In 2020, Harrison graduated from De La Salle High School in Concord, California. He had already committed to UCLA. He was a good student.

De La Salle High School in Northern California is a bit of a baseball dynasty, having won four straight division titles heading into the 2020 season. Harrison has been a key part of two, including winning the championship game as a junior before embarking on a successful summer showcase circuit that culminated with a very strong turn on USA Baseball's 18U National Team in 2019.

Kyle's maternal grandfather is Skip Guinn, who pitched parts of three seasons with the Braves and Astros between 1968-71. Guinn, who had 40 strikeouts in 36 big league innings, was a teammate of Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Joe Torre, Phil Niekro, Joe Morgan, and former Giants managers Dusty Baker and Felipe Alou.

“He’s a darn good athlete,” said Guinn, who lives in Oklahoma and, like his grandson, throws left-handed and bats right-handed. “Last time I saw him throw, he was keeping it down and away from hitters. He’s the type of kid that you tell him something — not even showing him, but telling him — once, and he gets it. His control down is something else. He’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’s got a love for the game, and that’s important.” (Tony Hicks - Sportstar - 2019)

June 2020: The Giants chose Harrison in the third round, out of De La Salle High School in Concord, California.

July 16, 2020: The Giants rounded out their 2020 Draft class by signing third-round pick Kyle Harrison. The deal is worth $2,497,500. He signed with scout Keith Snider. The bonus was more than three times the recommended slot value for the No. 85 pick ($710,700), as the Giants needed to sweeten the pot to convince Harrison to forgo his commitment to UCLA.

In 2021, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Harrison as the 5th-best prospect in the Giants' organization in the spring of 2021. He stayed at #5 early in 2022. Then, he moved up to #2 in the spring of 2023. And a year later, early in 2024, Harrison was the Giants #1 prospect.

In 2023, Harrison represented the Giants in the All-Star Futures Game.

Since returning to his native California in 2023, MLB's No. 15 overall prospect has elevated his game to another level. Harrison was named Minor League Player of the Week in the Pacific Coast League after twirling a pair of gems for Triple-A Sacramento. The left-hander yielded a single hit across both scoreless starts, fanning 14 while walking four over 7 1/3 frames and posting a 0.65 WHIP.

"I think it’s been my attitude, first and foremost," Harrison told MLB Tonight's Harold Reynolds. "I think I’ve just been trying to attack guys as much as I can. You know, try to get them out as quick as possible. That’s been the biggest thing for me. Limiting the walks are a big thing for me, so really trying to go after guys and attack them and mix up the sequencing. That’s something that I’m learning to do and it’s getting better over time."

The 21-year-old finished his second pro season last year making 18 starts for Double-A Richmond. Harrison posted a 3.11 ERA and 1.18 WHIP with 127 strikeouts and 39 walks over 84 innings pitched for the Flying Squirrels. In 11 outings so far this year with the River Cats, the top Giants prospect sports a 3.67 ERA and 1.43 WHIP with 61 punchouts and 31 walks over 34 1/3 frames while showcasing a deeper dive on his 60-grade slider.

"When I first got to Richmond last year, you know I’m a little California kid from California, west coast. So I’m used to a dry baseball, and it felt like I was throwing a sponge sometimes out there in Richmond," Harrison told Reynolds. "So that could play a role into it, but also initially in the PCL with the altitude we deal with, pitches don’t break how they’re supposed to. So, really just trying to stick to your game plan and really just trying to expand on hitters."

"You know, me and my family, we had no idea how that Draft was going to go," Harrison said. "So, me being a little scrawny kid in high school, I wanted to make sure I was built up for pro ball, you know, going in there I remember my first day in instructs I was definitely the smaller kid on the block, so I was like, why not pound the weights? See if I can get my view up a little. See if I can compete with these guys. So I did that and it got me here to where I’m at today and I’m still looking to get better."

And he's only continued to improve each time out this season.

Did we mention he's really happy to be home?

"I’m filling out tickets every week for my family and friends coming into town, so it’s great to have people there for me that have supported me my whole life," he told Reynolds. "I wouldn’t be here without them." (Terranova- May 30, 2023- milb.com)

MLB debut (Aug 22, 2023): The Giants No. 1 prospect, Kyle Harrison was called up for his MLB debut in Philadelphia said Giants manager Gabe Kapler. “The last couple of outings, I think he's taken some real steps forward,” Kapler said. “We think he's ready to come up and help us win baseball games. That's the most important thing.”

The young lefty made his Major League debut at Citizens Bank Park, pitching 3.1 innings against the defending National League champions.

He scattered five hits, walked one, and struck out five while allowing two runs, both of which came on a Bryce Harper home run.

In fact, according to Giants insider Ben Kaspick, the young left-hander struck out 31.3 percent of his hitters and walked just 6.3 percent, while also throwing 66.2 percent of his pitches for strikes.

Aug 28, 2023:  As Kyle prepared to make his Major League home debut, there was no telling how the extra adrenaline was going to affect him. This was, after all, a very big deal for him. He was taking the mound at the very ballpark that helped shape his earliest baseball fandom, 30 miles away from the city where he grew up.

It took only a few minutes to find out how Harrison, a product of Concord, Calif., would harness this extra wave of emotion. In only his second big league start, the 22-year-old lefty was in control from the beginning, striking out 11 batters over 6 1/3 innings in a 4-1 Giants win over the Reds. This was one San Francisco sorely needed, after slogging through an arduous, mostly unsuccessful August. “It was about as an electric performance by a pitcher as we've seen since I've been here in San Francisco, right up there with any pitching performance,” manager Gabe Kapler said.

While the Giants took care of business on the field, there was plenty of activity in the stands, too, in the form of a Harrison cheering section that was loud and expansive, popping up in a multitude of spots at Oracle Park.

They were everywhere. A dozen-plus were packed into a suite on the club level; another 20 or so were crammed in a section in the lower bowl, several rows behind the Giants dugout. And then there were Harrison’s parents, Kim and Chris, who, rightfully, had the best seats of all members of the Harrison Cheering Section -- dugout club, eye level to the field, feet from the Giants dugout.

Harrison, for his part, said he was oblivious to all of it.

“I didn't see them at all,” he said. “I was dialed in. I think my buddies were saying they were somewhere close, but I was locked in. I didn't see them at all.”  Regardless, Harrison provided them with an eyeful as he hit multiple club milestones, making this start not only exhilarating, but historic, too.

Consistently touching 95 mph with his fastball, Harrison struck out the first five batters he faced. By the end of the third, he had fanned seven, becoming the youngest Giants pitcher in the last 50 seasons (since 1974) to have seven strikeouts through the game’s first three innings. That includes the Giants' eight postseasons over this stretch of time. Harrison hit another historical marker in the sixth, when he fanned Noelvi Marte -- his 11th strikeout. That made Harrison the youngest Giants pitcher to record 11 strikeouts since Madison Bumgarner did so on June 26, 2011. Harrison, at 22 years, 16 days, narrowly missed topping Bumgarner, who was a mere 21 years and 329 days old when he struck out 11.

“The funny part is I think everybody's kind of shocked, like, ‘Oh man, wow, this is incredible,” said catcher Patrick Bailey, who played alongside Harrison during their ascent through the Giants’ Minor League system. “I’ve been seeing this for three years and have been part of it for three years. It’s been really cool to just see him do it on the biggest stage in front of a really good crowd.”

Harrison was on a loose pitch limit, somewhere around 80 to 85 pitches. He finished the sixth with 78, which seemed like an apropos time for Kapler to hand the game over to the bullpen.

But then he let Harrison go back out for the seventh.

“It felt like this was a historic performance at that point, and one that warranted an additional up, even though it wasn't totally comfortable,” Kapler said. "He was that good and that deserving.” When he did head to the mound to lift Harrison later that inning, Kapler took his time getting there, and he waited a little longer once he arrived. This gave Harrison an extra moment to breathe it all in and enjoy the ovation that followed him back to the dugout.

“Sometimes you forget to get lost in that moment,” Kapler said. “And there's just so much adrenaline and so much excitement and your family’s out there that you just don't necessarily pause and feel that ovation. So just maybe a little bit of a nudge in that direction.”

“It was pretty cool for Kap to say, ‘Take this moment in,’” Harrison said. “And so I did. And it was awesome.” (A Footer - MLB.com - Aug 29, 2023)

Kim Harrison’s mind flashed to an old photograph. It was taken more than 22 years ago. She is standing in front of the enormous Coke bottle slide at the San Francisco Giants’ waterfront ballpark. She is rather obviously in no condition to hurtle herself down it.

“Isn’t that funny?” she said, standing on the half-lit grass in an empty ballpark following the Giants’ 4-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. “Before tonight, the last time I was here in this ballpark, I was actually pregnant with Kyle.”

This night, Mom witnessed a different kind of birth. Everyone in the ballpark did. Kyle Harrison might have made his major-league debut last week in Philadelphia, but this was the night Kim’s 22-year-old son arrived with a wailing fastball and perhaps the inkling that everything was about to change. Harrison, the Giants’ prized left-handed pitching prospect, did better than impress in his home debut. 

Gabe Kapler, the Giants’ manager told Harrison, "Hey, take a minute. This is only going to happen once. Enjoy it and appreciate it."

“I did,” said Harrison, who wiped a wet eye as he walked to the dugout. “And it was awesome.”

Down in the recessed seats behind home plate, Kim Harrison shed tears as well.

“I really didn’t expect that emotion to come over me,” she said. “Just because I’ve watched so many of his games. But this is it. This is the bigs. It’s so hard to get here. So my emotions were with the fans here, his family, his friends from De La Salle (High School in Concord), all his friends growing up. That was what made me tear up.” Harrison turned the ballpark into a unified cheering section, which was fitting because his friends and family were scattered all over. They occupied rows in the field box seats. His two grandmothers crowded with a large group of family members in a luxury suite. No individual voices carried as far as the mound or pierced Harrison’s consciousness. 

Kim Harrison’s father, former major league pitcher Skip Guinn, lives in Oklahoma and the logistics were too difficult to get him to San Francisco. But the 78-year-old former Braves and Astros pitcher is hoping to see his grandson start a game in person at some point in September. (Skip, a left-hander, he averaged better than a strikeout per inning in the minors when that was a rare achievement in the late 1960s.)

“I just kept looking around and thinking how special this place is,” Kim Harrison said. “I’ve never sat (at ground level) like that. I could see how the ball breaks from a different angle. I got a whole new perspective on how it happens. It was really neat to see that.”

When Kim and Chris Harrison became parents to two sons, they signed up for a world that revolved around baseball. But their world usually didn’t involve Giants or A’s games. Mom and Dad would split up carpool duties and travel ball demands, ensuring that Kyle and his younger brother, Bear, were always where they needed to be.

How many hundreds of games has it been? How many hours have they spent trying not to fry their legs on aluminum bleachers? How many times did the ride home include gentle encouragement after a loss or a humility lesson after a win? Their youth baseball schedule was always so busy. 

There just wasn’t time to buy a family four-pack, sit in the stands and watch a major-league game for fun. And truth be told, on the rare times when they did go to a big-league game as a family, the Coliseum was a lot more convenient, about 30 miles west of their home in Danville.

Perhaps it makes sense, then. When you ask Kyle Harrison for his most vivid memory as a fan attending a game at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, the Giants’ heralded left-hander doesn’t mention a Buster Posey home run or a Brandon Crawford highlight catch. 

“Just getting a Ghirardelli sundae — simple as that,” Harrison said. “Hopefully they were chowing one down today for me.”

With 11 cherries on top. One for each strikeout. He became:

• The first Giants starting pitcher to begin a game with five consecutive strikeouts since Hall of Famer Randy Johnson in 2009.

• The youngest Giants pitcher to strike out 11 since Bumgarner in 2011.

• The first Giants rookie to strike out 11 since Chris Heston fanned 14 as part of his no-hitter against the New York Mets at Citi Field in 2015.

• The first major league pitcher since the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani in 2018 to post double-digit strikeouts in his second career start.

• The fourth Giants pitcher since at least 1901 to post double-digit strikeouts in his first or second start. Kapler called Harrison’s home debut “as electric a performance by a pitcher I’ve seen since I’ve been here in San Francisco.” (Baggarly - Aug 29, 2023 - The Athletic)

Harrison, a left-hander, has a 91-98 mph 4-seam FASTBALL, and it breaks bats with its impressive late running life in on lefty hitters and grades a 60. He has a potential plus 83-84 mph SLIDER. with a 60 grade already, and shows dynamic two-plane break while getting swings and misses 43% of the time. He rounds out his mix with a low-80s changeup which averages about 10 mph of separation from his fastball. 

He also has feel for a nice 83-85 mph CHANGEUP with sink and fade, and a 40 grade. He added a CUTTER in 2023. But he only has 45 grade control.

After a month in the PCL in 2023, Kyle and the Giants realized his arsenal would need some tweaking in order to cross the final hurdles. First, they tried adding a gyro slider to his mix but scrapped it because he didn’t throw it with enough velocity. Eventually, they settled on a cutter in addition to his sweepier breaking ball in order to give him a pair of breaking pitches with a wider range of velocity separation. Harrison’s slider is thrown in the low 80s, while his cutter is thrown a few ticks higher in the upper 80s. The two pitches complement an excellent, mid-90s fastball with exceptional horizontal movement and a whiff rate of nearly 25% in MLB.

The next piece of the puzzle is the continued development of the changeup. Harrison’s version of the pitch is thrown with a two-seam grip and comes in around 86 mph. In the minors, Harrison threw the changeup roughly 6% of the time, a figure that nearly doubled once he reached MLB. He still needs to show more consistency with the pitch overall, and he needs to prove he can throw it for a called strike instead of merely as a chase pitch. Harrison’s fastball and slider give him two potentially plus weapons.

Now, it’s about cementing one or both of the changeup and cutter as reliable third and fourth options. He’ll also have to keep working to maintain his delivery, which gives him plenty of deception but also can negatively affect his control and command, which is unlikely to ever be better than fringy. If Harrison can solidify either his cutter or changeup as a reliable third option and improve his control and command, he has the ceiling of a No. 2 starter. If not, he still should fit in the rotation, but perhaps more toward the middle or back. After an extended run in the big leagues in 2023, he’ll have the inside track at earning a rotation spot in 2024 and beyond. (Josh Norris - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2024)

2023 Season Pitch Usage/Avg. Velo: Fastball 62% - 94.2mph; Curve 26% - 82.6 mph; Slider 4.6% - 85 mph; Change 6.5% - 87 mph.

2024 Season Pitch Usage/Avg. Velo: Fastball 57.6% -93 mph; Change 19.8% - 85.2 mph; Curve 22.3% - 81 mph.

Known more for his polish than his stuff in high school, Harrison has shown the ability to miss bats with three different pitches as he has matured physically. He generated a tremendous 41 percent swing-and-miss rate with his four-seam fastball in Double-A in the mid-90s to upper 90s with riding action and a flat approach angle from a low three-quarters arm slot. Hitters didn't have much more success against his plus low-80s slider with sweep or his improved mid-80s changeup with fade and sink. 

Harrison's low slot creates good angle and shape on his pitches. He's still learning to harness his enhanced stuff, though his ability to miss bats in the strike zone with all three of his offerings means that he doesn't need to locate them with precision. Once he refines his control and command, he'll be ready to help the Giants and should headline their rotation in the near future. (BA - Spring 2023) 

Harrison’s fastball isn’t elite in terms of velocity. It sits 93-96 mph, which is now slightly above-average for a major league starter. Instead, his combination of a low, deceptive release from a low arm slot and fastball movement makes it a truly special bat-missing pitch.

Harrison pairs his sneaky fastball with a newly revamped slider. He ditched his sweeper for a mid-80s cut-slider. He also will show a changeup that will flash above-average.

Harrison is one of the most electric lefthanders in the minors. He is one of the most erratic as well. His raw stuff and unique deceptive traits are undeniable.

And also divisive. And his command is an issue. (Geoff Pontes - Baseball America - Sept., 2023)

Kyle's 3-pitch mix is one of the nastiest in the minor leagues. He starts with a mid-90s four-seam fastball that peaked at 97 mph and got swings and misses at an absurd rate of 40.5%, the highest among any minor leaguer who threw 1,000 or more four-seamers. The pitch, along with the rest of his arsenal, is amplified by the deception created in his delivery and an extremely low release point. Harrison's slider was equally nasty. The low-80s sweeper was the better of his two offspeed pitches and was thrown for a strike more often than either his fastball or changeup. Harrison rounds out his mix with a still-developing changeup with plenty of upside.

Part of his development in 2022 was centered around improving his changeup, and ideally the Giants would like him to throw it between 10 and 20% of the time. Harrison's delivery is a double-edged sword. The elasticity of his body allows him to create funky angles for hitters but also gives him below-average command. (Josh Norris - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2023)

Harrison relies mainly on two pitches: a mid-90s fastball and a sharp slider.

“He can make a hitter look foolish with two different pitches,” Haines said. “He’s just usually trying to pick which one he wants the hitter to look foolish on, whether it’s the fastball or the slider.”

Harrison has been working on a changeup with Richmond pitching coach Paul Oseguera, whom he worked with at Low-A San Jose last season. Harrison has been trying figure out not only the best way to throw the change but how often to do so.

“I think I was throwing it a little too much,” Harrison said. “I threw it too much one of my outings and didn’t have the best results . . . It’s just a matter of time before I fully harness that thing, hopefully.”

Haines likes Harrison’s stuff and demeanor. “He’s a really good competitor,” Haines said, “but he also is in control of his emotions so well.”

That even-keel attitude also helps Harrison manage expectations about when he'll reach the big leagues.

“I don’t really think about it too much,” Harrison said. “I’m not going to stress too much on things I can’t control.” (Steve Kroner - Baseball America - Oct., 2022)

After working with a low-90s fastball that stood out more for sink and command as an amateur, Harrison now blows hitters away up in the strike zone with a mid-90s heater that reaches upper-90s with plenty of arm-side run. His slider also has gotten sharper and harder, parking at low-mid 80s while proving effective against hitters from both sides of the plate. He's gaining faith in a changeup with similar velocity and some fade, and it should become at least an average pitch once fully developed. 

Harrison delivers from a low-three-quarters slot that adds action to his pitches and should make him especially tough on left-handers, though they tagged him for a .797 OPS in 2021 (compared to .617 by right-handers). Hitters have trouble barreling and lifting his pitches. He's still learning to harness his newfound stuff, as evidenced by his 4.7 walks per nine innings in his debut, and he could move quickly once he does. (Spring 2022)

Kyle is easily the best pitching prospect in the Mariners organization, in terms of just pure stuff. His four-seam fastball sits at 94 mph and touches 98 while also showing well in terms of horizontal break and vertical approach angle. Together, those qualities helped Harrison get swings and misses at a 35% rate with his fastball in 2021.

His arm is loose and whippy and easily produces velocity and deception from a low slot and cross-body finish, but he doesn’t repeat it well enough yet to throw strikes consistently. That issue cropped up both in his walk rate and his efficiency, which caused him to go less than five innings in 14 of his 23 starts. If he can iron out his control, he has the look of a mid-rotation starter with the upside for more. (Josh Norris - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2022)

Known more for his polish than his power as an amateur, Harrison usually worked his fastball that played above its velocity thanks to the run, sink and angle he creates from a low three-quarters arm slot. His slider gives him a second potential plus offering, slashing across the plate and working against both lefties and righties.

Harrison's feel for pitching should allow him to develop at least an average changeup once he uses it more often as a pro. While he has the athleticism to repeat his loose, easy, efficient lefthanded delivery, he has struggled to command and control his revved-up fastball during his pro debut after filling the strike zone with ease in high school. If he regains his ability to locate his pitches while maintaining his increased velocity, he'll rise quickly through the Minors and up this list. (Spring 2021)

Kyle hit the weight room during the coronavirus shutdown and arrived at instructional league throwing harder than he did in the spring. Harrison impressed the Giants with how much he studies the game. He’s a good athlete with a clean, repeatable delivery and has above-average 55 grade control out of his low three-quarters arm slot. (Josh Norris - Baseball America Prospect Handbook - Spring, 2021)

In June, 2021, San Jose pitching coach Paul Oseguera gave this succinct analysis of the 19-year-old's repertoire: “Fastball: explosive. Slider: sharp. Changeup: the break arm-side is fun to watch.”

Given his low-three quarters arm slot and repertoire, he has spent plenty of time analyzing Chris Sale.

“Our arm slots are somewhat the same,” Harrison said. “I’m not as exaggerated as him, but . . . I like the way he attacks guy. We kind of have the same repertoire. I like to watch him pitch. I get ideas from him.”  

Harrison fastball plays better than its velocity because he creates plenty of run and sink with a low three-quarters arm slot that also provides a difficult angle for left-handers. His best pitch is a slider that slashes across the plate  and is effective against both lefties and righties. He shows enough feel for his changeup to develop it into at least an average third offering as he uses it more often.

Kyle has the athleticism to repeat his clean delivery, which provides deception without compromising his ability to pound the strike zone. He has one of the highest floors among the 2020 prep pitching class, as well as the upside of a lefty with the possibility for three solid pitches. He might be even better than that if he adds some more velocity as he matures physically. (Spring 2020)

Harrison's fastball plays better than its velocity because he creates plenty of run and sink with a low three-quarters arm slot that also provides a difficult angle for left-handers. His best pitch is a slider that slashes across the plate and is effective against both lefties and righties. He shows enough feel for his changeup to develop it into at least an average third offering as he uses it more often.

Harrison has the athleticism to repeat his clean delivery, which provides deception without compromising his ability to pound the strike zone. He has one of the highest floors among the 2020 prep pitching class, as well as the upside of a lefty with the possibility for three solid pitches. He might be even better than that if he adds some more velocity as he matures physically.

Kyle has a smooth, easy left-handed delivery from a three-quarters arm slot. He hides the ball well within his loose, clean arm action.

Harrison has impressive poise and stays in control. He has an unflappable maturity. He has a feel for the pitching craft.

“He’s California cool; you would never know if he has two guys on base, or no one,” said Chris Harrison, Kyle's father. “You just don’t know if he’s doing great, or not. He’s so calm. It’s like he’s wise beyond his years.”

“I think he has the natural ability you look for in a left-hander, but he also has a maturity about him,” said David Jeans, De La Salle’s coach since 2011. “He’s great with his teammates … he’s a sports-first kind of guy, but he also serves (other students) lunch in the lunchroom. As much as he could ‘big-time’ people, he’s just a normal guy. You could not tell this kid is going to play at UCLA. If you talk to all of his teachers, they love him. He’s quiet. He gets his work done. He’s like an old soul.

“He’s been taught to find the edges of the plate and taking his game to another level,” said Jeans. “He’s a really a crafty pitcher, as much as he’s a power guy. A true, old-school baseball player.”

2020 Season:  Harrison has not thrown a professional pitcher yet, though he is beginning to build some buzz. Harrison was drafted in the third round of the 2020 draft out of De La Salle High School in Concord, California. Also considered a tough prospect to sign, the Giants handed out a $2.5 million signing bonus, which was substantially higher than the $710,000 slot value for the pick.

The lefty flashed a low-90’s fastball with good command of a curveball in high school, but he was touching 97 MPH in the instructional league in October. This type of velocity increase was unexpected for a prospect who was considered to be polished and mature for his age. (Jeff Young - Jan. 21, 2021)

2021 Season:  San Jose (23 starts): One of the youngest pitchers at Low-A, the fifth-ranked Giants prospect went 4-3 with a 3.21 ERA and 157 strikeouts over 98 2/3 innings. He tied with Astros righty J.P. France for the eighth-most punchouts in the Minors, while his 14.32 K/9 was third-best among all pitchers to complete at least 90 innings.

Harrison finished the regular season with four consecutive starts of at least five frames, including a career-best 12-strikeout effort against Visalia on Sept. 2. He allowed two runs over that 21-inning span while punching out 37 batters and yielding seven walks. There were only 28 other hurlers in the Minors this season with a BB/9 higher than Harrison’s 4.74.  (Rob Terranova  @RobTnova24January 4, 2022)

2022 Season: Harrison was named Pitching Prospect of the Year by the Giants.

He made 25 starts between High-A and Double-A, amassing a 2.71 ERA and striking out a ridiculous 14.8 batters per nine. Harrison has a sturdy three-pitch mix, including a fastball that can touch into the upper-90s. His pitch quality is aided by a lower arm slot that creates a flatter plane and an optical illusion that hitters can't seem to solve. The one thing holding Harrison back is his location. He walked four batters per nine this season . . . and that was progress after he walked nearly five last year.  (R.J. Anderson - Sept. 22, 2022)  

2022 Giants Pitching Prospect of the Year - Kyle Harrison, LHP (No. 2, MLB No. 21)

Baseball's best left-handed pitching prospect, Harrison led the Minors in strikeout rate (14.8 per nine innings) and strikeout percentage (39.8) while posting a 2.71 ERA, .196 opponent average and 186 strikeouts in 113 innings between High-A and Double-A. (Callis, Dykstra & Mayo - Mlb.com - Oct 6, 2022)

Harrison led the Minors in strikeout percentage (39.8) in 2022. He also topped the Minors in whiffs per nine innings (14.8), with DL Hall (Orioles) posting a similar rate (14.6) as a non-qualifier. Harrison had a crazy 41 percent swing-and-miss rate with his heater in Double-A, working from 92-97 mph with riding action and a flat approach angle from a low three-quarters arm slot. If hitters concentrate on dealing with Harrison's fastball, he can make them look bad with a sweeping slider in the low 80s. He projects as a frontline starter thanks to his three-pitch repertoire that also includes an improving mid-80s changeup with fade and sink. He can dodge bats in the strike zone with all three of his offerings.

MLB 2023 top LHP pitching prospect - Kyle Harrison

The Giants Harrison projects as a frontline starter thanks to his three-pitch repertoire that includes a well above-average fastball, a sweeping slider and an improving mid-80s changeup with fade and sink. He's still learning to harness his stuff, though his ability to miss bats in the strike zone with all three of his offerings means that he doesn't need to locate them with precision. 

2023 Season: ROK/AAA: 1-3, 4.52 ERA, 67 ⅔ IP, 109 K, 48 BB, .210 BAA, 1.48 WHIP

Harrison had a truncated workload in the Minors as he navigated injuries, including a hamstring strain that kept him out of the Futures Game and likely delayed his Major League debut. But he was one of the best strikeout artists in the Minors. He was one of only 11 Minor Leaguers to reach 100 punchouts in fewer than 70 innings and his 14.5 K/9 ranked second among all pitchers to complete at least 65 innings. (Gerard Gilberto - Oct. 30, 2023) 

Kyle Harrison throws a high-spin fastball from a low slot, something that other lefties like Sean Manaea and Andrew Heaney have done in the past. Like those other two, he’s struggled to add a really good secondary pitch. This year, he’s tweaking the curveball so that it’s more of a two-plane pitch.

“I’m thinking about following all the way through and down, and thinking about two plane movement again instead of killing the horizontal on it,” he said recently. He’s added movement in both directions and though some metrics don’t like it (Stuff+ rated his curve as a 59 where 100 is average last time out), he has given up one measly hit on the pitch since it changed shape early this month. Batters were hitting .400 on the old version of the pitch in April. Looks like good news? (Sarris - May 30, 2024 - The Athletic)

2024 Season: Stats: 24 GS, 124.1 IP, 4.56 ERA, 4.33 FIP, 9.0 H/9, 1.3 HR/9, 3.0 BB/9 8.5 K/9, 0.8 fWAR

Whenever I think about Kyle Harrison, I think of my high school alma mater, De La Salle — the same as his. At the end of the day, this is the only thing I have in common with a professional athlete. And so, on that note, the only thing I’m maybe qualified to evaluate him on is his opinion of the campus layout, the course curriculum, the theater company, and perhaps a few teachers who were still there 20 years after my graduation. But, as a baseball blogger, I’m going to put on my analysis cap anyway and go for broke.

It would be way too easy to continue the comparisons between the two of us. Like Harrison, many people expected great things from me after De La Salle. Unlike me, however, Harrison still has his whole life ahead of him. So, given that, it’s okay to just admit that Kyle Harrison’s sophomore season was a disappointment, right? A let down. Concerning. Unsteady. Those are all apt descriptions, I think, but no matter how accurate, 2024 wasn’t career-defining.

Still, I had to go back and look at his 11-strikeout performance against Colorado — truly one of the most remarkable games the San Francisco Giants had this season — just to refresh my memory of how good he looked.

 My enduring recollection of him for the past three months was a guy who looked gassed and unsteady. After this dominant game, he’d make just 6 more starts (26.2 IP) and sport a 7.76 ERA (5.98 FIP). His season ended on September 6th with a left shoulder impingement.

Steven led off last year’s review with this simple question:

What do the San Francisco Giants have in Kyle Harrison?
A year later and I think we still don’t know. The kneejerk answer is that he’s not A Dude. That maybe he’s maybe a depth piece the team shouldn’t count on to play an important role in their plans going forward. Two seasons are enough to evaluate him, right?

Nah.

Development isn’t linear... a line we’re hoping is true when it comes to all sorts of prospects — Luis Matos and Marco Luciano chief among them — but especially Kyle Harrison. Recent examples (Heliot Ramos, Hayden Birdsong, Sean Hjelle) are efficient fuels for said hope. After that Colorado start, Harrison was up to 97.2 IP with a 6-4 record in 18 starts (he missed time in June with an ankle sprain). His 3.69 ERA / 3.88 FIP and 1.2 fWAR (70th in MLB - min 90 IP) didn’t evoke Lincecumean or Bumgarneresque imagery, but he looked like a guy who’d managed to... held serve?... as the league got to know him.

To put it another way: through July 26th (the date of that Colorado start), Sean Manaea was 6-4 in 20 starts with a 3.74 ERA / 4.18 FIP in 106 IP and he went on to revamp his delivery and become a postseason hero of sorts for the Mets. Health is a big factor in success, of course, but the game of baseball is a game of adjustments, and there’s every indication that Harrison is the type of competitor who will never let up on that facet of the sport.

Indeed, his fire for competition might’ve provoked too intense of a response.

Last October, Harrison told Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, “I want to get stronger and built up [...] I want to be like Webby, going out there six innings at a time and building up to 200 innings. I’m really just going to pound the weight room.” Pavlovic added:

That work will be done alongside Logan Webb, who has become a close friend and mentor. Harrison plans to work out with Webb in the offseason at a facility in the Phoenix area, and he also has considered visiting Driveline Baseball, which was an Alex Cobb recommendation.
Did all that extra work in the offseason simply wear him down before the season got going? If you’re not cottoning to that notion and just want to look at the full mph off his fastball year over year (93.6 in 2023, 92.5 in 2024) as evidence of looming injury or flop potential, please do also consider that he had worked his way through a Giants system that for a while there had starters only going 3-4 innings per start, Harrison had injury troubles in the minors as well which limited his overall usage as well, and those 26.2 IP after the Colorado start pushed past his personal best for innings pitched in a year. He’s learning on the job.

For a prospect held in such high regard who’s been tagged with high expectations, pretty much every step of the way for him has been bumpy and inherently limiting. He was drafted in the middle of a global pandemic. The 3-4 inning minor league development pitching plan. The aforementioned injuries. He simply hasn’t gotten enough reps and figured out how to manage a heavier workload.

On top of that, there are the philosophical inconsistencies the past couple of seasons. Going from Andrew Bailey as pitching coach to Bryan Price. The front office’s desperate need to cover innings, which forced them to go Tampa Bay on him. And now, he might receive some instruction from... Madison Bumgarner? It couldn’t hurt.

It’d be nice if the team could feel confident slotting him in as their #3 or #4 starter, even if the expectation was that he’d be a #2 or borderline ace. He’s an uncomfortable fit from a starter perspective for the time being — though, to be clear, the Giants should (and will) give him every chance to stick as a starter. The earlier grumblings on social media about turning him into a reliever was... misguided, though understandable. He’s not going to face Colorado in every start.

None of this is a portent of doom, though. Since 2000, just 60 dudes pitched at least 120 innings in their age-22 season. By fWAR, Harrison’s 0.8 is 52nd. There are very few players on this list who didn’t stick around for a while. Matt Cain’s 2007 (4.1 fWAR) and Madison Bumgarner’s 2012 (2.7) are in the top 25, but Harrison’s results are parallel — in terms of WAR, anyway — to 2003 Jake Peavy (although he pitched 194.2 innings that season), 2008 Johnny Cueto (174 IP), 2000 Mark Mulder (154 IP), 2013 Martin Perez (124.1 IP), 2015 Carlos Rodon (1391. IP), and 2022 Hunter Greene (125.2).

Kyle Harrison very much remains a work in progress. (Bryan Murphy  Nov 25, 2024)

June 13-July 6, 2024: Kyle was on the IL with right ankle sprain. 

Sept 4-Oct 1, 2024: Kyle was on the IL with left shoulder inflammation.