Josuar Gonzalez Is a Future Giants Star Worth Watching
The switch-hitting prospect exploded onto the minor league scene in 2025.
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For the last decade, the San Francisco Giants have had a lackluster farm system. It’s been a repetitive cycle of exciting prospects fizzling out and never reaching their full potential.
A handful of those names have been former international signees. Flawed developments like Marco Luciano and Luis Matos are still bringing nightmares to the waters of McCovey Cove.
Fast-forward to now, the big league roster is full of long-term, big-money players that were not developed in-house. At some point, the organization is going to need some homegrown, controllable talent to debut and become impactful contributors.
Now, of course, Willy Adames is the shortstop in San Francisco for what looks to be the next six years after becoming the highest-paid free agent in the franchise’s history prior to the 2025 season. However, the Giants may have found his replacement once that deal is up.
Josuar Gonzalez was scouted as the best international prospect in the 2025 class. It took a significant chunk of change — three million dollars to be exact — but the Giants were able to snag the young kid from the Dominican Republic.
Let’s take a look at how his first season in the organization went and why fans should keep an eye on the switch-hitting shortstop.
Gonzalez’s Early Breakout
It’s hard to find a hole in Gonzalez’s game. His ability to do everything on the field at an advanced level for a teenager is what made him the highest-touted player of his class.
The countless comparisons to names like Francisco Lindor and José Reyes highlight exactly what the 17-year-old brings to the table as a switch-hitting shortstop. While all numbers from the Dominican Summer League should be taken with a grain of salt, there was a surplus of encouraging signs.
In his first professional season, he slashed .288/.404/.455, which was good for a 129 wRC+. While the power wasn’t overwhelming, he still launched four home runs, 10 doubles, and five triples while posting a .859 OPS in his 228 plate appearances.
Almost more importantly, Gonzalez excels at a lot of things the big league team struggles with. The San Francisco Giants ranked 29th in stolen bases with just 68 in 2025 and have been either 29th or 30th in the league for the past three seasons.
Gonzalez is looking to change that. Even though it was just his age-17 season, he swiped 33 bags in his professional debut.
The Giants have also been in the bottom half of the league in terms of strikeouts for the past five seasons. Gonzalez, on the other hand, walked (16.2% BB rate) more than he struck out (15.8% K-rate) in 2025.
Our very own Aram Leighton highlighted some of the advanced tendencies of Gonzales in his Giants top prospect rankings earlier this summer:
As he learns to use the ground more effectively, Gonzalez will likely be able to tap into more power, though the profile will be hit over impact. His left-handed swing is comfortably ahead of his right side at this point. He has a good feel for the zone, but is still learning to recognize spin more effectively. Already popping exit velocities of 109 MPH at 17 years old, only helps facilitate optimism in that regard.
– Aram Leighton, Just Baseball
While Giants fans should surely be excited based simply on the advanced offensive prowess of the young shortstop, the glove is just as riveting.
Marco Luciano was a name mentioned earlier in this article. He was supposed to be the savior of the Giants’ franchise and take over the shortstop position after the retirement of Brandon Crawford. However, many scouts knew immediately that he wouldn’t stick at the position.
Of course, things can always change, but the early returns suggest that won’t be the case with Gonzalez.
Shortly after his signing with the organization became official, the Giants’ director of international scouting, Joe Salermo, had high praise for his defensive ability:
He has quickness with his hands, the ability to play shortstop with plus skills, a 70 (grade) arm.
– Joe Salermo, San Francisco Giants
Final Thoughts
It looks as if the Giants have an exciting piece in Josuar Gonzalez. While he’s only 18, the early returns have been extremely intriguing.
As he matures, the organization hopes that he sees a meteoric rise up prospect rankings around the industry, as was the case for Leodalis de Vries and Jesus Made. More importantly, they hope he can turn into an everyday regular at the big league level, something they’ve struggled to develop in recent memory.
It seems like the Giants are striving to make their presence felt in the international market. In the upcoming class, they’re expected to once again sign the top position player in the group, Luis Hernandez.
One question remains: Will San Francisco finally be able to develop top-tier talent, or will the ghosts of past failures continue to haunt the fans by the Bay?
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Michael Monreal got his start in baseball media when he started his own website covering the San Francisco Giants after playing two years of college baseball.…