Giants draft Barry Bonds’ nephew 90th overall

The San Francisco Giants selected Rutgers outfielder Peyton Bonds with the 90th overall pick in the third round of the 2026 MLB Draft on Saturday.

Peyton, 20, is the nephew of Giants legend and Major League Baseball’s all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, the grandson of Bobby Bonds, and the son of Bobby Bonds Jr., who spent more than a decade in professional baseball and reached Triple-A. Barry Bonds played 22 major league seasons, including 15 with San Francisco, where he hit 586 of his career-record 762 home runs. Bobby Bonds finished his MLB career with 332 home runs.

Peyton Bonds enters professional baseball after an impressive season at Rutgers. In 36 games, he hit .352 with a .436 on-base percentage and a .535 slugging percentage, producing a .972 OPS while collecting 50 hits in 142 at-bats. He added six home runs, 29 RBIs, 31 runs scored and 13 stolen bases in 15 attempts. His season was cut short by a hamstring injury suffered in April.

Standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing 230 pounds, Bonds is renowned for his bat speed and high exit velocities. At the MLB Combine, he recorded a 110.6 mph 90th-percentile exit velocity, the fifth-highest mark at the event according to Baseball America. Although his raw power hasn’t consistently shown up in games yet, some adjustments to his bat path could help him tap into more of it at the professional level. MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 81 prospect in the draft class, while Baseball America placed him No. 114.

Defensively, Bonds is viewed as an athletic center fielder with average speed and strong fielding ability. During his final Rutgers season, he accumulated 80 putouts and a .976 fielding percentage. MLB Pipeline projects him to remain in center field as he advances.

The Giants were already familiar with Bonds after scouting Rutgers teammate Trevor Cohen, San Francisco’s 2025 third-round selection and current No. 8 prospect.

Michael Holmes, the team’s senior director of amateur scouting, said the family’s baseball background was not the deciding factor in the selection, stressing the organization’s belief in Bonds’ overall talent and future development.