FORT MYERS, Fla. — Spring training backfields offer a glorious opportunity to contemplate possibility. To see a minor leaguer who is years from the big leagues and imagine a utopian future in which he translates the upper boundaries of potential into on-field reality.
Reality rarely works like that. While early-career flaws sometimes get smoothed, more often they become magnified during the unforgiving ascent against higher levels of competition.
Still, that typical pattern need not and should not deter players and teams. And in the Red Sox organization, one minor leaguer stands out — quite literally — for the difficulty of imagining what a best-case scenario might be.
Justin Gonzales borders on unfathomable. At 6 feet 6 inches and 277 pounds, the 19-year-old corner outfielder towers over other position players. Invariably, those who see him among other prospects are mesmerized. Almost all onlookers have the same question: “Who is that?”
Few big league position players look like Gonzales. But there is one, and Gonzales unapologetically points to his closest physical parallel when thinking about his future.
“Aaron Judge,” Gonzales said via translator of his aspirations, before offering explanation beyond his proximity to the stature of Judge, whose listed size is 6-7 and 282 pounds. “I make a ton of contact, hit the ball hard, have a good arm, I can play defense. The goal is to be like Aaron Judge.”
The likelihood of becoming another Judge is minuscule. The three-time MVP ranks as one of the greatest sluggers in big league history. Nonetheless, some standout traits inform Gonzales’s audacity.
For starters, he’s a mountain. In a recent live batting practice session alongside big leaguers, a kneeling Gonzales seemed almost as tall as Ceddanne Rafaela.
Given his size, it would be natural to expect Gonzales to suffer from massive, easily exploited holes. For that reason, as he worked out for teams as an amateur in the Dominican Republic, some assumed his rocket of a right arm would push him to the mound — particularly given that he lacked a coordinated swing at the time.
But as a professional, Gonzales — ranked as the No. 7 prospect in the Sox system by Baseball America — has defied that expectation.
“A lot of people did think I was going to pitch,” said Gonzales. “I’ve always had a good arm. But the reality is, the amount of contact I make and how hard I hit the ball, those traits aren’t for pitchers.”
In his professional career, there’s been no reason to revisit the question of his role. In the Dominican Summer League in 2024, Gonzales posted a .320/.391/.517 line with a 10 percent strikeout rate that ranked in the 92nd percentile among qualifying hitters at the level.
As an 18-year-old transitioning to the United States last year, the Sox challenged him with a quick promotion to full-season ball, pushing him (after one game in rookie-level Florida Complex League) to Single A Salem and eventually High A Greenville. His performance was fascinating.
Across levels, Gonzales hit .281/.363/.390 with a 10 percent walk rate and 16 percent strikeout rate — once again posting one of the lowest strikeout rates in Single A, even as one of the youngest players on the field. He had a particularly dazzling 50-game peak once he adjusted to the Carolina League, hitting .335/.394/.497 with 24 extra-base hits.
Gonzales mixes good feel for the strike zone with an impressive ability to get the bat on the ball — he had an 83 percent contact rate when swinging at pitches in the strike zone last year, a mark that is close to big league average — with resounding contact. In 2025, the righthanded hitter featured a hard-hit rate (balls put in play at 95-plus miles per hour) of 45 percent — well above big league average (roughly in Wilyer Abreu territory) — while topping out at an impressive 113 m.p.h.
Those are tremendous marks for a 19-year-old, but they come with a caveat. While Gonzales hits rockets, they’re often aimed at the turf. In 2025, he posted a 52 percent ground-ball rate on balls in play — significantly above the big league average of 38 percent.
Gonzales and the Sox see a straightforward unlock: If he can get the ball off the ground more often through a better contact point and an improved bat path, Gonzales could become a premier offensive threat.
“If he just gets to league average [with his ground-ball rate], you’re talking about a massive improvement in performance,” said one evaluator. “If it clicks, he could be an MVP.”
Gonzales doesn’t shy from the sense of what might be attainable, in proclamation or effort. He was a fixture at this winter’s offseason training program in Fort Myers, working diligently to continue adding strength, to hit the ball ever harder, and most importantly, to improve the direction of the ball off the bat.
He’s made gains in how hard he’s hitting the ball, with top-end exit velocities 3-4 m.p.h. greater this offseason. At a more visceral level, when he squares balls while hitting off high-velocity machines, the batting cage shudders.
But Gonzales is less concerned with how hard he hits the ball than with the ability to lift it — and in that regard, too, he proclaims huge year-over-year progress since spring training in 2025.
“I definitely have gotten much, much better in that area,” said Gonzales. “Last year, I’d hit some line drives, but a ton of ground balls. Now I’m hitting balls more on a line, more in the air. It’s been a focal point for me. Ultimately, I already know I hit the ball hard, right? I’m not so worried about hitting the ball hard, it’s more now hitting the ball in the air.”
It sounds so simple — one small adjustment that could turn Gonzales into a phenom. Of course, there are no simple adjustments in baseball, and there are far more cases of head-turning young offensive talents struggling to reach the big leagues than morphing into the next Judge.
But regardless of what comes of Gonzales’s future, there’s something mesmerizing about a player who, in the obscurity of the minor league spring training fields, can chase the dream of walking in a giant’s footsteps.
“Nothing I do is really surprising for me, because I understand the work that I put in,” he said. “I’m super excited for the season and looking forward to it.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.