There R Giants #24: Ismael Munguia
Photo Credit: Eugene Emeralds | Gary Breedlove
We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the winter months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to the much-needed spring. Our list of previously covered players is getting a little long, so from here on out I’m moving the links for the full list down the bottom of the post.
I’ve never really been the “gritty underdog” fanboy type. It’s just not my bag. I come to sports looking to be overwhelmed by greatness. I want to see the thing done in a way that stretches human capacity — be it speed, power, grace, ultimate performance. I really am a star lover. Certainly, I appreciate a good overachiever because I know how hard it is even to quote-unquote “underachieve.” But I don’t thrill to their narratives, don’t buy their jerseys. I was a Jim Ray Hart kid, not a Jimmy Davenport kid (though Jimmy, bless his soul, certainly was the greatest Giants lifer of all).
Ismael Munguia, the subject of today’s post, however, has become the exception that proves the rule. If you’ve been reading There R Giants for very long, one thing you know for sure, is that I’ve converted this site into Home Base Central of Munguia fandom. And it’s not just me — everywhere Munguia has played he’s won over observers with his hair-on-fire, high energy style of play. He has a tendency to insert himself into the center of action at a critical juncture of games, whether it’s at the plate, in the field, or on the bases. Fans, scouts, broadcasters, teammates — heck, probably even the opponents enjoy watching the man play.
Here’s a player who can take a swing like this:
and a swing like this….
…while consistently making plays like this!
…and do it all with a passion and panáche that is irrepressible and irresistible. And in 2021, the little sparkplug from Nicaragua took his game up to an entirely different level, becoming one of the premier players (though not necessarily premier prospects) in his league. So let’s order up that Munguia game jersey on eBay and strap in for some fun! It’s Munguia Day on the There R Giants 50 and we’re all gonna be fans of this underdog before his work is through.
Background
The Giants made a huge splash on July 2, 2015 when they signed Lucius Fox to the largest international bonus ever for a non-Cuban international free agent ($6 million). They also thought they had an agreement for a second large contract that year, a $2.5 million dollar deal with Cuban Eddy Julio Martinez, though confusion reigned on that agreement, and Martinez ended up with the Cubs for $3 million.
Over time, however, it’s become apparent that the Giants’ 2015 international class was destined to become the vanguard of a wave of international talent washing through the organization NOT thanks to the splashy big dollar signings, but rather to the depth of quality scouting on smaller deals. Eight years later, some of those smaller signings have worked their way to the majors: Camilo Doval and Kervin Castro were each $100,000 signings that year. Hit meister Diego Rincones inked for just slightly more, while highly regarded catching prospect Ricardo Genovés received the largest six figure deal at $500,000.
And then there was the very lowest end of the bonus pool. For just $17,000 (just about the lowest figure that counts against the international bonus pool), the Giants signed a small, left-handed hitter out of Nicaragua named Ismael Munguia. The signing, not surprisingly, was met with virtually no fanfare outside of the Munguia household.
Then began the steady trudge up the ladder that is the fate of all such anonymous signings. Prove it out at every level and if you do, maybe there’s another rung for you. Munguia’s early years were nothing extraordinary — he hit .274 as a 17 year old in the DSL with twice as many walks (30) as strikeouts (15) but virtually no power. The following year in Arizona he improved on that with a .331 average and an excellent .398 OBP. Solid but hardly eye-catching stat lines. But he was establishing two consistent traits that would define his game: he played the game with an infectious amount of energy, and he was exceedingly hard to strike out.
He had by far the lowest K rate in the DSL as a 17 year old (5.5%) and would lead the Sally three years later at 20 (9.5%). His 11% K rate in the AZL at 18 was just the third lowest for that league. Along the way, he made fans of virtually everyone who watched him play. Baseball America’s Bill Mitchell, the Dean of Arizona League observers, once said that watching Munguia play “was just plain fun.” It certainly looked as though “just plain fun” was the reason he played the game, as well, and he served as a reminder that fun was the reason we all pay so much attention to this silly activity in the first place.
His only real struggle came in 2018, which had started out as a repeat assignment in the AZL, his third straight rookie ball assignment. But midway through the season, Munguia got a jump promotion up to Low A Augusta, helping fill out the Greenjackets OF. There the 19-year-old Munguia appeared overmatched for the first time, with his average dropping down to just .226 and an absurdly high strikeout rate (for him) of 15%. Likely, the teenaged Munguia just wasn’t strong enough for the level yet. But returning to the Sally as a 20-year-old, he put together his finest overall campaign, hitting .286/.343/.386 in a difficult offensive environment, while handling daily CF duties with his usual style.
Munguia’s overall game impressed Sally league managers so much that he was named to the All Star game, starting in CF for the Southern Division, helping out his higher profile teammate Seth Corry, who was the game’s starting pitcher. The All Star appearance (one double, two hits) seemed to inspire Munguia to even greater heights, as he came out of the break on fire. He collected 30 hits over his next 88 PA, including a stretch of 11 multi-hit efforts within 16 games. Nearly all of those hits were singles — he had just four doubles in the streak — but he gave the team a huge spark at the top of the lineup and his late season splurge helped push the team to a 1st place finish in the Sally League South.
In the winters, Munguia was doing much the same for national teams in his native Nicaragua. He started and led off for the national team in the Pan American Games of 2019 and a 23U World Cup Qualifying tournament (which Nicaragua won) in 2020. Munguia was a star of both tournaments, making the WC tournament’s All Star honors as a dynamic presence at the top of the order. He wasn’t making prospect lists, he wasn’t dominating statistical categories, but over the course of four seasons, the 20 year old had established a baseball identity: he played hard, he put balls in play at an exorbitant rate, and he hit everywhere he went. It was starting to get noticed.
Scouting Report
There never has been and never will be a better scouting report written on Munguia than the one Eric Longenhagen provided when he included Munguia in his “Sneaky Sleepers” section of the Fangraphs’ Giants rankings last winter:
Munguia is tiny, but he plays his ass off and puts the bat on the ball at an abnormal rate.
Every word of that report is pure perfection and I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t write it myself. The word that catches the eye, of course, is “abnormal.” Well, I suppose “ass” does, too. But “abnormal” is the perfect word for Munguia’s ability to put the ball in play. So abnormal, in fact, that he would go out that very year and post the lowest strikeout rate among all domestic minor leaguer players at just 7.6%. For his career, he has struck out just 129 times now in 1,431 trips to the plate (9%). This is truly becoming an elite skill! Even Rincones, something of a contact savant himself, has posted a 13% K rate over his career.
It’s a flat, rhythmic, well-balanced swing with a natural instinct for getting the barrel to the ball, wherever that ball is.
And I want to emphasize this point because it’s a skill that the current Giants organization values highly. I was speaking last fall with Giants Scouting Director Michael Holmes, and he got to talking about the value of contact skills.
“A lot’s been written” he said, “since Farhan came over and I came over [about] the value we place on “contact skills.” Well it IS a skill, right? And guys who have contact skills have a better chance to hit than others. So take a guy like Munguia, who at the lower levels, there was some performance — maybe not a ton of impact, but he always had the ability to make contact. Now, he’s starting to get stronger and the body’s starting to develop. His confidence is coming, he’s learning how to hit in counts. He’s facing better competition which is challenging him more — same with Rincones. So you take that high contact skill and now you enter all of these other elements into the bowl and you start to mix it all together and what comes out on the other end is a guy who’s a really good player. And I think Munguia’s performance, Rincones’ performance, this summer really kind of highlights what these guys have always been able to do — and that’s swing the bat.
I mentioned in a couple of pieces in 2020 that Munguia’s extreme ability to make contact made him a type of hitter who should fit well with the current organization — because I knew they valued the ability to make contact. Of course, they also value the ability to control the strike zone and that is much less of a Munguia speciality. Though he has a strong 94 to 129 BB:K rate in his minor league career, the vast majority of those walks came in rookie ball, including a 30 to 15 ratio in the DSL (note: do NOT trust walk rate numbers from the DSL). As he’s moved up, the walk rates have fallen to comical levels (3.3% this year).
With Eugene in 2021, he swung at nearly 60% of all pitches he saw! Now, the good news is he made contact on an absurd 87% of those swings — the highest rate in the minor leagues. But the bad news is he was swinging at 60% of all pitches he saw. That’s …. probably not a sustainable approach to hitting! That will need to be reined in as he moves up.
In the field, there’s some question as to whether Munguia is a true center fielder. Though fast, his size can limit the amount of ground he covers — he’s not the Steven Duggar gazelle type of runner, more of a “pick ‘em up quick and put ‘em down” chugger. But he certainly can handle all three outfield positions well, with an aggressive ball-hawking style that looks to make plays, especially big plays. It’s a style that can lead to errors of over-aggressiveness. We’ve seen this on the big league club with Mauricio Dubón for instance, where the desire to “make something happen” can lead to both flights of genius and unpardonable errors of judgment. Eugene Manager Dennis Pelfrey said something of the same effect about Munguia on the podcast last summer. There’s a fine line between being a clutch playmaker and being prone to mental lapses.
Still, if taking the good with the bad became part of the Munguia experience for Pelfrey last season, there was no doubt that he was eager to take the deal, as Munguia developed into an emotional leader for the league champions. But that’s a story for another section…
This Season
Let’s not mess around here any and bury the lede, Munguia had a 2021 season that gave him a HIGHLY legitimate claim to the High A West MVP award. He ended up finishing second in that voting (BAD VOTERS!), but let’s quickly list up his achievements in the league among qualified hitters:
first in batting average by 20 points!!! (.336)
third in OPS (.868)
second in hits (112)
nearly 20 fewer strikeouts than any other hitter (27) and lowest K rate
7th in OBP (.366)
and amazingly, second in SLG (.502)
He also tripled his career TOTAL in home runs with 9, improved on his 2019 SLG by .126 points, had a career best .165 Isolate Slugging, and stole a career high 15 bases.
Now it’s important to note that being the best player in a minor league is not synonymous with being the best prospect. The High A West’s best prospects (led by Seattle’s extraordinary Julio Rodriguez, who may be the best prospect in baseball) came and went and didn’t stick around to being “qualified” hitters. The guys who stick around for full years in A ball are, almost by definition, not the best prospects.
But over the course of a full year at a level, those players can stretch and grow and develop their game, and that’s what Munguia did this year. His first half was steady — he was a decent all around contributor to one of the top clubs in the league, just as he’d been in Augusta. In June, he left the club to participate in the Olympic qualifying round, once again starring for the Nicaraguan national team (managed by former Giant Marvin Benard, a player whose game resembled Munguia’s in many respects). Munguia was again one of the standouts of the qualifying tourney. He showed some power, doubling off the opposite-field wall on two occasions, and even hit into some impressive outs.
But, as had been true in 2019, Munguia saved his best for last and paced the Emeralds to a post-season appearance with an incendiary second half. Beginning on July 30, Munguia would finish the year on a truly insane binge, picking up 61 hits in his final 120 at bats, a .508 pace. The only thing that slowed him down was a leg injury that kept him off the field for more than two weeks in August. But he didn’t let the time off slow his roll, lashing out two hits in each of his first four games after his return.
Now there are legitimate reasons to be somewhat skeptical of late season surges in the low minors. As noted above, the elite talent moves on to higher challenges, even the studs coming up from Low A can stumble following promotion, the talent level becomes diluted. But my dude: the man hit over .500 for a solid two months! I don’t care if you’re playing slow pitch softball in your church league against Pastor Grant’s “ipsy oodle” pitching — THAT’S HARD TO DO!!!
I got to see a particularly hot spurt — I mean, if there can be particularly hot spurts embedded within a stretch of hitting .500. Over the four games I was in Eugene this summer, Munguia went 12 for 21 and showed off some of that new “man” strength with four doubles, a triple and a deep home run.
He also displayed that elusive “clutchiness” gene along the way. He had nine hits in the first two games of the championship series, finish the playoffs 12 for 19 with two homers and a double. Of his nine regular season home runs, four broke ties and gave the Emeralds leads they would not relinquish. A fifth broke open a game in extra innings. He had three walk off singles during the year. Along the way, he made a little history in his native country, as his 53 RBI surpassed Benard’s 50 in 1993 as the greatest minor league RBI campaign by a Nicaraguan player. Only Benard’s 1999-2000 major league totals (60 and 55) have been higher in US professional baseball — and both of those came in 149 games. I told you those two bore some similarities!
He was, in almost every way, the emotional engine of the championship drive.
Though Everett’s power hitting Cade Marlowe ended up being named the league’s MVP, it’s hard to imagine what else Munguia might have done to deserve it. Munguia had to be satisfied with a nod on the league All Star team, MiLB.com’s Organizational All Stars and, of course, a boost up the ol’ There R Giants’ Top 50 — though it’s taking every fiber of restraint I possess over my fanboy heart not to nudge up another ten spots or so!
Munguia concluded his big year by signing on with a new sports management agency (Munger English SM, the same company that represents Heliot Ramos, among others), suggesting he might have raised his profile in more than just scouting circles in 2021.
The Future
The Little Engine That Could now takes his shouldawonit-MVP act up to Double A for a real development challenge, and I think the next hurdle is a pretty clear one. He’s shown for years that he has one of the minor leagues greatest contact skills. He can guide the barrel to the ball no matter where it is. Now he needs to start showing the discretion to guide that barrel a little less frequently. Baseball America’s Josh Norris spoke on the podcast about going to see a Eugene game this year and watching Munguia swing at every single pitch he saw throughout the evening.
Ultimately, that’s a process that is unlikely to lead to success at the highest level — even with preternatural contact abilities. We saw an offensive skill set something like that in San Francisco a few years back with Miguel Gomez — a player determined to put every ball he saw into play. Granted, Gomez lacked a real defensive home and wasn’t the most mobile of players, which put more pressure on his bat to succeed. Munguia brings a wealth of assets that can help a team win, much like former Good Giant™ Gregor Blanco. And like former Good Giant™ Sergio Romo, what Munguia lacks in size, he more than makes up for in heart.
With some incremental improvements in his approach at the plate, there’s a real chance that Munguia can keep defying the odds and craft himself a valuable utility role on a major league bench. And who knows, as long as you’re defying odds, why not defy them all the way to the stars? One thing is for sure, if Munguia is playing on a team you root for any time soon, you will have fun watching him and you’ll likely remember that the reason we love watching this game is its capacity to fill us with joy and wonder — which is a pretty good description of the way Ismael Munguia plays the game he so clearly loves.
One more thing before I go — just because the lockout continues, don’t think the Giants aren’t out there making moves! May I present the latest minor league free agent signing, Matt Carasiti (for the second time in the last two years).
EDITOR’S NOTE: Today’s post is Free For All and since I have gained quite a few new subscribers on the Free plan this winter (THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support!), I should take a moment to explain how my schedule works and what you should expect moving forward. During the season, I’ll write 5-6 posts weekly summing up all of the minor league action in the system. I try to make this a one-stop shop on the entire organization, including game wraps ups, first person views, some player interviews, scouting scuttlebutt and more. One post a week always goes out to the free subscribers (and occasionally two). In addition, I have a weekly podcast that always goes out free to all (normally on Thursday).
I’m also hoping to have more feature stories or profiles this year during the season. In the offseason, I cut back to three per week and the free posts consequently cut back to about one every 2.5 weeks. I am planning a trip to minor league spring camp in late March and will likely start running daily posts again at that point. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy today’s Free for All post and if you like it, by all means consider becoming a full time subscriber for access to all of my content!
Hey Rog! I just want you to know that signing up for There R Giants last year was one of my better decisions. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have 3!!! (busy week) unread prospect bios and all of my “honeydews” done. I’m gonna lay down on the couch, let my kid watch YouTube and binge! Great prospects, great team and great sports writer!
When the Eugene Emeralds first came to town this year I was salivating to see the 3 first round picks. What I came away with was ISMAEL MUNGUIA. And no, I didn't accidently hit the caps lock.