A huge get.
Today marks the beginning of the 2025 international signing period in Major League Baseball and, as expected, the San Francisco Giants started things with a bang. The Giants kicked off the festivities by signing shortstop Josuar de Jesus González, with a reported signing bonus of $2.5 million.
The San Francisco Giants have officially signed SS Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez, the most complete position player in the international class according to many scouts.
Bonus deal: $2,500,000.
Most advanced player in talent within this international signing period. pic.twitter.com/aesxDxYHVg
— Francys Romero (@francysromeroFR) January 15, 2025
González has been linked to the Giants for a long time, and it’s been no secret that he planned to sign with San Francisco. It had been reported for ages that he had an agreement in place with the organization, and González himself all but confirmed it by filling out his social media pages with pictures of him in Giants gear, and listing the Giants — alongside a black heart and an orange heart — in his Instagram bio. Even so, international agreements do fall apart now and again, so it’s exciting to know that pen has been put to paper, and that González is, officially, a Giant.
The shortstop is unanimously viewed as one of the top prospects in this year’s class. Excluding the MLB-ready Rōki Sasaki, González was listed as the top international prospect in the class by both Fangraphs and MLB Pipeline, and the No. 5 prospect by Baseball America.
González, who turned 17 in October, can do a little bit of everything, which has earned him exciting comps to Francisco Lindor. He’s agile and twitchy enough that prospectors are very optimistic about his ability to stick at shortstop, yet the switch-hitter possesses notable power from both sides of the plate. He has excellent speed as well, paving the way to be a base-stealer or, in the eyes of some, potentially shift to center field at some point. It’s hard to read this blurb from Baseball America and not feel like González is a step towards the Giants addressing some serious holes in their system over the last few years:
Gonzalez has quickness and explosion to his game that’s immediately evident in all facets of the game. A plus-plus runner, Gonzalez is a lean, athletic shortstop with quick-burst, bouncy actions in the field. He has impressive agility and quick feet with good range, hands and body control with an above-average arm. Gonzalez has fast-twitch movements that show up in the batter’s box as well with fast hands to snap the barrel through the zone with good bat speed from both sides of the plate.
It seems likely that González, who was signed out of the Dominican Republic, will slot in as the Giants’ second or third-best prospect on most lists (though he was just No. 5 on our Community Prospect List), and that’s quite a boost for a system desperately in need of it.
Given that the team’s new regime seems to be taking a slow-and-steady approach with prospects — and given how they handled Rayner Arias, the star of their class two years ago who was deemed as very advanced for his age — it seems likely that González will play his debut season in the Dominican Summer League, before coming to the states in 2026. But teams have gotten fairly aggressive with top international prospects lately, so we can’t entirely rule out the possibility that he begins his career in Arizona.
Welcome to the Giants, Josuar. No pressure, but … you know … please be great.