Giants’ Gonzalez, bullied as a young immigrant, escaped into baseball

When Luis González and his family arrived in the Tucson area when he was a child, they had very little, his parents worked numerous jobs and González and his older sister, Paloma, spoke no English.

The language barrier made González a target his first few years in school, and he also struggled with his schoolwork. His outlet, as it is for so many other immigrants: sports. And in González’s case, that led to friends, an eventual full college scholarship, and now, a big-league spot with the San Francisco Giants. The American Dream, played out on dusty desert fields.

“His English was very limited, there were only a couple of words he knew, and he was intimidated at school and getting bullied,” said González’s youth-league and Catalina Foothills High School coach Jim Baldwin. “Luis was a kind of shy kid but baseball was his gig. From Day 1, we always knew that. There is no language, you can just play the game. Luis always seemed at home there.”

The González family left Hermosillo, Mexico, when González was 9, and his dad, Luis, worked as an auto mechanic. He owned a heating and cooling company, and he and Luis’ mom, Lisa Hoenig, opened a cleaning business, too.

“It was tough at first,” González said, “I think my sister and I kind of helped each other out, going through the whole experience with not knowing the language. But I wasn’t very good at school, making friends was hard, I was picked on for not being able to say words right. But I was lucky to be athletic.”

Getting bullied thickened González’s skin, he said.

“It makes you want to grow up and just stick up for yourself,” he said. “I got in some fights and I was put in detention quite a bit, but I’ve learned from those experiences, and that made me who I am today. It’s made me overcome some adversity.”

Baldwin noted with pride that González regularly finds children in the stands and gives them warm-up balls between innings. “That makes me as proud as any homers he hits,” Baldwin said.

The González siblings watched a lot of Disney Channel shows, gaining a lot of English knowledge from “That’s So Raven,” “Drake & Josh,” “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody,” much in the way Giants infielder Wilmer Flores picked up the language watching “Friends.” González began to flourish, playing football and basketball along with baseball. His academics improved enough that he got offers from four-year schools to play baseball, and he wound up at the University of New Mexico.

“He reminded me a little bit of Brandon Belt — he knows the strike zone really well and he can rake, too,” said recently retired New Mexico coach Ray Birmingham. “Luis is really an old-school style player. And I loved the whole family; his dad and I hit it off from the get-go.”

González, 26, always was a versatile talent, playing every position, even shortstop and catcher, though he is left-handed. (“He was phenomenal,” Baldwin said of González’s catching skills. “Zero passed balls.”) He hit .356 with a 1.032 OPS at New Mexico, and was an undistinguished starter with an ERA over 6.00.

The pitching experience, though, came to the fore in the past two weeks with the Giants. He has appeared three times in blowouts, his first two outings scoreless, with González floating in a — changeup? eephus? something slow with a hump — at 45 mph, then offering 85 mph fastballs. He was so effective with it, with a slight hesitation in his delivery helping make some topnotch hitters take silly swings, that manager Gabe Kapler mused after González’s first time out whether there might be some advantage gained by having a pitcher with that kind of velocity disparity.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they use him later in the season maybe in a situation where they need someone to face a fastball hitter,” Baldwin said. “A 40 mph difference is not fair.”

The relief staff welcomed González with a pair of bullpen shorts, declaring González one of them. And while no team wants to use position players to pitch, González would love to continue to get work on the mound. He’s even suggested that he get some bullpen sessions. That probably won’t happen soon, but González threw in the mid-90s when he was pitching regularly.

“It’s fun to talk about,” pitching coach Andrew Bailey said. “He’s been tremendous at what he’s doing, being able to throw strikes, first-pitch strikes. There’s a lot on his plate as an outfielder and a defensive player and offensive player already, so we’ll probably have to table the bullpens — but if there is something to work on, we can make time for that. It’s intriguing, for sure.”

It’s not easy for big-leaguers to throw the ball that softly and throw strikes, but perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that González can throw a mean eephus. His dad was a fast-pitch softball player in Mexico, and González has played his share of slow-pitch softball and understands how hard it is for a batter to gear up for something hard, then struggle to adjust.

González’s true gifts are at the plate and in the outfield. He’s batting a team-high .338 with two homers and 15 RBIS in 26 games, and though he had a snafu or two while playing left for the first time at Oracle Park, he is an asset defensively and on the bases.

The Giants acquired González in one of those classic Farhan Zaidi-scott Harris under-the-radar moves, snaring him off waivers from the White Sox while he was recovering from shoulder surgery and putting him on the 60-day injured list, which ensured when he came off the roster after the year, he would resign with the team.

San Francisco has gained a reputation for identifying pitchers who could benefit from the team’s coaching techniques and tailored analytics, but quietly, the Giants are showing a regular talent for finding outfielders who haven’t yet reached their potential: Mike Yastrzemski, Lamonte Wade Jr. and now González.

González is in the Yastrzemski mold, an all-arounder who can play center, steal bases, bunt and get on base.

“He does a lot of things really, really well,” Yastrzemski said. “And I really like the way he carries himself; he’s got a really good demeanor around the clubhouse. He’s approachable, a great guy. And he gives you everything he has on the field.”

The next question is what will happen with González when Wade returns from a knee issue — while Wade was off the IL this month, González went back to Triple-a Sacramento. Another left-handed-hitting outfielder, Steven Duggar, will be eligible to return from an oblique injury next month.

Maybe González’s other talents, such as providing pitching in a blowout, will help his cause. And he can catch in a pinch, “If anyone has a left-handed catcher’s mitt,” he said.

Et voila! Joc Pederson has one, the result of a botched order sent to a former teammate. Maybe González can pull off the Campy Campaneris all-nine positions trick someday. But as long as he’s on a field, the role is immaterial.

“When he gets on the field, he could be in Hermosillo or he could be in the big leagues,” Birmingham said. “It doesn’t matter to Luis. It doesn’t change him or make him nervous. He plays a complete game, and he plays to win.”