Carson Ragsdale

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked San Francisco Giants #17 prospect in 2025
  BA Grade/Risk: 40/Medium.
  
  Track Record: After three seasons at South Florida, Ragsdale was taken in the fourth round of the 2020 draft by the Phillies. He missed the 2019 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Before he could throw a professional pitch, he was dealt to the Giants in exchange for righthander Sam Coonrod. Since then, he’s moved through the minor leagues in a career stunted by a frustrating amount of injuries, including strains to his oblique and elbow and a bout of thoracic outlet syndrome. His 147 strikeouts were the most in San Francisco’s system.
  
  Scouting Report: When healthy, Ragsdale shows the stuff to be a valuable part of a pitching staff. His current mix includes a four-seam fastball that averaged around 94 mph with 18 inches of induced vertical break as well as a curveball and a splitter. The former sits around 81 mph and shows true top-down break and late snap. In concert, the two pitches give Ragsdale a solid north-south attack pattern. The splitter, thrown in the mid 80s, acts as his changeup and was used relatively sparingly. He has fringe-average control and walked 11.2% of hitters and threw a career-high 120.2 innings, his first time topping 100 since 2021.
  
  The Future: Ragsdale was added to the 40-man roster in November and should have a chance to make his big league debut at some point in 2025. Despite his checkered injury history, Ragsdale has the frame to hold up to a starter’s workload. If he doesn’t fit there, he could be a bulk reliever.
  
  Scouting Grades: Fastball: 60 | Curveball: 60 | Split: 45 | Control: 40.
• 
  Ranked San Francisco Giants #25 prospect in 2022
  Track Record: Ragsdale was the Phillies’ fourth-round pick in 2020 and was traded to the Giants four months later in the deal that sent reliever Sam Coonrod to Philadelphia. Ragsdale struck out 167 hitters at Low-A San Jose in his pro debut, second-most in the minor leagues.
  
  Scouting Report: The 6-foot-8 Ragsdale mostly relies on two pitches. He combines a fastball that averages 93 mph and touches 96 with a low-80s curveball. Like many Giants pitching prospects, Ragsdale tunnels those two offerings to work the strike zone from north to south. He’s added a cutter to help him get swings and misses down in the zone on something other than his curveball. Despite the gaudy strikeout numbers, the Giants were reluctant to move Ragsdale because of his shaky control. Ragsdale could iron out these issues by working to make sure his arm is on time more often in his delivery and eliminating a hooking action with his wrist, but pitchers his height rarely reach average control.
  
  The Future: Ragsdale will move to High-A Eugene in 2022. He’ll try to improve his control and command while looking toward a ceiling as a depth starter or a low-leverage reliever.
  

Draft Prospects

• Ranked #191 prospect in 2020 draft
  One of the tallest pitchers in the 2020 draft class, Ragsdale is a 6-foot-8, 225-pound redshirt junior with limited track record at South Florida. After totaling 31.1 innings as a reliever during his freshman and sophomore seasons, Ragsdale missed the 2019 season with Tommy John surgery, before exciting teams with his combination of stuff, strikes and size early in 2020. While Ragsdale started just four games, he was an up-arrow guy after posting a 2.84 ERA in 19 innings, with 37 strikeouts (17.5 per nine) to just seven walks (3.3 per nine). His strike-throwing ability early this season was significantly better than he’s previously shown in his career, and Ragsdale has better body control and coordination than most players of his size. There’s some length in Ragsdale’s arm action, but he repeats a three-quarter arm stroke reasonably well and has good extension down the mound. Ragsdale throws a fastball that sits in the 90-93 mph range, but he’s run the pitch up to 96 and pairs it with a solid-average curveball and a below-average changeup. He’s more of a control-over-command pitcher, and because of that and a below-average third pitch, some scouts think he’s a better reliever profile. However, there are teams who think he has a chance to start, and because of that he could go off the board in the 4-6 round range.

• December, 2021 Scouting Report
  Track Record: Ragsdale was the Phillies’ fourth-round pick in 2020 and was traded to the Giants four months later in the deal that sent reliever Sam Coonrod to Philadelphia. Ragsdale struck out 167 hitters at Low-A San Jose in his pro debut, second-most in the minor leagues.
  
  Scouting Report: The 6-foot-8 Ragsdale mostly relies on two pitches. He combines a fastball that averages 93 mph and touches 96 with a low-80s curveball. Like many Giants pitching prospects, Ragsdale tunnels those two offerings to work the strike zone from north to south. He’s added a cutter to help him get swings and misses down in the zone on something other than his curveball. Despite the gaudy strikeout numbers, the Giants were reluctant to move Ragsdale because of his shaky control. Ragsdale could iron out these issues by working to make sure his arm is on time more often in his delivery and eliminating a hooking action with his wrist, but pitchers his height rarely reach average control.
  
  The Future: Ragsdale will move to High-A Eugene in 2022. He’ll try to improve his control and command while looking toward a ceiling as a depth starter or a low-leverage reliever.
  
• July, 2021 Scouting Report
  Ragsdale was selected by the Phillies in the fourth round of the 2020 draft, then quickly shipped to the Giants in the trade that brought reliever Sam Coonrod to Philadelphia. Ragsdale has had dominant spurts in the Low-A West League, as would be expected for a pitcher with a Georgia Tech pedigree, but needs to cut down on his walks before he's ready to move up the ladder.