Things are going pretty bad in the present for the SF Giants. When the present is bad, sometimes it’s not the worst idea to look ahead to the future and dream of a time when the Giants don’t actively stink. Enter the Chicago White Sox who reportedly may pass on Roch Cholowsky, the consensus top pick in the MLB Draft who just so happens to be a Bay Area native, which could allow him to fall to San Francisco.

In a recent column from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, he writes the following:

“The Chicago White Sox remain uncertain who they will draft with the No. 1 pick in July, and insist they have not committed to taking UCLA shortstop Roch Cholowsky, the consensus top player in the draft. It’s also unclear, several executives say, whether the White Sox are Cholowsky’s top preference.”

Nightengale also writes: “One GM, whose team drafts in the top five, believes there’s still a chance Cholowsky falls to them.”

SF Giants could swoop in and draft Cholowsky if White Sox pass on him

Hmm. A team that drafts in the top five you say? The Giants have the No. 4 overall pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. Is this a case of Giants general manager Zack Minasian trying to stir the pot a little bit or does he really think there’s a chance the Giants could land the UCLA shortstop?

Or maybe all of this is just posturing from the White Sox and they’re just trying to keep teams on their toes or are doing this for contract negotiations with Cholowsky when they do end up drafting him.

No matter what, this doesn’t seem to be as much of a shoe-in as the Las Vegas Raiders drafting quarterback Fernando Mendoza just over a week ago in the NFL Draft. Passing on the consensus overall pick would be the most White Sox move imaginable though and would be decried as incompetent.

In a perfect world, there may not be a more ideal target than Cholowsky for the Giants. He was born in Vallejo and has said that he grew up cheering for the Giants. Brandon Crawford is the shortstop he modeled his game off of and he’s also named Barry Bonds as one of his idols.

The Giants did pretty well when they drafted a Bay Area native who was a shortstop at UCLA when they selected Crawford in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft. Maybe this is an instance of history repeating itself.

So far this season for the Bruins, Cholowsky is hitting .326/.458/.698 with 18 home runs and 52 runs batted in. Like Crawford, he was a high school quarterback so he’s got a great arm and he also has great bat-to-ball skills, something president of baseball operations Buster Posey has emphasized since taking over.

Of course, one could argue that the Giants have a ton of shortstop prospects already with Josuar Gonzalez, Luis Hernandez, Jhonny Level, and last year’s first-round pick Gavin Kilen. That’s true, but Gonzalez, Hernandez, and Level are all teenagers and are years away from making it to the big leagues.

It still doesn’t feel like the likeliest of scenarios for Cholowsky to fall down to the Giants, but it’s fun to dream about. It’s fun to dream in general when the Giants look as bad as they have, so maybe they will catch a break and he will fall to them if the White Sox choose to go against the grain.