2 The Bigs

By Matt Castagna, February 14th, 2025

As the price of sealed wax continues to rise, I’m here to help direct you to the “singles” market (of cards, that is). This approach is becoming the most efficient way for the new and even seasoned collector to diversify their prospect collection without spending hundreds (or thousands) on the gamble of boxes. Instead of doing the latter, I’m going to give you players that can actually make you some money, with one tenth the investment of a hobby box. With that said, I’m here to highlight those players who I’d consider to be “Bowman Bargains” during the 2025 off-season.

Player [Upside Score] (Likeliness)

Bowman Bargain #3: Gino Groover [72] (MED)

We’ve highlighted the Arizona Diamondbacks system a ton on 2 The Bigs. We are true believers in their scouting and development system. A recent trend I’ve seen in Arizona is their targeting of polished collegiate talent in the draft. They have recently utilized 1st round picks on Ryan Waldschmidt, Tommy Troy and other 2TB highlighted prospects like Ivan Melendez and Jack Hurley.

For the latest bowman bargain spotlight we continueto dive into the Diamondbacks recent draft picks. Today, we’ll cover 2023 2nd-round pick Gino Groover. Gino is a well traveled and prolific hitter that finished off his college career at NC State. His final collegiate season in 2023 is what helped propel him into the draft scene. He had a .332/.430/.546 slash line in 2023 with 13 home runs. But the the biggest statistical standout was his 9.4% K-rate.

Gino’s start to his professional career picked up right where he left off at NC State.. Gino has always been touted for his incredibly fast hands and great bat to ball skills. That certainly didn’t change when he showed up in the Diamondbacks org. Across his last two minor league seasons he has slashed .281/.362/.458. More impressive, he’s kept that K-rate down (14%) and has increased his power, pushing towards a 30 HR and 90 RBI 162-game average in 2024. The Diamondbacks have also moved Gino to 3B where they currently do not have any players blocking him from reaching the Majors (Eugenio Suarez’s contracts expires after the 2024 season). With Gino’s quick-hands and low-K-rate, I am buying this prospects ability to develop power to become a future 25-30+ HR guy at the hot corner. We could see our next Mark Vientos-type.