the three pitching prospects in the deal. Three years later, Seymour is the only one from that deal in big league camp, and he’s coming off a season that was better than it looked on paper.
The 26-year-old had a 4.82 ERA overall in Triple-A, but the Pacific Coast League is full of ballparks that play like Coors Field, and that figure was 3.92 at home with 9.7 strikeouts-per-nine. At a time when the organization was limiting starters, Seymour proved to be a reliable innings-eater, getting quick outs with his sinker.
Last year was the first time he was teammates with Ragsdale, who was promoted midseason after posting a 3.49 ERA in Double-A. Like Seymour, he looked more…