Phillies sign former SF Giants second-round pick to milb contract

The Philadelphia Phillies have signed former SF Giants second-round pick Jacob Gonzalez to a minor-league contract.

Steven Rissotto | Dec 21, 2023

Phillies sign former SF Giants second-round pick to milb contract /

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Former SF Giants prospect Jacob Gonzalez has a new home. The infielder has inked a minor league deal with the Philadelphia Phillies on Dec. 11, according to the MiLB transaction log. Gonzalez has spent the past two seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

SF Giants third baseman Jacob Gonzalez in the fourth inning against the Oakland Athletics during a spring training game at HohoKam Stadium. (2020) — SF Giants 3B Jacob Gonzalez fields during a spring training game. (2020) / Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports

Gonzalez, 25, was a second-rounder –– the 58th selection in the country –– by the Giants in 2017, the organization’s next pick following the choice of outfielder Heliot Ramos in the first round. He received a $950,000 signing bonus from San Francisco out of high school and forwent an existing agreement to play college baseball at TCU.

Unlike his father, Arizona Diamondbacks legend Luis Gonzalez, Jacob’s luck in professional baseball hasn’t yet resulted in much success. In four seasons with the Giants organization, Gonzalez struggled offensively and was unable to fully display the hit tool that landed him a high draft selection.

In two consecutive seasons for Single-A Augusta in 2018 and 2019, Gonzalez only managed to put up an OPS of .627 and .679 in those years. Originally thought of as a power threat at the amateur level, he blasted just 18 homers across 1,011 plate appearances.

The cancellation of the minor league season due to COVID-19 robbed Gonzalez of playing in 2020. Most of his 2021 campaign was spent reinventing himself in rookie ball. After encouraging adjustments led him to slash .304/.360/.497, the Pittsburgh Pirates were impressed enough to select him in the minor league version of the Rule 5 draft, ending his tumultuous tenure in the Giants organization.

Gonzalez posted an .836 OPS between Single-A and High-A in the Pirates organization, easily his most productive season at full-season ball. He finally reached Double-A in 2023 with Pittsburgh, but only hit .237/.293/.351 in 338 plate appearances, which is not quite enough at the plate to fit the profile of a viable corner infield option.

Nevertheless, Jacob Gonzalez will The Phillies assigned Gonzalez to Double-A Reading where he’ll likely serve as an organizational depth piece.

Published Dec 21, 2023

STEVEN RISSOTTO

Steven Rissotto (he/him) is an award-winning journalist who currently covers the San Francisco Giants for SFBay.ca and Giants Baseball Insider. At 19-years-old in 2021, he joined SF Bay Media as the Giants beat writer, covering games a few times a week during the Giants’ record-setting 107-win season. Along with his game story coverage he is also the host of RizzoCast, a baseball podcast he founded in 2020 that features interviews with professional and amateur baseball players, coaches, media, fans, and everyone else around the game. Past guests have included Tyler Glasnow, Bob Kendrick, Shawn Estes, Bill Laskey, Renel Brooks Moon, Dave Dravecky, Ned Colletti, Denard Span, Ron Wotus, Joe Maddon, J.T. Snow and more. He is also a co-host with Tylor Hall on the Shutdown Inning Podcast, a show focused on all the latest happenings around the baseball world. Both podcasts are available on YouTube and everywhere podcasts are found. Currently, he is a student at San Francisco State University where he is majoring in Journalism with an emphasis in print/online and minoring in education. At SF State, he is the managing editor for Golden Gate Xpress, the student-run newspaper. He was formerly a member of the newspaper at Skyline College, where he served as editor-in-chief and news editor while also writing sports and features. He was formerly a student-journalist at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco, where he pitched for the baseball team and covered some of the biggest stories in campus history. This includes a new multi-sports facility on campus, the breaking news coverage of Riordan’s coed announcement and the COVID-19 pandemic. Steven is well-respected by his peers and has been honored numerous times by Student Newspapers Online, JEA, ACP, and the California Publishing Association. In 2021, he finished second in the country for Reporter of the Year for ACP among the two-year college schools.