Saturday, August 01

The Giants’ top two prospects will spend the rest of the 2026 campaign playing only 50 miles south of Oracle Park, offering an early glimpse at an infield tandem that could develop into a core piece of the club in the not-too-distant future.

Teenage shortstops Josuar Gonzalez, the Giants’ No. 1 prospect per MLB Pipeline, and Luis Hernández (No. 2) were both promoted to Single-A San Jose last week following successful stints at the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League this year.

Gonzalez, 18, slashed .343/.451/.515 with two homers and eight stolen bases over 30 games in the ACL, while Hernández, 17, batted .298/.382/.535 with six homers, 19 doubles and five triples across 54 games. 

The Giants felt both showed enough to earn a look at the next level, leading to their midseason promotions to San Jose.  

“I think the easy answer is [both were promoted because of] the way that they handled themselves on the field in the ACL,” vice president of player development Randy Winn said. “Both of them obviously played pretty well, put up good numbers, but it was also some of the maturity that they showed on the field. They never looked like the game was moving too fast and that they were overwhelmed. They performed well. We felt that this was a good challenge for them.”

Gonzalez and Hernández are now two of the youngest players in the California League, but they’ve continued to impress with their precocious skill sets.

Gonzalez, who signed with the Giants for $2,997,500 as the top position player in the 2025 international class, entered Saturday 5-for-17 (.294) over his first five games for San Jose and launched his first Single-A home run off rehabbing Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi on Thursday. 

“I think Josuar can be a little bit more aggressive than Luis, but plate discipline-wise, he's done a good job kind of managing the strike zone,” Winn said.

Now ranked the No. 15 prospect in baseball, Gonzalez is known for his twitchy athleticism and has drawn comparisons to fellow switch-hitting shortstops like Francisco Lindor and José Reyes. 

Hernández received a $4,997,500 signing bonus in January as the crown jewel of the 2026 international class and skipped the Dominican Summer League because of his advanced approach at the plate. He’s 3-for-24 (.125) with one home run and four RBIs over his first six games for San Jose and made a dazzling play at third base in his Single-A debut on July 26, when he ranged into foul territory to backhand a grounder and then executed a perfect jump throw to first base. 

“Range, hands, arm strength, accuracy -- all the things that you want in an infielder,” Winn said. “He showed it on that play. Maturity is going to be a theme when I talk about him. But the clock of the game, he's very good with knowing when he needs to add a little bit extra and when he can just kind of set his feet and make just a push throw over there. But he does stuff like that instinctually.”

Gonzalez and Hernández were both signed as shortstops, but they’ve been getting exposure to other spots around the infield, as well. Hernández is getting a fair amount of reps at third, while Gonzalez is drawing starts at second base, which makes it a bit easier to split playing time on the dirt. 

“We want both of them to play short, but then we also think that it's good that they learn kind of a shortstop counterpart,” Winn said. “Luis is going to be playing third. Josuar will play second. They did that in the ACL. Now that there's more games in a week, it'll roughly be a week at short and then a week at either second or third.”

President of baseball operations Buster Posey announced Friday that the Giants will be suspending payment of Harrison Bader’s salary while they look into the circumstances of a scooter crash that further damaged the 32-year-old outfielder’s injured left foot on Sunday.

“Over the weekend, Harrison Bader was involved in an accident that has delayed Harrison's prior treatment timeline for plantar fasciitis and, unfortunately, his return to the field,” Posey said in a statement that was released by the team. “We are still investigating the circumstances of the accident but will be suspending payment to Harrison until he is able to resume performing services for the Club.” More >>

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