Harris emerging as undrafted gem for Giants

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Trent Harris figured he’d head back to Division II UNC Pembroke for his sixth and final season of eligibility after he didn’t hear his name called during the 20 rounds of the 2023 MLB Draft. But he happily scrapped those plans after the Giants reached out and offered to sign the right-handed reliever as an undrafted free agent.

“I was actually packing my bags to go back to school for a sixth year,” Harris said in March. “And then Paul Faulk -- he was a scout in North Carolina and South Carolina for the Giants -- he called me. That was actually really cool. I would have signed for a bus ticket. It’s always a good time to keep playing.”

Two years later, Harris is looking like quite the find for San Francisco. Signed for a modest $10,000 out of the summer Coastal Plain League, the 26-year-old hurler has risen to become the organization’s No. 11 prospect and was recently promoted to Triple-A Sacramento after logging a 1.69 ERA with 25 strikeouts over 16 innings in 13 relief appearances for Double-A Richmond this year.

Harris stumbled a bit in his Triple-A debut on Wednesday, giving up three runs over two-thirds of an inning in the River Cats’ 4-2 loss at Sugar Land, but the Giants believe he has the potential to develop into another intriguing option for a bullpen that has been the best in the Majors this season.

“Really good curveball,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Kind of top-to-bottom in how he does things. Fastball at the top, and a really good curveball. Any time that we have guys that we feel like at some point in time are going to be here, talented guys that move up a classification, especially once they get to Triple-A, we watch a little bit closer here.”

Harris grew up with baseball in his blood, as his father, Greg Harris, was a fellow right-hander who pitched for the Padres, Rockies and Twins over his eight-year career in the Majors. The younger Harris said he picked up a ton from his dad, who always stressed the importance of first-pitch strikes and featured an arsenal similar to his son's.

“He’s been teaching me since I could pick up a baseball,” Harris said. “We’re both kind of, like, ride guys with the curveball. I’ve found some success that way. I’m trying to go full force with it and go as far as I can.”

Despite his pedigree, Harris didn’t commit to pitching full time until the end of his college career. He started out as a two-way player at High Point University in Raleigh, N.C., where he split his time between third base and the mound from 2019-21 before he suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery. After transferring to UNC Pembroke, Harris sat out the 2022 campaign before returning to the field in '23.

While he continued to impress as a two-way player -- he batted .305 with five home runs over 44 games as a hitter and logged a 3.32 ERA with 69 strikeouts over 62 1/3 innings in 19 pitching appearances -- Harris was 24 years old by that point, which prompted teams to bypass him in the 2023 Draft.

Undeterred, Harris decided to go all-in on pitching when he reported to the Coastal Plain League. That decision paid off, as he ended up winning Pitcher of the Year honors after leading the summer league circuit with a 0.30 ERA over 29 2/3 innings in six appearances for the Wilson Tobs. Harris’ dominance caught the eye of Faulk, a fellow UNC Pembroke alum who was working as a part-time scout for the Giants at the time.

“I love Trent Harris, man,” Faulk said in a phone interview last month. “The thing about Trent, he had some big cojones. He really did. I watched him on the mound, and he just attacked hitters. He went at them with everything he had. That was the thing that really impressed me.

“I saw him about three times coming out of the bullpen. When he came to that bullpen and toed the rubber, you knew the game was over. … When he got to the mound, it was like Mozart out on the mound painting.”

Faulk, who now works for the Royals, helped the Giants land another potential undrafted gem in outfielder Bo Davidson, who also played in the CPL and is now ranked the club’s No. 9 prospect per MLB Pipeline. Davidson was more of a sleeper prospect because he was a JUCO player who took a year and a half off from baseball, but Faulk will never understand why another team wasn’t willing to take a gamble on Harris during the Draft.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Faulk said. “I will not know to this day why somebody did not draft the kid. Was it his age? I don’t know. He was only [24]. That ain’t old. … To me, it’s not. I think about it all the time. I think about how lucky I was.”