Winston-Salem is 6-9 to start the season, a fact which White Sox prospect Jacob Gonzalez launched into lamenting in response to the incisive opening question of "How are things going?" So despite the recent choice of features, a rebrand to Dash Machine does not look to be in the cards.
With the start to the season the White Sox offense is authoring, no one in the organization should have to feel too bashful about a .220/.371/.360 line through 14 games, with 11 walks and six strikeouts at High-A Winston-Salem in their first full professional season.
But even after an ugly pro debut last year at Low-A Kannapolis, where Gonzalez scuffled to .207/.329/.261 and the Sox social media team reasoned an RBI groundout was a worthy highlight to pick from his 30 games of action, last year's first round pick speaks with assurance that there's a lot more in the tank.
"I would just say I'm doing all right," Gonzalez said in a recent phone call, pointing to room to grow in contact quality. "I'm not doing the best. I think I'm doing just OK right now and hoping to get better."
What Gonzalez isn't bashful about is belonging in High-A, stating matter of factly that he knew he had played well enough in spring training to earn a promotion, even coming off struggling at a level below the season before. He wishes his pro debut had gone better and thinks he was tinkering too much in-game and in-season. But in his mind, Gonzalez's directive last August was to go out and play for a month and get acclimated, and since then the real, lasting adjustments have come.
The book on Gonzalez last year is that the dangerous left-handed pull-side power that led him to drill 40 home runs in 186 career games at Ole Miss was easily neutralized on the outer half of the plate by professional pitching. Having never considered himself a pull hitter before a wave of SEC pitchers testing him inside forced him to adjust, Gonzalez spent instructional league tackling how his all-fields, contact-heavy approach had come unglued.
"I was trying to fiddle with stuff last year and then got the offseason to work on it," Gonzalez said. "Just working on my direction. I was falling toward the first base dugout. Just limiting that and I feel like going toward the pitcher and not going toward the dugout as I swing. It's not really my stride, it's the way my body is leaning right before I swing."
White Sox GM Chris Getz suggested there's a strength component to Gonzalez being able to fight back the tendency of pulling off the ball long-term. Scouts noted that an earlier, lankier version of Gonzalez had to load up with his lower half to swing with authority. But where as previous offseasons in Gonzalez's life were filled with stuff like high school football, classes, and summer leagues, this was the first time that the 21-year-old had just one directive: bulk up.
"It was kind of nice to just focus on adding strength and speed in the offseason and not have to worry about hitting for a month, and just doing that," Gonzalez said. "It does feel a lot easier to hit the ball the best I can without having to feel like I need to swing as hard as I can. But I still have a lot of strength to go, because I can't hit the ball oppo in BP over the fence. Once I get strong enough to get that, it'll be good for me."
There is credibility when Gonzalez states his strengths matter of factly, because he states his shortcomings just as easily and in the same tone. He is not, by his own admission, a fast runner, a component that has fueled a lot of scouts to project him to move to third base one day; criticism of which Gonzalez is very much aware. He tries to counter it with his affection for the time-saving details of infield work: quick transfers, using long strides, being able to throw from multiple arm angles, first-step reactions, and he loves throwing on the run.
As much as left-handed power from a middle infield spot defined Gonzalez's profile on draft night, he explicitly says he's not a power hitter. All those SEC homers be damned, Gonzalez references only being able to go out to right field in BP to defend his seemingly questionable assertion of "I don't have power," and that his extra-base pop is just turning around opposing velocity with good at-bats. It's also why he doesn't think he's vulnerable to be pitched above the belt like a typical uppercutting left-hander.
"The top of the zone, I try to hit those line drives," Gonzalez said. "My whole life I've always practiced hitting high tee and hitting line drives through the shortstop's head. That's what I feel when they go up."
By and large, this is a hitter who would sooner define himself by having more walks than strikeouts as a professional, or how his strength gains help him remain dangerous when he cuts down his swing on two strikes, than rhapsodize about his looming power potential.
In kind, scouts see Gonzalez having the polish, swing decisions and contact skills to shake off his 2023 debut and become a big league regular, if not the typical loud physical tools of an impact star.
"I don't know how to pimp a home run, because I don't hit enough of him," Gonzalez said, matter of factly again. "I don't have the super-high exit velos. But I can hit a ball pretty hard."
