Meet the Carsons: Whisenhunt, Seymour and Ragsdale eager to make their own mark

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. ¨C One is a left-hander from North Carolina with a world-class changeup. Another is a hard-throwing right-hander from Southern California whose diet consists almost entirely of meat. The third is a 6-foot-8 Floridian who is known for his knee-buckling curveball and general affability.

Meet the Carsons -- Whisenhunt, Seymour and Ragsdale -- a trio of pitching prospects who could all have a chance to debut with the Giants this year. Each one is eager to make a name for himself in big league camp this spring, though they can¡¯t help but be grouped together due to their shared appellation.

¡°It¡¯s kind of not a big story, but it¡¯s like one of the little stories,¡± said Carson Seymour, the carnivorous righty. ¡°We¡¯ve got three guys named Carson. That¡¯s like the first time I¡¯ve ever been around guys with the same first name as me. But we¡¯re all kind of different, so it kind of works.¡±

Carson Whisenhunt, the changeup artist who¡¯s ranked the Giants¡¯ No. 3 prospect by MLB Pipeline, said he tried to get ahead of any possible confusion by proposing a number system to help teammates distinguish each Carson.

¡°We¡¯ve numbered ourselves 1, 2 and 3, that way we know,¡± Whisenhunt said. ¡°We¡¯re trying to get everybody else on board with that. Most people come by and the group of Carsons will be sitting there, and they¡¯ll go, ¡®Hey, which one is which?¡¯ That¡¯s why we¡¯re trying to get the numbers down.¡±

Still, implementation hit a snag when the group couldn¡¯t agree on how to order themselves.

¡°Seymour tries to claim No. 1, but we can¡¯t give it to him,¡± Whisenhunt said. ¡°Ragsdale claims he¡¯s one. I claim I¡¯m one. We don¡¯t really know the number system yet. We haven¡¯t figured it out. But we¡¯re just kind of throwing it out there. We¡¯ll get there eventually.¡±

¡°He wants the number system because he wants to be No. 1,¡± Carson Ragsdale said of Whisenhunt. ¡°But he¡¯s very well a number three.¡±

Giants players who have spent time around the Carsons don¡¯t need much help telling them apart, though.

¡°They¡¯re all very different people,¡± right-hander Hayden Birdsong said. ¡°Whisenhunt, he¡¯s a North Carolina boy. That¡¯s about all I can say about that. Seymour, he¡¯s just a meathead. Seriously, a meathead. And then you¡¯ve got Ragsdale, who¡¯s probably the most normal out of the three. They¡¯re all really good dudes, but he¡¯s probably just a really good dude to everybody.¡±

The towering Ragsdale quite literally stands above the rest, as he¡¯s the second-tallest player in camp behind Sean Hjelle (6-foot-11). The 26-year-old right-hander has been in the organization the longest of the three after being acquired from the Phillies in exchange for Sam Coonrod in January 2021, though he was hampered by injuries early in his Giants tenure, missing most of the ¡®22 and ¡®23 seasons while rehabbing from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and right flexor issues.

Still, Ragsdale impressed when healthy last year, logging a 4.18 ERA over 27 appearances (26 starts) between Double-A Richmond and Triple-A Sacramento. The Giants rewarded him by adding him to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft over the offseason.

¡°I was just happy to be healthy for a year to really be able to showcase what I can do throughout a season,¡± Ragsdale said. ¡°I was able to hit my career high in innings pitched [120 2/3], so I feel like that experience helped me to be able to learn a lot about myself as a pitcher.¡±

Ragsdale mixes a mid-90s four-seam fastball with his signature curveball and a splitter, though he¡¯s also working on developing a slider to have another higher strike-percentage pitch that can take some pressure off the rest of his offspeed weapons.

¡°He¡¯s got the perfect mix,¡± Seymour said. ¡°If you¡¯re going to build a pitcher, I¡¯d build Carson Ragsdale.¡±

The 6-foot-6, 260-pound Seymour is also a big presence on the mound and another trade acquisition, as he came over from the Mets as part of the Darin Ruf trade in August 2022. He¡¯s viewed as the quirkiest Carson, as evidenced by his animal-based diet. Seymour, 26, estimates that 90% of the food he consumes is beef, though he also eats some fruit and rice to help maintain his weight during the season.

Seymour, the Giants¡¯ No. 23 prospect, said he adopted the meat-forward diet shortly after he was selected by the Mets in the sixth round of the 2021 Draft because he wanted to slim down after his weight creeped up to around 280 pounds in college. At one point, he experimented with eating organ meat, which is considered a good source of nutrients.

¡°In Double-A, I would order these calf testicles from this farm in New York and would eat them raw,¡± Seymour said. ¡°I called it testicle tartare.¡±

¡°Seymour, he¡¯s interesting,¡± Whisenhunt said. ¡°You never really know what you¡¯re going to get with him.¡±

Seymour still takes freeze-dried organ supplements each morning, though he also eats plenty of steaks and ground beef patties to try to hit his goal of three pounds of meat per day.

He happened to be at the grill when he missed a call from Giants director of player development Kyle Haines in November. Seymour immediately called him back and found out that he¡¯d also been added to the 40-man roster after finishing fourth in the Pacific Coast League with a 4.82 ERA over 29 appearances (28 starts) for Sacramento in 2024. His repertoire includes a mid-90s sinker and a nasty, hard slider that helped him rack up 132 strikeouts over 134 1/3 innings last season.

Whisenhunt, 24, is the most highly touted of the group, quickly emerging as one of the Giants¡¯ top pitching prospects after being taken in the second round of the 2022 Draft. He shot all the way to Double-A Richmond in his first full professional season in ¡®23, though he experienced a setback after suffering a season-ending left elbow injury that summer.

Still, Whisenhunt managed to avoid surgery and return to the mound last year, logging a 5.17 ERA over 27 starts at Sacramento. His money pitch is his 80-grade changeup, but he¡¯s also working on rounding out his arsenal by adding a new slider this spring.

Whisenhunt will likely join Seymour and Ragsdale in Sacramento¡¯s rotation to start the season, but he could also have an opportunity to contribute sooner rather than later if he performs well, particularly since the Giants are currently light on left-handed options in the bullpen.

¡°I think he¡¯s a high-end starter that we look to down the road,¡± manager Bob Melvin said. ¡°But as we sit here right now, Landen Roupp wasn¡¯t even going to pitch for us in spring last year. He was here in camp to get the experience, and the next thing you know, he makes the team. So performance obviously plays.¡±