2025 There R Giants' Top 50: #6 Jhonny Level

The Breakout

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

There’s a great line near the end of the truly wonderful (and very underrated) movie, Quiz Show. Martin Scorsese, playing Marty Rittenhome, CEO of Geritol, and thus the corporate overlord of the quiz show, 21, explains to the protagonist of the film why the game shows and the network executives who created them would easily survive the fixing scandals of the 1950s:

Even the quiz shows will be back. Why fix them? Think about it — you could do exactly the same thing by just making the questions easier. See, the audience didn’t tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money.

In our last spot on the Top 50, we recounted the story of a highly anticipated debut that has yet to really launch out of the starting gate — and the assorted frustrations associated with hopes deferred. Today, we have something of the opposite story arc. Jhonny Level certainly wasn’t unknown going into his debut season. He signed for a bonus of nearly a million dollars, after all, and was generally considered to be among the better players coming into MLB in last year’s international market. Still, based on the feedback I got from my readers, and the buzz I picked up from Giants’ fans around the interwebs, Level didn’t enter his first year with anything like the bated-breath excitement that greeted guys like Marco Luciano, Rayner Arias, and, now, Josuar de Jesus Gonzalez.

The difference in perception would seem to be that extra million or two in signing bonus that the latter three got. MillionS are more effecting than million, it would seem. You had our number, alright, Mr. Rittenhome. We do seem to enjoy watching the money go round.

Still, maybe it was better for Level to enter his career slightly under the radar. That helped him go through an opening slump without too much notice, and it made the explosive year to come sweeter and more surprising. Other than Bryce Eldridge, there probably wasn’t another player in the system who leveled up his game more this year than young Jhonny. That wasn’t a surprise to the Giants, who knew they had a real athlete on their hands and expected great things. They knew they had a kid whose trajectory was pointing upwards as he started his professional career.

Now, of course, he’s got us all eagerly anticipating what comes next!