2025 There R Giants' Top 50: #3 Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez

The Prodigy

So far, in this year’s Top 50, we’ve seen:

• Just Missed List

• 46-50 (Camacho, Foster, Flores, Hernandez, Reckley)

• 41-45 (Christian, Pomares, Ahuna, Perez, Sugastey)

• 36-40 (Howell, Murphy, Miles, Simon, Choate)

• 31-35 (Sanchez, Waites, Bresnahan, Rengel, Maldonado)

• 26-30 (Hipwell, Bello, Tejada, Diaz, Bericoto)

• 21-25 (Ortíz, Furman, Cayama, Harris, Ceballos

• 16-20 (Cox, Martin, Meckler, Bostick, Velasquez)

• 11-15 (Arteaga, Crawford, Davidson, Seymour, Ragsdale)

• 10: Trevor McDonald

• 9: Mason Black

• 8: Joe Whitman

• 7: Rayner Arias

• 6: Jhonny Level

• 5. Dakota Jordan

• 4. James Tibbs III

In the four years that I’ve been doing this list, I have always staunchly held to a personal rule: I don’t include the newest group of incoming IFA signees. I have reasons for this! For one, I’m always a bit conservative on players until they’ve gotten into pro ball, worked with the development staff, and shown what they can do in this environment. That’s true of new draftees, of UDFA, and it’s true of the youngest players down in the Felipe Alou Academy in the Dominican Republic. There’s all the difference in the world between showing tools in workout sessions, and playing the game for a summer.

But, to be perfectly honest, a lot of the reasoning behind my “No IFAs” rule have been logistic. Usually, I’ve already put the list together when the signings are made official (indeed, I’ve sometimes already started publishing it), and I don’t want to have to bump guys off the back end or push names around in the middle. That’s more or less true of this year’s list as well — outfielder Djean Macares, who looks to me like the spitting image of Marvin Benard at the plate, would certainly have fit somewhere in the back half of this year’s list, but I wanted to highlight the guys I already had on there.

But the biggest reason behind my rule is that there really is no story for me to tell about these players who have yet to take their first professional step. We have the scouting report — a couple of paragraphs that I already gave you last month on signing day. But it’s hard to carry an entirely new post on that same old, relatively brief material. It’s just hard to write these guys up for the Top 50 without a little playing time grist for the composing mill!

So, why have I made an exception this year? Why is young Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez taking his place near the top of this year’s Top 50? Because this kid is special is why. How special? According to Giants Senior International Scouting Director Joe Salermo, the 16-year-old Gonzalez is “the most exciting player, the biggest get for the Giants, since I came here in 2014.”

For that…..we break rules.