A half-century ago, the San Francisco Giants were at the leading edge among MLB organizations when it came to finding and developing talent from Latin America.
Today, there are statues of Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda flanking their waterfront ballpark. There is an academy outside Santo Domingo named after Felipe Alou, the pioneering progenitor of the first family of Dominican baseball. But that academy has not produced many Latin American stars. Although statues continue to stand tall and proud, the Giants’ international legacy has gathered significant rust.
It’s a legacy that the Giants are eager to polish up and they will take a potentially significant step on Thursday, when the international signing window opens. For the second consecutive year, the Giants have an agreement in place with the player that many scouts have ranked at the top of the class. Last year, they signed Dominican shortstop Josuar Gonzalez to a bonus worth just under $3 million. And now they have an agreement in place with 17-year-old Venezuelan shortstop Luis Hernandez, whose anticipated $5 million bonus is likely to be the largest paid out by any team in this signing period.
“I’m not a huge fan of rankings, to be honest, but it’s nice to hear others say we’ve got the top guy,” said Joe Salermo, the Giants’ international scouting director. “He has to get in a uniform and go play, but we’re very excited about the player. We’re looking forward to him passing the physical and playing at whatever level he plays at.”
Of course, a big bonus is never a guarantee of future success. The Giants understand that as well as any organization. Highly prized former prospects like Angel Villalona and Rafael Rodriguez, both of whom received record-setting bonuses in excess of $2 million, never reached the big leagues. Marco Luciano, who signed for $2.6 million in 2018, was never able to establish a defensive position or hit enough for his bat to carry him to a lasting place on the Giants’ big-league roster; he was designated for assignment last month and has bounced around on the waiver wire from Pittsburgh to Baltimore.
Camilo Doval signed with the San Francisco Giants as an international free agent from the Dominican Republic in 2015 and became an All-Star closer in 2023.
The Giants’ record for an international signing bonus was the $6 million they gave to Bahamian shortstop Lucius Fox in 2015 — a figure that doesn’t include more than $4 million in penalties that the organization paid for exceeding its bonus pool.
Fox’s major-league career lasted 10 games with the Washington Nationals (he is mostly remembered for vomiting on the field) and the only value the Giants derived from him was including him in the multiplayer trade with the Tampa Bay Rays that netted left-hander Matt Moore.
The Giants faced additional sanctions for the Fox signing. For the next two years, they couldn’t sign an international amateur free agent for more than $300,000. The penalties ended up helping the Giants in a counterintuitive way; their scouts had to look deeper for talent,
their international signing classes were larger, and two of those less heralded players, Camilo Doval and Randy Rodríguez, became National League All-Star relief pitchers.
All else being equal, though, you’d prefer to have the consensus best players in every signing class. And now, for the last two years, that’s what the Giants can claim.
The Giants are also excited about signing Mexican pitcher Alexis Gallegos, who made his pro debut with Yucatan in the Mexican Professional League last year, but Hernandez is the headline addition in what is expected to be an especially small class of players.
That’s because Hernandez’s bonus will account for most of the Giants’ $5.44 million pool, which is the lowest among major-league clubs. (The team forfeited $1 million from that pool for signing a qualified free agent, shortstop Willy Adames, prior to the 2025 season. And teams are no longer permitted to exceed their bonus pools.)
Hernandez, 17, is a right-handed hitter whose well-rounded skills have allowed him to excel against older competition. Considered the top player out of the respected Carlos Guillen Academy, Hernandez faced much older competition
including some pitchers who were twice his age — in the Venezuelan Summer League and hit .346 with eight walks and 11 strikeouts in 114 plate appearances. He is just 5-foot-10 but already demonstrates pull power along with the ability to barrel offspeed pitches and fastballs alike.
The Giants will be thrilled if Hernandez can develop as well in his first year as Gonzalez, a switch-hitter with quick-twitch athleticism who has been compared to Francisco Lindor. Gonzalez hit .288/.404/.455 with 10 doubles, five triples, four home runs and 33 stolen bases in 52 games for the Giants Black team in the Dominican Summer League in his debut season.
He’s on track to make his full-season minor league debut this year and he’s likely to start appearing on Top 100 prospect lists in the near future.
Although the American seizure of the Venezuelan leader has left so much up in the air, Salermo said he has checked in with all of the Giants’ nine full-time scouts in the country and they are safe in their homes.
And after an airspace ban was lifted, the Giants have been able to get most Venezuelan players out of the country. That includes Hernandez, whose signing celebration will take place at the Felipe Alou Academy in the Dominican Republic.
