PHOENIX — Usually, you'll hear young top prospects talking about the weight they've gained in the offseason by working out and building muscle.
But for Giants left-hander Kyle Harrison, this offseason was spent cutting down the pounds.
The De La Salle High School product got on the mound and faced live hitters Monday for the first time this spring, though he said he's been in Arizona working out and throwing for 4-5 weeks already. He wasn't overly enthusiastic about his performance on the mound, but that didn't tamper the joy of being out there too much.
"It was good to face the guys out there, get back into things and be competitive as ever," Harrison said. "[I] didn't have the best outing today but going to strive next bullpen, next catch play to get better and take it from there."
Harrison was listed at 200 pounds coming out of high school, when the Giants drafted him in the third round of the 2020 MLB Draft a nearly $2.5 million bonus to sign with the organization, foregoing his commitment to UCLA.
But he said that, as his season in Low-A San Jose wore on, he felt himself adding weight, which he thought was hampering his explosiveness on the mound.
"I really took this offseason to work on my diet, working [out] hard," Harrison said. "I thought a lot of people were impressed with how I looked and I was impressed with how I felt off the mound, and that's the most important thing. For my first full season, that's what I was learning and taking in. It was a great experience and I'm just going to keep building off of it."
The numbers from 2021 certainly pop. Across 23 starts, Harrison posted a 3.19 ERA with 157 strikeouts and 52 walks in 98.2 innings and just three homers allowed. While he felt he wasn't as explosive later in the season, he still finished with a flourish, winning all four September starts (including a playoff game) and striking out 34 batters in 22.1 innings while only allowing 11 hits, seven walks and two runs. It's also when he had his single-game-high 12 strikeouts in a Sept. 2 start against Visalia.
Harrison's velocity, which sat between 90 and 93 miles per hour in high school, suddenly bumped up into the mid-90s and touched 98 at times in San Jose, something he attributes to the work he was doing in the weight room ... and also a little bit of puberty and a big stomach.
"The little snacks, they get me. I like to eat a lot. I was a growing boy coming into pro ball," Harrison said. "I got here and the Giants saw me up 20 pounds like, 'Whoa, this dude's putting on weight.' And then the velo started to come and all that. Just kind of figuring out my body through the first full season and now knowing how my body reacts to certain things."
Harrison recalled walking into the Giants' facility on the first day and said he thought to himself, "Dude, these are men in here, this is crazy." But on an explosive San Jose staff, where four starters threw 98 or more innings, it was what Harrison did at age 19 that gained the most attention nationally.
Fangraphs as the Giants' No. 8 prospect in March 2021, but he's up to No. 4 on from Feb. 1. And even in the time since, Fangraphs bumped him up to No. 3 for the Giants and No. 38 overall on their all-encompassing ranking system, . Both MLB.com and Baseball America have Harrison at No. 5 in the Giants organization and in their Top 100 in all of baseball (MLB.com at 99th, Baseball America at 95th).
Based on signing bonus alone, it's fair to say the Giants were expecting a lot of Harrison, even with him being a third-round pick. His $2,497,500 bonus was the highest the Giants gave to any pitcher since Tyler Beede signed for $2,613,200 in 2014 and the most a high school pitcher had signed for since Zack Wheeler's $3.3 million bonus in 2009 (all numbers from ).
But that's what makes the 2021 numbers so tantalizing. Harrison grew up modeling himself after Chris Sale, and his current pitch mix involves the same type of slider Sale used.
"Growing up watching him from that arm slot, I always wanted a sweeper like him, a little sweeper slider," Harrison said. "But I always liked the way he attacked guys. Hard-throwing lefty, not really caring what's behind him or anything, just attacking the zone. That's the mindset that I want to have."
Attacking hitters in the zone and throwing more strikes were the two things Harrison said he was working on the most heading into 2022, though he's trying out different changeup grips in order to add a third pitch into his arsenal. But when you're 19 and throwing fastballs in the mid-to-upper 90s, sometimes learning how to throw that hard can be the biggest challenge.
"That's the thing I learned last year — kind of when to dial it back, when to go for that high-velocity pitch, that was kinda the big adjustment," Harrison said. "On the fastball, I was missing up a lot. I think that will come eventually, me learning how to harness that jump in velocity."
Harrison acknowledged that staying healthy is "the most important thing," as it always is with pitchers. But If his 2021 season was him learning how to harness that jump, what if he does harness it in 2022? What is his ceiling ... Double-A? Triple-A? Or could he be the first Giants pitcher to start a Major League game at 20 years old since Madison Bumgarner in 2010?
Only time will tell, but it's something Harrison said he isn't worried about entering the new season.
"I want to be the best person I can be on and off the field," Harrison said. "I'm gonna let the Giants do what they want to do with me, they know what's right for me. I'm just going to go out there and compete every day and try to get better every day."
And while he's trying to eat better, he's still a California kid. He couldn't cut In-N-Out Burger completely out of his diet.
"Every once in a while, I'll treat myself," Harrison said with a smile. "But [I'll] try to limit that, definitely."
Other notes from camp
The Giants played two simulated games at the same time Monday at Field 2 — the one with Candlestick's dimensions — and Field 3, the Oracle Park field. The most notable prospect to get at-bats was their No. 3 prospect Luis Matos, who went 0-for-2 on Field 3.
